suggest an approximately 40 km thick layer of moderately serpentinized mantle would be sufficient to explain the observed seismic P-wave attenuations associated to events occurring at depths of around 5–35 km below the Wadati–Benioff zone. This would imply that the topmost zones of the oceanic lithosphere provide a significant source of water to deeper areas of the mantle during subduction, with an estimated flux of 170-318 Tg/ma of water per meter of down-going slab. References Structure of the Earth Seismology Geographic areas of seismological interest Geology of China