numerical modelling of arc continent collision application to taiwan two dimensional finite element numerical modelling is applied to study the deformation and failure of the overriding plate during arc continent collision continental margin subduction this plate has elasto plastic rheology with strain weakening and contains a volcanic arc with thinned and weakened lithosphere the overriding plate deforms due to the normal and tangential stresses applied along the interplate surface these boundary conditions represent the friction and pressure between the plates the latter is due to the flexural rigidity of the subducting lithosphere and the buoyancy force generated by the subducting continental crust the modelling shows that continental margin subduction results in increasing compression and failure of the overriding plate which occurs along the surface dipping under the arc in either of two possible directions the failure mode is largely controlled by the two competitive factors the rigidity of the subducting plate and thickness gradient of the subducted continental crust a high rigidity favors failure along an ocean vergent fault which is followed by a subduction reversal while a high thickness gradient favors failure in the opposite direction which is followed by a fore arc block underthrusting beneath the arc both scenarios seem to have natural analogs we consider one of them the ongoing arc continent collision in taiwan and argue that this process occurs according to the second scenario corresponding to the fore arc underthrusting wavelet statistical analysis of the seismicity distribution to the south of taiwan has clearly displayed a shallow 0 40 km zone of high density coherently distributed seismicity beneath the luzon arc this zone interpreted as a lithospheric scale fault dips from the forearc basin to the east and corresponds to the initiation of the forearc block subduction a self consistent combined mechanical gravity topography model is used to see whether failure of the overriding plate to the south of taiwan can be captured by this model by tuning diverent controlling parameters we did not succeed in obtaining realistic topography and gravity field in a model where failure of the overriding plate was not allowed introduction of this failure and underthrusting of the forearc block under the luzon arc allowed us to fit both topography and gravity data 2000 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

interplate coupling and deformation in the accretionary prism in the southwest japan subduction zone frictional coupling at the plate interface will control seismicity and tectonics in subduction zones in this study temperature structure and deformation in the accretionary prism in the southwest japan subduction zone are simulated using a two dimensional isoviscous corner flow model using surface heat flow data the average interplate frictional stress and the effective viscosity of the prism are estimated to be 2 30mpa and 1020 21pa s respectively the low stress value is probably due to high pore pressures caused by dehydration reactions in the subducting crust estimated temperature of the landward limit of the seismogenic zone is 350 500 c when the frictional stress is considered the temperature becomes 100 c higher than that of the onset of plasticity of granitic rocks 350 c the brittle plastic transition of gabbroic rocks might control the depth extent of the seismogenic zone in lower crustal depths flow velocity at the bottom of the prism is estimated to be 0 01m yr indicating that 25 of the conversion has been consumed by the deformation of the accretionary prism in this subduction zone

the composition and evolution of the continental crust rare earth element evidence from sedimentary rocks the composition of the present day upper crust inferred from the uniformity of sedimentary rock r e e rare earth element patterns is close to that of granodiorite a revised andesite model is used to obtain total crustal composition the lower crust is the composition remaining assuming that the upper crust one third of the total is derived from intracrustal partial melting the upper crustal r e e pattern has pronounced eu depletion eu eu 0 64 the lower crustal pattern has eu enrichment eu eu 1 17 and the total crust has no eu anomaly relative to chondritic abundances the eu depletion in the upper crust is attributed to retention of eu in plagioclase in the lower crust because plagioclase is not stable below 40 km 10 kbar the anomaly is intracrustal in origin the archaean upper crust has a different r e e pattern to that of the present day upper crust being lower in total r e e and la yb ratios and lacking an eu anomaly these data are used to infer the archaean upper crustal composition which resembles that of the present day total crust except that ni and cr contents are higher the archaean crustal composition can be modelled by a mixture of tholeiites and tonalite trondhjemites the latter have steep light r e e enriched heavy r e e depleted patterns consistent with equilibration with garnet and hence probable mantle derivation there is little reason to suppose that the archaean lower crust was different in composition from the upper crust except locally where partial melting episodes occurred the r e e evidence is consistent with isotopic and geological evidence for a low continental growth rate in the early archaean a massive increase to about 70 of the total crust between about 3000 and 2500 ma b p and a slow increase until the present day the change from archaean to post archaean r e e patterns in the upper crust is not isochronous but is reflected in the sedimentary rock r e e patterns at differing times in different continents on the basis of a model composition for the mantle 36 of the potassium 30 of uranium 15 of lanthanum and 3 of ytterbium are concentrated in the present continental crust this enrichment is related to ionic size and valency differences from common mantle cations e g mg fe pre 3 9 ga b p crusts were obliterated by meteorite bombardment no geochemical evidence exists for primordial anorthositic sialic or mafic crusts

h2o transport and release in subduction zones experimental constraints on basaltic and andesitic systems phase relationships in natural andesitic and synthetic basaltic systems were experimentally investigated from 2 2 to 7 7 gpa and 550 c to 950 c in the presence of an aqueous fluid in order to determine the stability of hydrous phases in natural subducted crustal material and to constrain reactions resulting in the release of water from subduction zones to the mantle wedge water reservoirs in subducted oceanic crust at depths exceeding the amphibole stability field 70 80 km are lawsonite 11 wt h2o mg chloritoid 8 wt talc 5 wt and zoisite clinozoisite 2 wt in basaltic rocks and lawsonite zoisite clinozoisite phengite 4 wt and staurolite 2 wt in andesitic compositions the thermal stability of lawsonite at 6 0 gpa extends to 800 c and 870 c in basaltic and andesitic compositions respectively at pressures above amphibole out 2 3 2 5 gpa lawsonite reacts through continuous reactions with steep positive dp dt slopes to zoisite clinozoisite until 3 0 3 2 gpa and at higher pressures to more than 7 7 gpa to assemblages containing garnet clinopyroxene and garnet clinopyroxene kyanite in basaltic and andesitic compositions respectively on the contrary the breakdown of zoisite clinozoisite is mainly pressure sensitive phengite represents the hydrous phase with the largest stability field encountered in this study in andesite phengite is stable to more than 7 7 gpa and more than 920 c talc and staurolite contribute in minor amounts to the water balance in basaltic and andesitic rock compositions a model for water release from the subducted slab is developed combining thermal models for subduction zones with the experimentally determined phase relationships up to 1 wt and 2 wt h2o in basaltic and andesitic rocks respectively can be stored to depths beyond 200 km in cold subduction zones mainly by lawsonite and phengite dehydration rates are high until amphibole out and relatively low at greater depths the amphibole out reactions are found to release a significant amount of water in a depth interval of several kilometers however they do not represent a discrete pulse of fluid and do not completely dehydrate the descending slab fluid release at depths greater than 200 km through phengite and progressive lawsonite breakdown would hydrate the overlying mantle causing the generation of amphibole or phlogopite peridotite at higher geothermal gradients epidote zoisite contributes to fluid flux to the mantle wedge at 100 120 km depth the extensive stability field of phengite may greatly enhance the role of sediments and the small amount of potassium in mafic compositions for the fluid budget in subduction zones at increasing depth

migration of fluid phases and genesis of basalt magmas in subduction zones dehydration and hydration reactions in both the downgoing lithosphere and the overlying mantle wedge have been examined in order to understand the role of h2o in the production of magmas at convergent plate boundaries the subduction of oceanic lithosphere occurring with increasing pressures and rising temperatures causes liberation of h2o from the slab amphibole which can be stable to the highest pt conditions among hydrous phases in the slab decomposes at around 90 km depth it follows that the subducted lithosphere is essentially anhydrous beneath volcanic arcs lying more than 110 km above the slab and that the supply of slab derived h2o is not a direct trigger for the production of arc magmas instead the h2o released from downgoing lithosphere reacts with the forearc mantle wedge to crystallize hydrous minerals serpentine talc amphibole chlorite and phlogopite this hydrated peridotite is dragged downward on the slab toward higher pt regions and releases h2o to shallower potential magma source regions in the mantle wedge combining experimental data on the stability of serpentine and talc with the thermal structure in the mantle wedge it is concluded that those minerals decompose beneath the forearc region on the other hand high pt experimental and thermodynamic data suggest that dehydration of amphibole and chlorite in the downdragged hydrated peridotite can take place just beneath a volcanic front phlogopite in the peridotite decomposes to release h2o at a deeper level about 200 km h2o liberated from the hydrated peridotite causes partial melting of overlying mantle wedge peridotites along with the migration of h2o through the above processes subduction components especially large ion lithophile elements can be overprinted on the magma source region which governs the geochemical characteristics of arc magmas

shear wave polarization anisotropy and subduction induced flow in the mantle wedge of northeastern japan abstract shear wave polarization anisotropy in the central part of northeastern ne japan was investigated we analyzed s phases of 293 intermediate depth earthquakes recorded at 77 stations and obtained 1286 splitting parameters the obtained results show the systematic variation in splitting parameters across the arc the leading shear wave polarization directions fast direction obtained at stations in the western side of the study area are oriented nearly e w which is sub parallel to the direction of relative plate motion between the pacific plate and the north american okhotsk plate in contrast fast directions obtained at stations in the eastern side of the study area are oriented approximately n s stations in the western side have a larger average delay time compared to those in the eastern side these variations suggest that the nature of anisotropy is quite different between the eastern and the western sides both experimental studies on the deformation of olivine and numerical simulations of plate driven flow predict that the lattice preferred orientation of olivine causes the fast direction sub parallel to the flow direction for the conditions in the mantle wedge of ne japan we thus infer that the lattice preferred orientation of olivine generated by flow induced strain is the most likely candidate for anisotropy that produces splitting with e w fast direction three possible causes of anisotropy in the eastern side are considered deformation of water rich olivine in the mantle wedge trench parallel flow in the mantle wedge due to along strike dip variations in the slab and anisotropy in the crust and the slab we could not however determine which causes are dominant further systematic study is required to reveal the cause of anisotropy in the eastern side

fore arc deformation at the transition between collision and subduction insights from 3 d thermomechanical laboratory experiments 1 three dimensional thermomechanical laboratory experiments of arc continent collision investigate the deformation of the fore arc at the transition between collision and subduction the deformation of the plates in the collision area propagates into the subduction collision transition zone via along strike coupling of the neighboring segments of the plate boundary in our experiments the largest along strike gradient of trench perpendicular compression does not produce sufficiently localized shear strain in the transition zone to form a strike slip system because of the fast propagation of arc lithosphere failure deformation is continuous along strike but the deformation mechanism is three dimensional progressive along strike structural variations arise because coupling between neighboring segments induces either advanced or delayed failure of the arc lithosphere and passive margin the modeling results suggest that orogenic belts should experience deeper subduction of continental crust and hence higher pressure metamorphism where the two plates first collided than elsewhere along the plate boundary where collision subsequently propagated furthermore during the initial stage of collision the accretionary wedge is partially subducted which leads to lubrication of the interplate zone and a reduction of shear traction therefore a large convergence obliquity angle does not produce a migrating fore arc sliver rather the pressure force generated by subduction of the buoyant continental crust causes fore arc motion it follows that convergence obliquity during collision does not yield trench parallel deformation of the fore arc and its influence on the collision process is limited however convergence obliquity may control the geometry of the active margin during the oceanic subduction stage prior to collision and inherited structures may influence the propagation mechanism

numerical simulations of deformation and dynamics of horizontally lying slabs summary recent results of seismic tomography have revealed that configurations of subducted slabs are varied some lie horizontally on the boundary between the upper and the lower mantle and others penetrate into the lower mantle in this study to understand the physical mechanism of deformation and dynamics of subducted slabs in the mantle a 2 d numerical model was constructed for this purpose the slabs were treated so as to move freely in an incompressible fluid model by removing a guide right after its bending at a depth of 660 km and at a depth of 400 km in the upper mantle incorporating density and viscosity jumps and a clapeyron slope for a pv mw phase transformation of olivine obtained from high pressure and hightemperature experiments at a depth of 660 km into the model we investigate temperature and velocity distributions state of stress and viscosity distribution in relation to the formation of horizontally lying slabs at a depth of 660 km when the slabs are treated to move freely just after their bending at the 660 km phase boundary the slabs temporarily appear to lie horizontally on the phase boundary however the slabs penetrate the phase boundary and eventually sink into the lower mantle the length of the horizontally lying portion of the slab becomes longer as descending velocity increases the lengths are about 1500 km 1200 km and 800 km for subducting velocities of 8 cm yr 1 4 cm yr 1 a nd 2c m yr 1 respectively when a viscosity jump of 10 to 100 times the viscosity for the upper mantle is given at the 660 km phase boundary the length of the horizontally lying portion of the slab becomes shorter because of friction between the slab and the underlying lower mantle for all the models in which the guide was removed at a depth of 400 km the slabs penetrate into the lower mantle without lying horizontally on the phase boundary these results indicate that it is difficult for the slabs to bend at the pv mw phase boundary and to form the configuration of the horizontally lying slabs even if the slabs descend with a small dip angle the calculated maximum principal compressive stress axes are oriented horizontally within the horizontally lying portion of the slabs which is inconsistent with seismologically observed vertical directions of the p axes there in order to explain the observed configurations and state of stress within the horizontally lying slabs it would be necessary to investigate the effects of a complicated viscosity and composition structure in the mantle in more detail

accurate source depths and focal mechanisms of shallow earthquakes in western south america and in the new hebrides island arc synthetic seismograms are matched to long period p waveforms in order to obtain accurate depths of shallow earthquakes with known focal mechanisms accurate depths are obtained for a large sample of moderate sized 6 ms 7 events which produced relatively simple p waveforms and do not require intensive analysis the estimated error in the determination of depth is about 5 km or less for most of the events considered the procedure is applied to two suites of events one in south america 83 events and one in the new hebrides 61 events in these two areas of contrasting styles of subduction the accurate depths provide new information on the bending of descending plates near trenches the seismicity and tectonics of the upper plate and the geometry and structure of the zone of contact between the upper and descending plates depths of suboceanic earthquakes which occurred near the trench and which have either tensional and compressional horizontal stress axes agree well with chapple and forsyth s 1979 preferred model of a bending elastic perfectly plastic plate however an unusually deep event occurred beneath the fiji plateau in an area of young ocean floor supposed to have been formed by sea floor spreading processes only since late miocene time the calculated depth of the event 48 km places it below the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary derived from thermal models vertical cross sections through the shallow parts of the subduction zones show that most of the earthquakes with thrust faulting focal mechanisms can be interpreted to be interplate events located in a thin 10 km thick curved zone of contact dipping arcward or landward from the trench axis however a few events with focal mechanisms similar to the interplate events do not fit on the inferred thin zone of contact these events would be accommodated by an interplate zone 15 km thick in both subduction zones interplate events occur at depths between about 15 and 50 km however the downdip width of the south american interplate zone is 2 to 3 times larger than that in the new hebrides most of the intraplate events near the interplate boundary are located in the descending plate in the upper plate seismicity is more pronounced in the back arc regions of the two subduction zones thus our results support the generality of a relatively aseismic zone in the upper plate located trenchward of the magmatic arc depths of shallow earthquakes in the eastern andes and sub andean regions of south america range between about 9 and 36 km indicating that both the upper and middle crust are seismically active about 75 of the events occurred in the upper 25 km furthermore the focal mechanisms indicate that from ecuador to argentina the crust of the eastern side of the andean cordilleran is in a state of east west compression oriented nearly parallel to the direction of convergence between the nazca and south american plates the depths the orientations of the earthquake nodal planes and the close relationships to quaternary tectonics imply basement involved crustal shortening in much of the eastern andes and sub andean zones of peru and argentina

hydrous phases and water transport in the subducting slab arc volcanoes are typically located 90 180 km above the surface of downgoing slabs as shown by wadati benioff deep seismic foci gill 1981 tatsumi 1989 the intimate relationship between the dip angles of the subducting slab and the locations of volcanic arcs indicates that subduction zone magmatism is triggered by material input from the subducting slab tatsumi and eggins 1995 the slab derived components are thought to be aqueous fluids or h2o rich partial melts of subducted oceanic crust therefore knowledge of the stability of hydrous phases and the chemical and physical properties of aqueous fluids in downgoing slabs is essential to understand the material transport in subduction zones in this section i will review the stability of hydrous phases in downgoing peridotite basalt and sediment systems and the chemical and the wetting properties of aqueous fluids recent experimental studies indicate that 3 4 gpa equivalent to 90 120 km depth is a key pressure where 1 the chemical compositions of silicate components dissolved in aqueous fluids equilibrated with mantle minerals approach the composition of mantle peridotite itself stalder et al 2001 mibe et al 2002 kawamoto et al 2004 2 the dihedral angle between olivine and aqueous fluids starts becoming smaller than 60 watson et al 1990 mibe et al 1998 1999 and 3 the immisciblity gap between peridotitic melts and aqueous fluids disappears and consequently hydrous minerals liberate supercritical aqueous fluids mibe et al 2004a 2006 the similarity between these pressures and the depths of downgoing slab underneath volcanic fronts where the maximum numbers of volcanoes are formed 124 38 km gill 1981 or 112 19 km tatsumi 1986 suggests that subduction zone magmatism can be triggered by the input of supercritical fluids from the downgoing peridotite and basalt many hydrous crystalline phases

trench parallel shortening in the forearc caused by subduction along a seaward concave plate boundary insights from analogue modelling experiments abstract three dimensional thermo mechanical analogue experiments are employed to test the hypothesis that oceanic subduction along a seaward concave plate boundary can generate trench parallel shortening in the forearc near the axis of curvature the model deformation is analyzed with a particle imaging velocimetry piv system that allows for comparison of forearc deformation along the oblique limbs of the curved plate boundary and near the axis of curvature moreover piv allows for separation of the trench parallel and trench perpendicular components of strain regardless of trench orientation the resulting deformation maps show a remarkable symmetry and indicate drag of the forearc above the interplate coupling area towards the axis of curvature trench perpendicular profiles show that along the oblique limbs of the plate boundary the forearc is submitted to trench normal shortening and trench parallel shearing but not trench parallel shortening or extension this contrasts with the situation near the axis of symmetry where the forearc is submitted to trench parallel and trench perpendicular normal shortening but is not sheared the experimental results confirm that trench normal thrusts observed in the fore arc of the central andes can be a mechanical consequence of subduction along a seaward concave plate boundary if the degree of interplate coupling is large

water transportation from the subducting slab into the mantle transition zone using a recently developed petrogenetic grid for morb h2o we propose a new model for the transportation of water from the subducting slab into the mantle transition zone depending on the geothermal gradient two contrasting water transportation mechanisms operate at depth in a subduction zone if the geothermal gradient is low lawsonite carries h2o into mantle depths of 300 km with further subduction down to the mantle transition depth approximately 400 km lawsonite is no longer stable and thereafter h2o is once migrated upward to the mantle wedge then again carried down to the transition zone due to the induced convection at this depth hydrous phase olivine is stable and plays a role as a huge water reservoir in contrast if the geothermal gradient is high the subducted slab may melt at 700 900 c at depths shallower than 80 km to form felsic melt into which water is dissolved in this case h2o cannot be transported into the mantle below 80 km between these two endmember mechanisms two intermediate types are present in the high pressure intermediate type the hydrous phase a plays an important role to carry water into the mantle transition zone water liberated by the lawsonite consuming continuous reaction moves upward to form hydrous phase a in the hanging wall which transports water into deeper mantle this is due to a unique character of the reaction because phase a can become stable through the hydration reaction of olivine in the case of low pressure intermediate type the presence of a dry mantle wedge below 100 km acts as a barrier to prevent h2o from entering into deeper mantle 2006 published by elsevier b v on behalf of international association for gondwana research

double seismic zone for deep earthquakes in the izu bonin subduction zone a double seismic zone for deep earthquakes was found in the izu bonin region an analysis of sp converted phases confirms that the deep seismic zone consists of two layers separated by 20 kilometers numerical modeling of the thermal structure implies that the hypocenters are located along isotherms of 500 to 550 c which is consistent with the hypothesis that deep earthquakes result from the phase transition of metastable olivine to a high pressure phase in the subducting slab

thermal state under the tohoko arc with consideration of crustal heat generation abstract the thermal structure beneath subduction zones plays a key role in aiding understanding of tectonic activities such as seismicity volcanism arc formation and genesis of back arc basins around subduction zones many simulations have been made to estimate the thermal process in the mantle wedge which causes the surface activities in the tohoku arc many heat flow measurements have been made and the heat flow profile from the trench to the back arc has been constructed in this study the thermal structure in the crust of northeast japan is investigated to account for the surface heat flow data to estimate the contribution of the heat generation in the crust to the surface heat flow the heat production rate was obtained on granitic and metamorphic rocks collected from the hidaka metamorphic zone hokkaido japan where the vertical crustal section of an island arc is understood to be exposed at the surface instrumentation neutron activation analysis and gamma ray spectrometry were adopted to analyze the concentration of heat producing elements the obtained rate of heat generation and its decrease with increasing depth for the upper part of the crust were found to be similar to those estimated for stable continental areas but the heat generation rate was almost constant in the lower part of the crust the vertical distribution of the heat production rate in the crust of the northeastern japan arc was estimated from the present results and previous estimates of heat production rates in various rocks using the crustal structure determined by explosion seismology the total heat generation in the crust thus estimated is about 30 mw m 2 with the surface heat flow data and estimated heat generation distribution in the crust the thermal structure in the crust was simulated numerically modeling calculations were made on a cross section along the line from the japan trench to the japan sea a direction parallel to the direction of convergence of the pacific and eurasian plates the models were two dimensional and included frictional heating at the upper surface of the slab the calculated thermal structure in the crust shows that the temperature at the moho is about 850 c and almost about 250 c lower than previous estimates the magnitude of the interplate stress was derived by considering the rate of frictional heating at the interface between the plates in order to explain the surface heat flow between the trench and aseismic front the interplate stress should be less than 20 mpa at depth in the crust

three dimensional crustal structure of the mariana island arc from seismic tomography 1 a three dimensional 3 d seismic refraction survey was acquired over the mariana volcanic arc at 14 5 18 5n and 145 147e first arrival traveltimes from this survey and from a separate 2 d survey acquired approximately perpendicular to the arc have been simultaneously inverted for a 3 d p wave velocity model using seismic tomography subject to smoothness constraints the active arc which initiated only 3 4 ma ago has an average crustal thickness of 18 km approximately 40 km to the east the inactive remnant of the rifted eocene arc has an average crustal thickness of 21 km due primarily to a thicker lower crustal layer with velocities of 6 5 7 0 km s 1 crustal production clearly varies both temporally and spatially with some crustal layers including the igneous forearc crust varying in thickness by a factor of up to 2 along strike average p wave velocities within the upper crust of the modern arc are 240 360 m s 1 lower than in the eocene arc but are 280 m s 1 higher within the lower crust middle crust with velocities of 6 0 6 5 km s 1 is best developed beneath the eocene arc these results suggest an evolution of arc structure with increasing age we infer closure of fractures and porosity in the upper crust through hydrothermal circulation and a reduction in the mafic character of the middle to lower crust as a result of intracrustal differentiation although tonalitic rocks may predominate in the transition from upper to middle crust the bulk of the crust is essentially basaltic

hot fingers in the mantle wedge new insights into magma genesis in subduction zones abstract quaternary volcanoes in the northeast japan arc can be grouped into 10 volcanic clusters striking transverse to the arc these have an average width of 50 km and are separated by parallel gaps 30 75 km wide this clustering of volcanic centres topographic profiles low velocity regions in the mantle wedge and local negative bouguer gravity anomalies along the japan sea side of the volcanic arc are closely correlated all these observations may be related to locally developed hot regions within the mantle wedge that have the form of inclined 50 km wide fingers each of the 10 fingers recognised extends from deep mantle 150 km below the back arc region towards the shallower mantle 50 km beneath the volcanic front quaternary volcanoes are built immediately above the hot mantle fingers the volcanic basement along the fingers has been uplifted by repeated injection of magmas into the crust accompanied by quaternary volcanic activity at the surface although volcanic activity is rare along the japan sea coast tomographic results show that hot low velocity mantle fingers exist within the mantle wedge the negative bouguer anomalies at the rear of the volcanic arc could be caused by magmas supplied from the hot mantle fingers these have not yet been erupted but have accumulated at the moho discontinuity

melting of a subducting slab and production of high mg andesite magmas unusual magmatism in sw japan at 13 15 ma characteristic high mg andesite magmas were produced in the sw japan arc at 13 15 ma that was synchronous with the commencement of subduction of a very young 11 m y lithosphere of the shikoku basin numerical simulation suggests that temperature at the surface of such a young subducting plate is high enough for partial melting both of the subducting sediments and oceanic crust at the beginning of the subduction high mg andesite magmas were likely to be produced by interaction between silicic slab melts and the overlying mantle wedge hma magmas may be commonly produced in the archean subduction zones under relatively high mantle temperature conditions contributing to making continental crusts

seismological evidence for variable growth of crust along the izu intraoceanic arc 1 the processes that create continental crust in an intraoceanic arc setting are a matter of debate to address this issue we conducted an active source wide angle seismic study to examine along arc structural variations of the izu intraoceanic arc the data used were acquired over a 550 km long profile along the volcanic front from sagami bay to tori shima the obtained structural model showed the existence of felsic to intermediate composition middle crust with a p wave velocity vp of 6 0 6 5 km s 1 in its upper part and 6 5 6 8 km s 1 in its lower part the thickness of the middle crust varied markedly from 3 to 13 km the underlying lower crust also consisted of two layers vp of 6 8 7 2 km s 1 in the upper part and vp of 7 2 7 6 km s 1 in the lower part the upper of these layers was interpreted to consist of plutonic gabbro and the lower layer was interpreted to be mafic to ultramafic cumulates average crustal velocities calculated from our model showed remarkable lateral variation which correlated well with arc volcanism low average crustal seismic velocities 6 7 km s 1 due to thick middle crust were obtained beneath basaltic volcanoes e g o shima miyake jima hachijo jima aoga shima while higher average velocities 7 1 km s 1 were obtained beneath rhyolitic volcanoes e g nii jima kurose south hachijo caldera myoji knoll and south sumisu caldera we concluded from these observations that continental crust grows predominantly beneath the basaltic volcanoes of the izu arc and that rhyolitic volcanism may be indicative of a more juvenile stage of crustal evolution or remelting of preexisting continental crust or both

numerical studies of non newtonian mantle convection abstract numerical model computations have been carried out to determine how the stress dependence of non newtonian viscosity affects the flow structure of thermal convection the viscosity laws have been chosen in accordance with present knowledge of upper mantle rheology based on the diffusion and dislocation creep laws of olivine the results show that there are important differences between the structures of newtonian and non newtonian convection while the newtonian models are insufficient in some respects the non newtonian solutions can explain the characteristics of the real mantle flow however this may require a faster plastic deformation than power law dislocation creep at least in the high stress regions of the mantle e g at the active plate margins

numerical modeling of thermal structure circulation of h2o and magmatism metamorphism in subduction zones implications for evolution of arcs abstract numerical models on thermal structure convective flow of solid generation and transportation of h2o rich fluid in subduction zones are consolidated to have a comprehensive view of the subduction zone processes heat balance circulation of h2o magmatism metamorphism growth of arcs and continental margins a large scale convection model with steady subduction of a cold old slab 130 myr old predicts rapid 100 myr cooling of subduction zones resulting in cessation of magmatism the model also predicts that the mantle temperature beneath arcs and continental margins is greatly affected by the effective temperature of the subducting slab i e the age of the subducting slab if subduction of a young hot slab including ridge subduction occurs every 60 to 120 myr as is suggested for eastern asia the average temperature beneath arcs is increased by about 300 c which may explain the long lasting magmatism in eastern asia associated with subduction of young slabs and ridges thermal structure and circulation of h2o are greatly modified to cause a transition from 1 normal arc magmatism 2 forearc mantle melting to 3 slab melting to produce a significant amount 100 km3 of granitic melts associated with both high p t and low p t type metamorphism the last stage of 3 can result in formation of a granitic batholith belt and a paired metamorphic belts synthesis of the numerical models and observations suggest that episodic subduction of young slabs and ridges can explain heat source for generating a large amount of granitic magmas of batholiths synchronous formation of batholith and regional metamorphic belts and p t conditions of the paired metamorphism even the high p t metamorphism requires an elevated geothermal structure in the forearc region associated with ridge subduction although the emplacement of the batholiths and the regional metamorphic belts and the mass balance in subduction zones are not well constrained at present the episodic event associated with ridge subduction is thought to be essential for net growth of arcs and continental margins as well as for the long term heat balance in subduction zones

protolith age of the swakane gneiss north cascades washington evidence of rapid underthrusting of sediments beneath an arc 1 the metamorphic core of the north cascades largely comprises island arc and oceanic terranes juxtaposed prior to circa 96 ma magmatism however the tectonic affinity of the structurally deepest terrane the 9 12 kbar swakane gneiss is distinctly different from other terranes in the core it is not intruded by arc related plutons and contains abundant precambrian zircons new u pb analyses of detrital zircons from the swakane gneiss yield dates from 73 ma to 1610 ma with a dominant late cretaceous population these data indicate that the swakane protolith was deposited as late as 72 5 0 6 ma the 206pb 238u date of the youngest detrital grain following deposition the gneiss was intruded by peraluminous leucogranite sheets that may represent partial melt derived from the gneiss at near to postpeak p t conditions one sheet yielded a u pb crystallization age of 68 36 0 07 ma which indicates that the gneiss was deeply buried within 5 myr of deposition two possible mechanisms considered for this rapid burial 7 mm yr are overthrusting of a forearc or back arc basin by older crystalline rock or underthrusting of trench sediments during low angle subduction the model involving overthrusting of a forearc or back arc basin is most consistent with thermobarometric and isotopic data and the regional geologic setting of the cascades core rapid burial of the swakane protolith is coincident with burial of sediments that formed the pelona orocopia and rand schists of southern california however differences in peak metamorphic temperatures indicate that conditions of burial must have varied along the plate margin

thermo mechanical model of the mantle wedge in central mexican subduction zone and a blob tracing approach for the magma transport the origin of the central mexican volcanic belt cmvb and the influence of the subducting cocos plate on the cmvb volcanism are still controversial in this study the temperature and mantle wedge flow models for the mexican subduction zone are developed using the finite element method to investigate the thermal structure below cmvb the numerical scheme solves a system of 2d stokes equations and 2d steady state heat transfer equation two models are considered for the mantle wedge the first one with an isoviscous mantle wedge and the second one with strong temperature dependent viscosity the first model reveals a maximum temperature of 830 c in the mantle wedge which is not sufficient for melting of wet peridotite also the geotherm of the subducting plate upper surface does not intersect the dehydration melting solidus for mafic minerals the second model predicts temperatures of more than 1200 c beneath the cmvb for a wide range of rheological parameters reference viscosity and activation energy up to 0 6 wt h2o can be released down to 60 km depth through metamorphic changes in the oceanic crust of the subducting slab the melting of this oceanic crust apparently occurs in a narrow depth range of 50 60 km and also melting of the mantle wedge hydrated peridotite is now expected to take place beneath cmvb considering that the melting processes on and in the vicinity of the subducting plate surface generate the most of the volcanic material a dynamic model for the blob tracers is developed using stokes flow at infinite prandtl number the blobs of 0 2 10 0 km in diameter migrate along very different trajectories only at low wrapping viscosities w 1 0 14 5 10 17 pa s the modeling results show that the fast trajectories terminate at the same focus location at the base of the continental crust while the arrival points of slow trajectories which are common for the blobs of smaller size 0 4 0 5 km are scattered away from the average focus location this observation may give us a hint on a possible mechanism of strato and mono volcanoes genesis the rise

extensional tectonics in the northeastern betics se spain case study of extension in a multilayered upper crust with contrasting rheologies extension in the northeastern betics took place along two main directions corresponding to a minimum of two successive orthogonal extensional systems with n nw and w sw sense of shear respectively strain was strongly localised within weaker metapelites and gypsum leading to the development of several extensional detachments which accommodated the thinning produced by extensional ramps and listric faults within the stronger carbonate rocks extension along several detachments led to the preservation in a single thinned section of layers representative of different crustal depths of a previously thickened upper crust the n to nw directed extensional system was formed by brittle to brittle ductile detachments which were active during the upper oligocene and lower miocene coeval to vertical ductile thinning of underlying greenschist facies metamorphic rocks the w to sw directed extensional system active during the middle and upper miocene shows multiple slip surfaces which transferred displacement to a brittle detachment with a ramp flat geometry that stepped down into the footwall of the previous nw directed system the geometry of both extensional systems was determined by the rheological heterogeneity of the studied crustal section further upper miocene extension was accommodated by radial extension with a dominant set of sw directed listric faults which tilted the aforementioned detachments and exhumed them in the core of km scale elongated extensional domes

earthquake source parameters and stress distribution in the adak island region of the central aleutian islands alaska source parameters have been systematically determined for all earthquakes with mw 5 that occurred between 172 w and 179 w longitude in the adak island region of the central aleutian islands during 1977 march 1987 we relocate the events using a plate velocity model developed for the region and use two alternative methods of depth determination the first method uses arrival times of direct and prominent reflected phases primarily pwp the second method uses broadband p wave displacement seismograms in an inversion for source depth the analysis of these events provides a well constrained data set for the study of stress release along an active subduction zone three earthquakes which occurred seaward of the trench axis are located just below the crust mantle interface and show extension nearly perpendicular to the trench axis seven events occurred in the wadati benioff zone sixty four events are located in the main thrust zone and except for five unusual events are characterized by thrust mechanisms with one nodal plane dipping north at a shallow angle in cross section the thrust zone appears as a thin 10 15 km thickness interplate region which extends from 15 to 50 km depth a 10 15 average discrepancy between observed slip vector azimuths and the predicted relative motion direction between the pacific and north american plates exists for these events the observed slip vectors are oriented more normal to the trench than is predicted by plate motions five earthquakes which occurred as aftershocks to the may 7 1986 earthquake mw 8 0 in the crust of the overriding plate have strike slip mechanisms consistent with right lateral motion on arc parallel fault planes observations of slip vectors along the whole aleutian arc show a similar trend to that observed in the adak island region the largest differences 30 between observed and predicted slip azimuths occur around 175 e we propose a model of plate interaction in which a portion of the along arc motion occurs along a weak strike slip shear zone in the upper plate near the volcanic line the slip azimuths in the main thrust zone fit this model well if the amount of transcurrent slip occurring in the upper plate is 60 of the arc parallel relative plate motion a consequence of the model is along arc extension of the overriding plate between the accretionary wedge and the volcanic line especially in the western part of the aleutian arc calculations based on a tectonic model by geist et al 1988 for the formation of arc summit basins through block rotation and translation suggest that along arc extension has been significant since late miocene or early pliocene

three dimensional structure of p wave anisotropy beneath the tohoku district northeast japan 1 we retrieve three dimensional structures of isotropic and anisotropic velocities of p waves of the tohoku district from first p arrival time data assuming azimuthal anisotropy to be caused by hexagonal symmetry axes distributed horizontally in the earth the results show that the high velocity pacific slab is clearly imaged in the isotropic velocity structure even though the azimuthal anisotropy is taken into account in addition small scale low velocity regions and prominent low velocity anomalies are found just below the active volcanoes and in the mantle wedge above the high velocity pacific slab respectively the fast propagation axis of p waves is in mostly e w direction in the upper crust nearly n s and e w directions in the lower crust e w direction in the mantle wedge and n s direction in the descending pacific slab these features of the p wave anisotropy structure are consistent with those of lateral variations of the fast polarization directions measured previously by shear wave splitting observations the plausible factor that causes the crust anisotropy is interpreted as being alignment or preferred orientation of microcracks and crust minerals the mantle wedge anisotropy is attributed to lattice preferred orientation of the mantle minerals arising from present day mantle process such as the mantle wedge convection and the plate motion however the fast propagation axis of p waves in the slab is almost perpendicular to the magnetic lineation of the oceanic plate under the northwest pacific and thus the slab preserves the original anisotropic property that the pacific plate gained when it formed

strong along arc variations in attenuation in the mantle wedge beneath costa rica and nicaragua attenuation structure in the central american subduction zone was imaged using local events recorded by the tomography under costa rica and nicaragua array a 20 month long deployment july 2004 until march 2006 of 48 seismometers that spanned the fore arc arc and back arc regions of nicaragua and costa rica p and s waveforms were inverted separately for the corner frequency and moment of each event and for the path averaged attenuation operator t of each event station pair assuming attenuation is slightly frequency dependent 0 27 then tomographic inversions were performed for s and p attenuation q s 1 and q p 1 since p wave amplitudes reflect both shear and the bulk moduli tomographic inversions were also performed to determine shear and bulk attenuation q s 1 and q 1 the loss of energy per cycle owing to shearing and uniform compression respectively damping and other inversion tomographic parameters were systematically varied as is typical in subduction zone attenuation studies a less attenuating slab upper plate and wedge corner and a more attenuating mantle wedge were imaged in addition first order differences between the mantles beneath nicaragua and costa rica were observed the slab in nicaragua is more attenuating than the slab in costa rica a larger zone of higher shear attenuation also characterizes the nicaraguan mantle wedge within the wedge maximum attenuation values at 1 hz correspond to qs 38 73 beneath nicaragua and qs 62 84 beneath costa rica and average values are qs 76 78 and qs 84 88 respectively attenuation variations correlate with along arc trends in geochemical indicators that suggest that melting beneath nicaragua occurs at more hydrated conditions and possibly to greater extents and depths relative to northern costa rica shear attenuation dominates over bulk attenuation in the well resolved regions of the wedge the more extensive zones of greater shear attenuation observed in the nicaraguan wedge could be explained by higher temperatures and or greater hydration but comparison with petrological data suggests that hydration variations play a larger role average wedge attenuation values are comparable to estimates for the andes and japan greater than those for alaska and less than those for tonga lau

melting and seismic structure beneath the northeast japan arc transportation of h2o associated with subduction of the pacific plate beneath the northeast japan arc is modeled to predict distribution of aqueous solution and melt and the consequent p wave velocity structure the observed velocity structure coincides well with the model for equilibrium transport of h2o most of h2o subducted is brought down to 150 200 km depth along the slab then the aqueous fluid generated ascends to initiate melting which explains the low velocity regions 6 reduction observed beneath the backarc rather than beneath the volcanic front if equilibrium transport of h2o occurs initiation of melting beneath the backarc with deep subduction of h2o is likely to be the case also for other subduction zones with slabs older than several tens of m y cold enough to stabilize serpentine to a great depth

introduction to the special section northeast japan a case history of subduction subduction related tectonic events such as strike slip faulting uplift of high pressure metamorphic rocks in the forearc back arc spreading arc magmatism and continental collisions have shaped northeast japan making it a case history for subduction much of the record of these events is preserved and can be used to reconstruct the tectonic history of the region although many geological geophysical and geochemical data have been collected in japan for the last 30 years interpretation of these data into a plate tectonic context did not really begin until about 10 years ago much of the data and interpretation on northeast japan have been published in japanese or as individual local studies the primary goal of this special section is to present new investigations covering a wide range of topics and scales and place them in a tectonic framework the papers in this special section focus on three main subjects mesozoic aspects of northeast japan the relation of japan sea opening with the tectonics and geochemistry of northeast japan in the tertiary and the geophysical setting the purpose of this overview is to link these subjects and provide a tectonic framework for north east japan and eastern asia since the mesozoic

island arc tectonics abstract tectonic stress states in arc backarc systems have been examined on simplified model structures corresponding to the chilean mariana and intermediate arc types two sources of tectonic stress are assumed the stress due to lateral density variations and the stress transmitted from the subducting oceanic plate to the forearc the average vertical stress zz of the former type has been calculated for each isostatically compensated model lithospheric plate using the difference from a reference structure from the sign of xx zz one can estimate whether the tectonic situation is extentional or compressional if we assume that xx is caused by mechanical coupling between the subducting oceanic slab and is laterally constant in one arc backarc system we can estimate at least the upper or lower boundary of the mechanical coupling for the chilean type arcs where the truly great interplate earthquakes occur and no backarc spreading takes place the transmitted average stress must be larger than 660 bar for the mariana type arcs where no large interplate earthquakes are recorded and spreading takes place in the backarc region xx should be smaller than 100 bar in any arc backarc system the most extentional feature is expected at the highest topography of the volcanic arc once spreading has started the viscosity under the backarc region drops dramatically and the spreading will continue in the backarc even if its topography is subdued in comparison with the now separated main and remnant arcs

petrology of arc volcanic rocks and their origin by mantle diapirs abstract calc alkalic chemical trends characteristic of arc volcanic rocks mainly result from three mechanisms which act additively 1 fractional crystallization involving separation of titanomagnetite 2 selective concentration of plagioclase phenocrysts and selective depletion of titanomagnetite phenocryst compared with the actually fractionated proportion and 3 mixing of magmas on continuous fractionation trends the association of calc alkalic and tholeiitic trends in a single composite volcano may not represent different fractional crystallization processes or different chemistries of primary magmas but the calc alkalic chemical trend can be considered as a mixing trend resulting from mixing of various magmas on associated tholeiitic chemical trends chemical variations of most arc volcanic rocks including calc alkalic ones can accordingly be essentially accounted for by the low pressure fractional crystallization of phenocrystic phases from primary basaltic magmas crystallization sequences of arc magmas which are strongly dependent on water content in magmas are deduced from the phenocryst assemblages the crystallization sequence changes laterally across arc suggesting increasing water contents in magmas toward the back arc side as is also seen for other incompatible elements such as k and rb systematic differences in the characteristic crystallization sequence are also observed among arcs roughly correlating with the crustal thickness water content in magma like other incompatible elements tends to increase with increasing crustal thickness the variation of incompatible elements including water roughly represents that of the degree of partial melting of the upper mantle which is broadly controlled by the crustal thickness the variation of water content indicates that arc magmas are not saturated with water during differentiation to late differentiates such as dacite or rhyolite this strongly constrains the maximum water contents in primary basaltic magma at most 2 5 wt this value suggests that magma generation beneath arcs is dependent on dry solidus of peridotite diapiric uprise of the hot deeper mantle and associated adiabatic decompression would be necessary for mantle peridotite to attain the temperature as high as dry solidus diapirs that begin to rise from the subduction zone may stop at or near the crust mantle boundary because of the surrounding density change and their degree of partial melting is roughly controlled by their stopped depth assuming their similar temperature across arc variation is also explained by the stopped depth of diapirs but is not controlled by crustal thickness

mantle wedge dynamics versus crustal seismicity in the apennines italy 1 in the apennines subduction italy earthquakes mainly occur within the overriding plate along the chain axis the events concentrate in the upper 15 km of the crust above the mantle wedge and focal solutions indicate normal faulting in the foreland the seismogenic volume affects the upper 35 km of the crust focal solutions indicate prevailing reverse faulting in the northern foreland and strike slip faulting in the southern one the deepening of the seismogenic volume from the chain axis to the foreland follows the deepening of the moho and isotherms the seismicity above the mantle wedge is associated with uplift of the chain axial zone volcanism high co2 flux and extension the upward pushing of the asthenospheric mantle and the mantle derived co2 rich fluids trapped within the crust below the chain axis causes this seismicity all these features indicate that the axial zone of apennines is affected by early rifting processes in northern italy the widespread and deeper seismicity in the foreland reflects active accretion processes in the southern foreland the observed dextral strike slip faulting and the lack of reverse focal solutions suggest that accretion processes are not active at present in our interpretation of the apennines subduction the shallower seismicity of the overriding plate is due to the dynamics uprising and eastward migration of the asthenospheric wedge

some thermal problems associated with magma migration abstract the mechanisms by which magma migrates from the point in the earth s interior where melting occurs to the earth s surface are poorly understood in this paper several aspects of this problem are examined magma can migrate upward due to its differential buoyancy on the scale of crystalline grains or as large dispairs magma transport is an effective means of heat transport magma transport at a rate of 0 15 cm yr is equivalent to a heat flow of 10 6 cal cm 2 s if magma encounters country rock witha lower melting point the original magma is likely to solidify while melting the country rock this would be an effective mechanism of purging silicic rocks and incomparable elements from the lower crust under some circumstances magma must penetrate up to 100 km or more of cold lithospheric rock in order for this magma to reach the surface without solidification a heated path must be provided the heating of this path requires the solidification of some magma it is estimated that magma penetrates the lithosphere in about 5000 years and that the crack is lined by several hundred meters of frozen basalt

layered rheological structure of subducting oceanic lithosphere abstract the subducting oceanic lithosphere which was formed by petrological differentiation of pyrolite at mid ocean spreading centers is in this paper no longer considered as a compositionally and mechanically homogeneous rigid plate or viscous slab as it was in earlier papers but as a sandwich made up of different lithological layers the effect of phase transformation as a function of depth with respect to changes in rheology of the downgoing slab is also considered it is shown that the rheological behavior of the descending slab is strongly controlled by its lithological and thermal structure our results provide alternative and plausible interpretations for the distribution of seismicity within the wadati benioff zone and for the fate of subducted oceanic lithosphere at the 670 km discontinuity these results although they are limited by the availability and quality of thermodynamical and rheological parameters for different rock types will advance our understanding of rheological properties of the subducting oceanic lithosphere

oxygen isotope evidence for progressive uplift of the cascade range oregon oxygen isotope compositions of fossil equid teeth in the cascade rainshadow reveal a v5x decrease in mean n 18 o since 27 ma isotopic changes are inconsistent with expected effects from global climate change because a the expected isotopic shift to tooth n 18 o values due to global climate change v1x is much smaller than the observed shift b predicted and observed isotopic trends are opposite for oligocene vs miocene samples and c average compositions and ranges in compositions remained unchanged for samples from before and after major global cooling in the mid miocene accounting for a decrease in relative humidity of at least 15 we infer a topographically driven secular shift in the n 18 o value of rainwater of 6 8x since the late oligocene which is approximately equivalent to the modern day difference in n 18 o values of precipitation and surface waters across the central cascades rise of the central cascades apparently occurred monotonically over the last 27 ma with a hiatus between v15 4 and 7 2 ma possibly related to eruption of the columbia river basalts progressive volcanic accumulation over tens of millions of years best explains the data rather than a short lived uplift event paleoseasonality as inferred from isotope zoning and intertooth variability decreased dramatically from 7 9x at 15 4 7 ma to v3x at 3 ma then increased to 6 8x today the cause of the decrease in seasonality at 3 ma may reflect either brief warming during the mid pliocene within the context of global tectonic reorganization or consumption by equids of water from an isotopically buffered lake idaho 2002 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

magma ascent by porous flow porous flow of buoyant liquid through partially molten rock is regarded as the initial transport process leading to magma segregation in the mantle recent work has identified the importance of matrix deformation and compaction in this process we present finite difference calculations based on a generalized form of darcy s law that includes matrix deformation in two dimensional cartesian and cylindrical coordinates we emphasize the existence of solitary wave solutions called magmons these waves are regions of locally high porosity that ascend through regions of low uniform porosity they differ from diapirs where the liquid and matrix ascend together the one dimensional waves that were previously reported are found to be unstable in two dimensions breaking down to form two dimensional waves of circular cross section both the development of the instability and the form of the two dimensional waves are supported by theoretical analysis numerical experiments in which two dimensional waves collide show that the extent to which they are conserved after collision depends on the lateral offset of the waves the conservation can be very good in other cases larger waves appear to grow at the expense of smaller waves although the quantification of the relevant permeability and rheological parameters remains uncertain geophysically plausible estimates suggest wavelengths of kilometers and velocities of centimeters per year in our preliminary assessment of the relevance of these results to igneous processes we find that magmons are unlikely to be important in regions of broad upwelling such as beneath spreading centers here the transport of liquid adjusts to match the supply by melting and compaction processes are not important if liquid is supplied from below to a stable partially molten region of the asthenosphere it is expected to ascend in magmons this may occur beneath oceanic volcanic centers or in subcontinental mantle it is possible that magma ascent in magmons leads to spatial and temporal episodicity of volcanic activity if higher level processes do not obscure this influence the waveform of a magmon ascends faster than the liquid within the magmon so new liquid is taken in from above while original liquid is lost from below consequently magmons can mobilize small degrees of partial melt and deliver it rapidly to the surface

heat sources and melting in subduction zones in order to understand the mechanism of melt generation and the origin of high heat flow in subduction zones a series of numerical models of the thermal and flow structures in the mantle have been tested in two dimensional boxes with an inclined subducting slab of constant velocity in contrast to previous models 1 large convecting cells are used without imposing a high temperature profile on the backarc boundary which enables us to discuss the global heat balance and to seek for the heat sources responsible for the melting and high heat flow observed in subduction zones and 2 various mechanical conditions e g coupling between the slab and overlying mantle wedge buoyancy associated with melting and heat sources e g heat flux from below internal heat generation viscous heating are tested in varying proportions in all the calculations steady state or near steady state with a small instability periodically occurring at the upper thermal boundary layer is achieved under these conditions the global heat balance can be described by a simple boundary layer argument the results show that in order to attain a high enough temperature for melting and a high heat flux a large amount of internal heating i e more than 2 5 10 7 w m3 is required if the convection is limited within the upper mantle the high internal heating required may be explained if the radioactive nuclides in fluids expelled from the subducting slab are added to the wedge and circulate in the convection cell for a sufficient time another possible explanation for melting and the high heat flux is that the hot material is supplied from the lower mantle based on the thermal and flow structures obtained melting regimes in subduction zones are discussed in which the following key processes take place 1 melting associated with pressure change of a rock packet with its movement especially compression melting in the downward flow of the mantle wedge along the slab and 2 melting due to compositional change of the rock packet associated with migration of h2o and melt to solve these problems in detail further studies on distribution and migration of the fluids will be required

impact of arc continent collision on the conditions of burial and exhumation of uhp lt rocks experimental and numerical modelling abstract a 2 d physical and finite element numerical modelling of arc continent collision was performed to study the deformation and failure of the overriding lithosphere the experimental technique allowed us to model the whole subduction collision process from oceanic subduction to deep subduction of the continental crust with the numerical approach we have modelled the deformation of the overriding plate only through initial stages of its failure and studied the influence of different parameters on this process the results obtained by both techniques are coherent and mutually complementary they show that the failure of the overriding plate is physically quite plausible or even inevitable during subduction the conditions for such a failure the weakening of this plate are prepared during oceanic subduction the weakening occurs due to the interaction between the subducting lithosphere and the asthenosphere in the mantle corner between the two plates and due to back arc spreading in oceanic subduction zones with a compressional regime no back arc opening thick and strong back arc lithosphere the weakest zone is volcanic arc area when weakening becomes sufficient during subduction the lithosphere fails in this area the failure occurs along a fault dipping under the arc in either of two possible directions and results either in subduction reversal or subduction of the fore arc almost half of the presently active subduction zones are characterised by a tensional subduction regime with back arc spreading in such subduction zones the weakest place is not the volcanic arc but the back arc spreading centre when a subduction regime changes from tensional to compressional failure occurs in the vicinity of the extinct spreading centre this process can occur during oceanic subduction again along either a trench vergent or trenchward dipping fault but the formation of a trench verging fault is most likely in this latter case which is a principal subject of our study the failure is followed by partial subduction of the arc plate complete subduction occurs during arc continent collision subduction of the continental margin when tectonic compression of the lithosphere increases rapidly and becomes sufficient to push the arc plate into the mantle the arc itself can be subducted completely or be partially or completely scraped off and accreted a deeply subducted material including continental margin is preserved at relatively low temperatures between the lithospheric mantle and the cold subducted arc plate to about 150 km depth subduction of the arc plate is a major phenomenon which affects all processes associated with continental subduction from deep burial and hp lt metamorphism to exhumation of subducted material does this process occur in nature future investigations will allow us to answer this question in this paper we analyse the conditions of emplacement of a very young oceanic lithosphere samail ophiolite on the continental crust in oman in the late cretaceous and argue that this lithosphere formed in a back arc basin it reached and overthrust the arabian continent after complete subduction of the arc plate

double seismic zone and dehydration embrittlement of the subducting slab 1 dehydration embrittlement of metamorphosed oceanic crust and mantle in the subducting slab may be responsible for the occurrence of intermediate depth earthquakes we explore the possibility that this hypothesis can explain the morphology of the double seismic zones observed in northeast japan southwest japan northeast taiwan northern chile cape mendocino and eastern aleutians we calculate transient temperature structures of slabs based on geologically estimated subduction histories of these regions we then determine dehydration loci of metamorphosed oceanic crust and serpentinized mantle using experimentally derived phase diagrams the depth range of the dehydration loci of metamorphosed oceanic crust and serpentine is dependent on slab age the dehydration loci of serpentine produce a double layered structure because the upper dehydration loci of serpentine are mostly located in the wedge mantle above the slab we regard the upper plane seismicity representing dehydration embrittlement in the oceanic crust and we fix the slab geometry so that the upper plane seismicity is just below the upper surface of the slab we find that the lower plane seismicity is located at the lower dehydration loci of serpentine which indicates that the morphology of the double seismic zones is consistent with the dehydration embrittlement

petrological model of the northern izu bonin mariana arc crust constraints from high pressure measurements of elastic wave velocities of the tanzawa plutonic rocks central japan abstract ultrasonic compressional wave velocities vp and shear wave velocities vs were measured with varying pressure up to 1 0 gpa in a temperature range from 25 to 400 c for a suite of tonalitic gabbroic rocks of the miocene tanzawa plutonic complex central japan which has been interpreted as uplifted and exposed deep crust of the northern izu bonin mariana ibm arc the vp values of the tonalitic gabbroic rocks increase rapidly at low pressures from 0 1 to 0 4 gpa and then become nearly constant at higher pressures above 0 4 gpa the vp values at 1 0 gpa and 25 c are 6 3 6 6 km s for tonalites 56 4 71 1 wt sio2 6 8 km s for a quartz gabbro 53 8 wt sio2 and 7 1 7 3 km s for a hornblende gabbro 43 2 47 7 wt sio2 combining the present data with the p wave velocity profile of the northern ibm arc we infer that 6 km thick tonalitic crust exists at mid crustal depth 6 1 6 3 km s vp overlying 2 km thick hornblende gabbroic crust 6 8 km s vp our model shows large differences in acoustic impedance between the tonalite and hornblende gabbro layers being consistent with the strong reflector observed at 12 km depth in the ibm arc the measured vp of tanzawa hornblende bearing gabbroic rocks 7 1 7 3 km s is significantly lower than that vp modeled for the lowermost crustal layer of the northern ibm arc 7 3 7 7 km s at 15 22 km depth we propose that the ibm arc consists of a thick tonalitic middle crust and a mafic lower crust

structural variations of arc crusts and rifted margins in the southern izu ogasawara arc back arc system 1 we carried out a reflection refraction seismic survey across the southern izu ogasawara arc back arc system covering three arcs with different crustal ages the oldest eocene arc has middle and lower crust with high velocities of 6 4 6 6 and 6 8 7 4 km s respectively suggesting denser crustal materials the current volcanic arc has middle and lower crust with lower velocities of 5 7 6 5 and 6 7 7 1 km s suggesting advanced crustal differentiation the crust mantle transition layer with a velocity of 7 5 8 0 km s is distributed beneath the current volcanic arc and the rear arc suggesting a pool of dense materials emanating from the crust through the crustal growth these structural differences between the eocene arc and current arc indicate a difference of crustal growth based on basaltic and andesitic magmas according to known petrologic studies commonly rifted crusts have lower crusts with high velocities of over 7 0 km s and the arc back arc transition zone also has a thinner more reflective crust that may have been affected by postrifting magmatism

formation of high pressure metabasites in the southern appalachian blue ridge via taconic continental subduction beneath the laurentian margin 1 tectonic models that account for the occurrence of eclogite retrograde eclogite peridotite and migmatitic basement gneisses in the southern blue ridge invoke closure of a small ocean basin between the eastern blue ridge ebr and western blue ridge wbr in this obducted ophiolite model franciscan type eastward subduction of oceanic crust beneath the piedmont arc occurred prior to obduction of the arc onto the laurentian margin the discovery of kilometer scale eclogite bodies near the ebr wbr boundary are cited as evidence for obducted ophiolite accreted island arc models however thermobarometric estimates based on mineral chemistry from hp metabasites of the western central and eastern blue ridge indicate that eclogites and granulites are medium temperature type 550 900 c inconsistent with the obducted ophiolite model mid ocean ridge basalt subducted beneath continental margins and island arcs rarely reaches temperatures in excess of 550 c thermobarometric comparisons of the present study and a reexamination of deep seismic profiles from the blue ridge allow for a model of westward subduction of continental material beneath laurentia during the taconic orogeny that produced a megamelange now preserved in the central and eastern blue ridge tectonic provinces p t paths determined from blue ridge hp metabasites are similar to p t paths determined previously from caledonian and variscan eclogites thermobarometric similarities imply a common tectonic history of continental collision subduction of continental crust to depths of 50 65 km followed by rapid eduction

modeling the dynamics of subducting slabs cold dense subducting lithosphere provides the primary force driving tectonic plates at earth s surface the force available to drive the plates depends on a balance between the buoyancy forces driving subduction and the mechanical and buoyancy forces resisting subduction because both the buoyancy and rheology of the slab and mantle depend on temperature composition grain size water content and melt fraction unraveling which of these processes exert a first order control on slab dynamics and under what circumstances other processes become first order effects can be challenging laboratory and numerical models of slab dynamics provide a powerful method for testing the combined effects of buoyancy and strength changes that accompany the slab evolution in the upper mantle transition zone and lower mantle recent studies have focused on understanding how rheologic variations newtonian versus non newtonian viscosity or water content geometry 2d versus 3d and plate motions trench roll back or advance influence the evolution of slabs in the upper mantle and how they sink into the lower mantle these models suggest that spatial and temporal variations in slab strength and the history of subduction determine whether slabs sink directly into the lower mantle or are trapped in the transition zone

geochemistry of the quaternary volcanic rocks of the northeast japan arc major and trace element data are presented for a series of lavas from 17 volcanic centres in the ne japan arc these represent a transect of the quaternary arc from its volcanic front type a volcanoes in the east across its central zone type b to its western margin type c rocks range from basalt to dacite in composition and the variation is attributed to fractionation of plagioclase mafic silicates and titanomagnetite for comparative purposes trace element data for each volcano are presented on a 55 wt sio2 normalised basis the volcanoes display the characteristic features of arc volcanism viz enrichment in large ion lithophile elements rb sr ba k and depletion in high field strength elements zr nb hf ta using these data and derived primary magma compositions tatsumi et al 1983 mixing calculations give the percentages of fractionating mineral phases necessary to derive the 55 wt sio2 liquids these data together with published distribution coefficients allow the calculation of trace element abundances in the primary magmas reciprocal trace element plots indicate that irrespective of position with respect to the volcanic front the elements la ba k sr nb y and zr of the primary magmas all lie on a common line strongly suggesting that the melts are the products of varying degrees of melting of a common homogeneous source however those melts close to the volcanic front type a show anomalous rb th and pb values suggesting that their mantle source was enriched in these elements further calculations suggest that the hfs depletion is not due to retention by residual mineral phases but is a feature of the source thus the data suggest a that the source of the arc volcanism was homogeneous and b that the characteristic chemical features were an inherent feature of the source since zr nb ratios in the source melts are close to those found in n type morb it is suggested that a major component of arc volcanic source rocks was a depleted mantle of the type which has given melts of n type morb composition lil elements added to such a depleted source are derived by the loss of silica rich aqueous fluids from the descending subducting slab such losses occur within the first 100 km and are fixed in the overlying mantle wedge this contaminated material is transported down by drag induced convection producing a homogeneous but metasomatised mantle within the melting zone diapiric uprise produced by small scale melting produces further melting with the major control of melt chemistry being the degree of partial melting superimposed on this chemistry is a localised addition of pb rb and th in the source of those volcanoes nearest the volcanic front

simultaneous measurements of thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity for garnet and olivine under high pressure abstract thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity have been measured simultaneously for garnet al73py25gr1sp1 and olivine fo93fa7 single crystals up to 8 3 gpa and 1100 k by using a pulse heating method anisotropy of thermal conduction is investigated along the three crystallographic axes 1 0 0 0 1 0 and 0 0 1 in olivine the pressure dependence of or dln dp is determined to be 0 03 0 04 gpa 1 for the three crystallographic direction in olivine and 0 03 gpa 1 for garnet while dln dp is determined to be 0 04 gpa 1 for olivine and 0 03 gpa 1 for garnet the anisotropy in thermal diffusivity or thermal conductivity of olivine is clearly observed in the present experimental range of pressure and temperature it is likely that the anisotropy in thermal conduction would be maintained throughout the olivine stability field in the mantle down to 410 km depth heat capacities of olivine and garnet are calculated from the present and both the present heat capacities of olivine and garnet are consistent with the previously reported values within 5 those obtained for the three crystallographic direction in olivine are also consistent with each other within 6 further the effect of basalt eclogite transition on heat transportation is discussed based on the present results for garnet it implies that the eclogite layer of the slab transmits thermal energy more effectively than the upper basaltic layer

slab surface temperature in subduction zones influence of the interplate decoupling depth and upper plate thinning processes abstract the thermal state of the top of the subducting plate is strongly affected by the mantle wedge flow structure we identify three main factors controlling the influence of the corner flow on the slab surface temperature 1 the mantle rheology 2 the interplate decoupling depth and 3 the intensity of thermomechanical ablation of the overriding plate the first two factors are discussed using results from published simulations we perform 2d numerical simulations of mantle wedge flow to assess the role of the third factor the non newtonian rheology depends on temperature pressure yield stress and composition the thermochemical convection code includes a water transfer model and the water weakening effect on mantle rocks slab dehydration triggers water saturation of the overlying mantle wedge and upper plate when weakening of mantle rocks by hydration is included in the simulations the interplate decoupling depth decreases and the upper plate thermal thinning increases a relatively cold blanket develops on top of the slab below the interplate decoupling depth cold materials removed from the thinned upper plate are advected by the corner flow and are accreted to the viscous layer dragged along the slab surface as a result the thickness of the insulating layer covering the slab surface increases with the water weakening effect together with the upper plate thermal thinning rate pressure temperature p t paths followed by crustal rocks during subduction quantify the influence of upper plate thinning processes on the slab surface thermal state the slab surface temperature below 100 km can be lowered by as much as 130 c due to increased thermal convection at the base of the upper plate at shallower depths

experimentally based water budgets for dehydrating slabs and consequences for arc magma generation phase diagrams of hydrous mid ocean ridge mor basalts to 330 km depth and of hydrous peridotites to 250 km depth are compiled for conditions characteristic for subduction zones a synthesis of our experimentally determined phase relations of chlorite lawsonite epidote zoisite amphibole paragonite chloritoid talc and phengite in basalts and of phase relations from the literature of serpentine talc chlorite amphibole and phase a in ultramafics permits calculation of h2o contents in hydrous phase assemblages that occur in natural compositions this yields the information necessary to calculate water budgets for descending slabs starting from low grade blueschist conditions 10 20 km depth with h2o contents between 5 and 6 wt for hydrated oceanic crust complete dehydration is achieved between 70 and 300 km depth as a function of individual slab geotherms hydrous phases which decompose at depth below volcanic arcs are lawsonite zoisite chloritoid and talc phengite in mafic compositions and chlorite and serpentine in peridotite approximately 15 35 of the initially subducted h2o are released below volcanic arcs the contribution of amphibole dehydration to the water budget is small 5 20 and occurs at relatively shallow depth 65 90 km in any predicted thermal structure dehydration is a combination of a stepwise and a continuous process through many different reactions which occur simultaneously in the different portions of the descending slab such a dehydration characteristic is incompatible with single phase dehydration models which focus fluid flow through a unique major dehydration event in order to explain volcanic fronts as a consequence of continuously progressing dehydration water ascending from the slab will be generally available to depth of ca 150 200 km the fluid rising from the subducting lithosphere will cause partial melting in the hot portion of the mantle wedge we propose that the volcanic front simply forms above the mantle wedge isotherm where the extent of melting is sufficient to allow for the mechanical extraction of parental arc magmas thermal models show that such an isotherm ca 1300oc locates below volcanic fronts slab surface depths below such an isotherm are compatible with the observed depths of the slab surface below volcanic fronts 1998 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

intraslab seismicity and thermal stress in the subducted cocos plate beneath central mexico we present a model of the subducting cocos slab beneath central mexico that provides an explanation for stresses causing the occurrence of the majority of the intraslab earthquakes which are concentrated in a long flat segment based on the recently developed thermal models for the central mexico subduction zone the thermal stresses due to non uniform temperature contrast in the subducting slab are calculated using a finite element approach the slab is considered purely elastic but due to high temperature at its bottom the behavior is considered as ductile creep the calculation results show a 20 km slab core characterized by a tensional state of stress with stresses up to 70 mpa on the other hand the top of the slab experiences high compressive thermal stresses up to 110 mpa depending on the elastic constants used and location along the flat part of the subducting plate these compressive stresses at the top of the slab are not consistent with the exclusive normal fault intraslab earthquakes and two different sources of stress are proposed the trenchward migration of the mexican volcanic arc for the last 7 ma indicates an increase of the slab dip through time this observation suggests that the gravity torque might exceed the suction torque considering the flat slab as an embedded plate subject to an applied clockwise net torque of 0 5 10 16 1 5 10 16 n m the upper half would exhibit tensional stresses of 40 110 mpa that can actually balance the compressive thermally induced stresses an alternative stress source might come from the slab pull force caused by the slab positive density anomaly based on our density anomaly estimations 75 20 kg m 3 a 350 km slab length dipping at 20 into the asthenosphere induces a slab pull force of 1 7 10 12 4 6 10 12 n m this force produces a tensional stress of 41 114 mpa sufficient to balance the compressive thermal stresses at the top of the flat slab the linear superposition of the thermally and torque or slab pull induced stresses shows tensile stresses up to 60 180 mpa inside the flat slab core also our results suggest that the majority of the intraslab earthquakes inside the flat slab are situated where the resultant stresses are larger than 40 80 mpa this study provides a reasonable explanation for the existence of exclusively normal fault intraslab earthquakes in the flat slab beneath central mexico and also it shows that thermal stresses due to non uniform reheating of subducting slabs play a considerable role in the total stress field

water flow to the mantle transition zone inferred from a receiver function image of the pacific slab variations in seismic velocity near the subducting slab provide constraints on the thermal structure and the distribution of hydrous minerals and water in a subduction zone we investigated the seismological structure in the upper mantle beneath japan using both radial and transverse receiver functions rfs radial rf can image horizontal layers of velocity contrast while transverse rf can image dipping layers the combination allows us to simultaneously image both horizontal and dipping velocity discontinuities we investigated the records of 45 teleseismic events observed with tiltmeters at 678 hi net stations the frequency band we used is from 0 02 to 0 16 hz the resultant rf image shows an elevated 410 km discontinuity and more importantly the top surface of the pacific slab down to below the 410 km discontinuity with forward modeling we determined that the mantle wedge is about 8 slower in shear wave speed than the subducting slab at depths deeper than 200 km the seismic velocity contrast is presumably caused by a sequence of hydrous minerals at the base of the mantle wedge which receives water released by dehydration reactions in the oceanic crust we employed numerical simulations to determine the distribution of water in and around the subducting slab the result suggests that hydrous minerals are continuously stable above the subducting slab in relatively cool conditions and carry water to the mantle transition zone

two types of deep seismicity in subducting slabs the relation between variation of seismic activity with depth and temperature structure in the subducting slabs in five subduction zones kuril ne japan izu bonin mariana and tonga is investigated when the temperature of the core of the slab at depths of 300 350 km is higher than the kinetic cut off temperature of the olivine spinel phase transformation there is no seismicity maximum in the slab below that depth range when the temperature of the core of the slab at 300 350 km depths is lower than the kinetic cut off temperature there is a depth range of relatively high seismic activity in the slabs moreover estimated temperature in the depth range of relatively high seismicity is near the kinetic cut off temperature it is inferred that the phase transformation of meta stable olivine triggers deep earthquakes and causes high seismic activity below the depths of 300 350 km in relatively low temperature slabs when the phase transformation is the cause of deep earthquakes in relatively high temperature slabs however it is considered that the phase transformation occurs in nearly equilibrium conditions and meta stable olivine does not exist other mechanisms in addition to the phase transformation are required to explain observed deep seismicity especially in relatively high temperature slabs

deep structure of japan subduction zone as derived from local regional and teleseismic events we have determined a detailed three dimensional p wave velocity structure of the japan subduction zone to 500 km depth by inverting local regional and teleseismic data simultaneously we used 45 318 p wave arrivals from 1241 shallow and deep earthquakes which occurred in and around the japan islands the arrival times are recorded by the japan university seismic network which covers the entire japan islands densely and uniformly we also used 4211 travel time residuals from 100 teleseismic events which are read from seismograms recorded by seismic stations in northeastern japan in comparison with the previous results obtained from only local and regional events the present result for the area around the lower plate boundary and the mantle below the plate is determined more reliably because of the addition of 7035 data from 100 teleseismic events and 41 very deep earthquakes in the crust and uppermost mantle low velocity zones are clearly visible beneath active volcanoes in the mantle wedge the low velocity zones generally parallel with the slab and exist continuously to a depth of about 200 km which is consistent with the petrological geochemical and geodynamic studies we consider that the existence of volcanism related low velocity anomalies in the mantle wedge is a general seismological characteristic of subduction zones in light of all the available tomographic results for many subduction zones in the world the pacific slab beneath japan is imaged more clearly than in previous studies as a high velocity zone with a thickness of 80 90 km and a p wave velocity 4 6 higher than the normal mantle lower velocity anomalies are found in the mantle below the slab

three dimensional mapping of magma source and transport regions from seismic data the mantle wedge beneath northeastern japan we investigate the distribution of partial melt in island arc using the seismic velocity structure of the mantle wedge beneath northeastern japan the comparison of the seismic tomography with laboratory velocity data on a partially molten mantle rock yields estimates of melting zones in three dimensions we employ experimental data on the degree of partial melt in hydrous peridotite to give constraints on the melt fraction and temperature melting and magma rich zones derived from the velocity structure coincide with observed low q zones the results of the three dimensional mapping indicate that the source of magma in island arc is diapir like melting patches localized within the low velocity zones of the mantle wedge extensive volcanic activity along the volcanic front is due to the presence of vast magma rich zones just beneath the moho those melting zones in the uppermost mantle may in turn cause melting of lower crustal materials and produce felsic magma melt appears to stay at and beneath the moho where crystallization fractionation may proceed melt exists at greater depths in the back arc region which may correlate with across arc variations of chemical compositions of the volcanic rocks observed in northeastern japan we suggest that magma migration in the ductile lower crust may cause low frequency microearthquakes and magma penetration into the brittle upper crust may produce mid crustal s wave reflectors

control of the location of the volcanic front in island arcs by aqueous fluid connectivity in the mantle wedge the water released from descending oceanic lithosphere is thought to have an important role in subduction zone magmatism as this water might trigger partial melting of the mantle wedge above the subducting plate1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 if however there is incomplete wetting of mineral grain boundaries in the mantle that is the dihedral angle9 at the triple junctions between grains is more than 60 then the water would not form an interconnected network and might instead be trapped as interstitial fluid in the mantle peridotite the water would then be transported to deeper parts of the mantle rather than triggering partial melting here we use dihedral angle data to estimate the connectivity of an aqueous fluid phase in a model upper mantle mineral assemblage forsterite at pressures from 3 to 5 gpa corresponding to depths of 80 150 km by combining these data with previous results10 11 we find that the dihedral angle is greater than 60 at low pressure and temperature 1 000 c at 2 gpa and 800 c at 4 gpa and lower than 60 at higher pressures and temperatures suggesting that wetting is incomplete below these conditions this indicates that the connectivity of water in hydrous upper mantle peridotite at convergent plate boundaries might control the position of the volcanic front in island arcs

magma genesis beneath northeast japan arc a new perspective on subduction zone magmatism abstract it is being accepted that earthquakes in subducting slab are caused by dehydration reactions of hydrous minerals in the context of this dehydration embrittlement hypothesis we propose a new model to explain key features of subduction zone magmatism on the basis of hydrous phase relations in peridotite and basaltic systems determined by thermodynamic calculations and seismic structures of northeast japan arc revealed by latest seismic studies the model predicts that partial melting of basaltic crust in the subducting slab is an inevitable consequence of subduction of hydrated oceanic lithosphere aqueous fluids released from the subducting slab also cause partial melting widely in mantle wedge from just above the subducting slab to just below overlying crust at volcanic front hydrous minerals in the mantle wedge are stable only in shallow

the effects of metastable olivine α wedge in subducted slabs on theoretical seismic waveforms of deep earthquakes 1 assuming three kinds of materials 100 olivine mg0 89fe0 11 2sio4 pyrolite and piclogite as composition of the upper mantle we constructed pressure temperature dependent seismic velocity structure models in the upper mantle beneath a subduction zone for this purpose we employed values of physical properties of composite minerals newly determined by using a genetic algorithm ga and obtained the thermal structure beneath the subduction zone as a numerical solution of a two dimensional 2 d thermal fluid coupled problem furthermore we investigated the effects of a metastable olivine wedge in subducted slabs on theoretical seismic waveforms of deep earthquakes which propagate through the velocity structure by solving the p sv problem numerically the effects of center frequency of the excited waves at hypocenters focal mechanism location of hypocenter upper mantle compositions values of physical properties a dip angle of subducting slabs anelastic attenuation subducting velocity and depth of deep earthquakes on seismic waveforms were investigated in detail theoretical seismograms at the earth s surface indicate that coda waves with small amplitudes of duration time of 20 30 s appear following direct p and s waves for models with the metastable olivine wedge inside the slabs the coda waves can be explained by the excitation by reflections and conversions at a large seismic velocity discontinuity between the metastable olivine wedge and the surrounding slab for models with center frequency of 0 25 hz purer olivine composition a faster subducting velocity and focal depth of 500 km waves with larger amplitudes were excited at the discontinuity the results of this study may give important clues to detect the existence of the metastable olivine wedge from seismological observations

tectonics of the jurassic early cretaceous magmatic arc of the north chilean coastal cordillera 22 26 s a story of crustal deformation along a convergent plate boundary the tectonic evolution of a continental magmatic arc that was active in the north chilean coastal cordillera in jurassic early cretaceous times is described in order to show the relationship between arc deformation and plate convergence during stage i circa 195 155 ma a variety of structures formed at deep to shallow crustal levels indicating sinistral arc parallel strike slip movements from deep crustal levels a sequence of structures is described starting with the formation of a broad belt of plutonic rocks which were sheared under granulite to amphibolite facies conditions bolfin complex the high grade deformation was followed by the formation of two sets of conjugate greenschist facies shear zones showing strike slip and thrust kinematics with a nw se directed maximum horizontal shortening i e parallel to the probable late jurassic vector of plate convergence a kinematic pattern compatible to this plate convergence is displayed by nonmetamorphic folds thrusts and high angle normal faults which formed during the same time interval as the discrete shear zones during stage ii 160 150 ma strong arc normal extension is revealed by brittle low angle normal faults at shallow levels and some ductile normal faults and the intrusion of extended plutons at deeper levels during stage iii 155 147 ma two reversals in the stress regime took place indicated by two generations of dikes an older one trending ne sw and a younger one trending nw se sinistral strike slip movements also prevailed during stage iv until 125 ma when the atacama fault zone originated as a sinistral trench linked strike slip fault the tectonic evolution of the magmatic arc is interpreted in terms of coupling and decoupling between the downgoing and overriding plates the structures of stages i and iv suggest that stress transmission due to seismic coupling between the plates was probably responsible for these deformations however decoupling of the plates occurred possibly due to a decrease in convergence rate resulting in extension and the reversals of stages ii and iii

buoyancy rather than rheology controls the thickness of the overriding mechanical lithosphere at subduction zones the thickness of earth s mechanical lithosphere is poorly defined to investigate whether rheology controls the thickness of the overriding plate s mechanical lithosphere in subduction zones the thermal structure was modelled numerically assuming a temperature dependent mantle viscosity it was found that the overriding lithosphere was ablated such that very high temperatures reached close to the surface near the apex of the wedge corner leading to unrealistically high heat flow since temperature dependent rheology clearly does not control the thickness of the mechanical lithosphere we suggest that it is instead controlled by buoyancy the source of buoyancy we assume is compositional e g buoyant crust two end member models with crustal thickness of 10 and 70 km respectively were then undertaken these had lower heat flow this work supports the assumption of some earlier workers e g plank and langmuir 1988 who equated the mechanical lithosphere with the crust of the overriding plate

pull down basin in the central part of japan due to subduction induced mantle flow abstract the driving force for the basin subsiding against isostatic balance in and around lake biwa in the kinki district japan is discussed the lake region is characterized by strong negative bouguer anomalies especially by a steep horizontal gradient zone of gravity anomaly running along the western margin of the lake the large negative anomaly 50 mgal cannot be explained by low density sediments beneath it a down warping structure extending to the moho depth should be taken into account this conjecture has been strongly supported by a short period receiver function imaging which shows a clear offset of about 8 km for the moho discontinuity under the steep gravity gradient zone a question arises as to what is the driving force to create such a large down warping structure we consider that the subduction of the shallow dipping slab under the region philippine sea slab may cause crustal deformation by dragging the viscous mantle downward in order to verify this model we simulated the induced mantle flow due to the subduction of the philippine sea slab and the pressure distribution on the crust mantle boundary this numerical experiment showed that the induced flow makes a strong negative pressure zone under the lake region if the slab has a vertical offset along the direction of subduction this offset of the slab is consistent with plate models deduced from hypocentral distributions and sp phases of the deep focus earthquakes

magmatic processes under arcs and formation of the volcanic front temperature structure and stress under arcs are simulated in a two dimensional cross section taking into account the flow induced by the subducting slab in the mantle wedge results of the calculations show three important features with respect to magmatic processes under arcs 1 temperature structure in the crust and the mantle wedge under arcs is insensitive to the angle and velocity of slab subduction the temperature structure of the slab and that of the back arc region this indicates that physical conditions such as temperature and pressure are similar under various arcs it is thus inferred that primary magmas generated under various arcs should have similar chemical compositions if chemical composition and the flux rate of fluid from the slab are similar and the chemical compositions of mantle wedge materials are the same 2 calculated deviatoric stress magnitude is relatively large more than a few tens of megapascals in the partially molten mantle cracks may open under high differential stress and magma can easily segregate and accumulate through interconnected cracks while the buoyancy driven compaction of partially molten mantle proceeds 3 the deviatoric stress values in the region over the partially molten mantle are relatively large and the direction of the principal stress changes horizontally the direction of the maximum compressional stress is nearly vertical under the volcanic zone and is nearly horizontal under the fore arc region it is considered that magma segregated in partially molten mantle migrates upward through the brittle mantle and crust by the magma fracturing mechanism the propagation direction of magma filled fissures is controlled by the stress field in the crust and mantle and is parallel to the maximum principal stress the calculated stress is highly compressive horizontally on the trench side while it becomes tensile on the back arc side the location of this stress transition coincides with that of the volcanic front the location of this transition indicates that the volcanic front marks a change in the ease of upward migration of the magma filled cracks under relatively high differential stress field

triple seismic zone and the regional variation of seismicity along the northern honshu arc the regional variation of seismicity along the northern honshu arc japan is studied using accurate focal depths and focal mechanism types we use focal depths determined from pp p time intervals reported in the isc bulletins for submarine earthquakes depths are corrected by considering the pp phase reported in the bulletins as the pwp phase the reflection from the ocean surface out of more than 600 well located earthquakes selected from the isc bulletins we determine the types of the focal mechanisms of 184 events using p wave first motion data based on historical seismicity of great and large earthquakes we divide the zone of thrust type earthquakes at the plate interface into two regions the shallow thrust zone 0 40kin where great earthquakes ms 8 0 occur and the deep thrust zone 40 60km where large earthquakes ms 7 4 occur the activity of great or large earthquakes shows a variation along the are in some regions both the shallow and deep thrust zones are active and in other regions only one of the thrust zones is active the seismicity of recent moderate size earthquakes mb 4 combined with the focal mechanism type shows a variation along the are which reflects the variation of the activity of great or large earthquakes where large earthquakes do not occur in the deep thrust zone neither thrust type nor down dip compression tension type events occur in and beneath the deep thrust zone where large earthquakes do occur in the deep thrust zone we find a number of thrust type earthquakes further in the latter case in some regions the down dip compression and tension type events of the double seismic zones extend seaward just beneath the deep thrust zone and form a triple planed structure of seismicity the triple seismic zone this study confirms the hypothesis of previous workers seno and pongsawat 1981 on the causal relation between the strong seismic coupling of two converging plates at the deep thrust zone and extension of the double seismic zone i e the presence or absence of activity within the slab beneath the deep seismic zone occurs when the deep thrust zone has a strong or weak coupling respectively here the weak coupling could be interpreted as either aseismic slip or as low stress buildup since the last large event occurred at the deep thrust zone triple seismic zones are found offshore of miyagi prefecture where the deep thrust zone has been broken recently in 1978 and offshore of fukushima prefecture we expect a future large earthquake at the deep thrust zone offshore of fukushima prefecture because the presence of the triple seismic zone suggests stress has been accumulating and 40 years have passed since the deep thrust zone was ruptured in 1938

improved in situ sr isotopic analysis by a 257 nm femtosecond laser in combination with the addition of nitrogen for geological minerals abstract in situ sr isotope analysis of geological materials by laser ablation multiple collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry la mc icp ms is a powerful tracer technique for tracking magmatic source components and geological processes however the accuracy and precision of the 87sr 86sr ratio are limited in the analysis of natural minerals because of the low sr concentration the isobaric interference or small grains with complex textural contexts especially for transparent minerals such as feldspars in this study analytical results demonstrated that ablation rates in fs laser ablation were consistent for various samples 0 08 0 11 m per pulse but those in ns laser ablation were obviously material properties dependent such as the rates of 0 026 m per pulse and 0 144 m per pulse for feldspar and pyrite respectively in addition at similar energy fluences the sensitivities of sr in feldspars analyzed by the fs laser were 3 4 times higher than those analyzed by the ns laser due to the higher ablation efficiency of the fs pulse these advantages of the fs laser not only offer the benefit of eliminating or weakening the matrix effect during the laser ablation processes but also help to improve the analytical precision for transparent minerals we also demonstrated that the isobaric interferences of calcium dimers and argides caar caca and kr were dramatically reduced by factors of 6 5 11 7 and 5 12 5 in the presence of 6 12 ml min 1 n2 respectively furthermore with the addition of n2 12 ml min 1 the sensitivity of rb was inhibited resulting in a decrease of 1 47 times in rb sr signal ratios due to the effect of suppressing interferences by adding n2 both the stability and accuracy of the 87sr 86sr and 84sr 86sr ratios show improvement especially for the rb rich feldspars combining the advantages of the fs laser system with the addition of nitrogen an improved in situ sr isotope analytical method is then developed the satisfactory accuracy and precision of the 87sr 86sr ratio from natural plagioclases a k feldspar with high rb sr ratios 0 46 and a low sr clinopyroxene were obtained demonstrating the reliability of the proposed method four feldspars which have different contents of the major elements sr and rb showed homogeneous sr isotope compositions and were recommended as potential suitable reference materials for in situ sr isotope analysis as an application two plagioclases in mafic microgranular enclaves mmes with small grain sizes 200 300 m and wide ranges of rb sr ratios were analyzed and showed obvious variations of the 87sr 86sr ratios from core to rim which indicated that the proposed method in this study can provide high spatial resolution geochemical information for a single mineral

deep structure of the northeastern japan arc and its relationship to seismic and volcanic activity evidence for possible deep seated magmatic activity beneath northeastern japan can be obtained from seismic observations tomographic inversions of p wave velocity data show low velocity zones distributed in the crust and upper mantle beneath active volcanoes in or around these zones anomalously low frequency micro earthquakes perhaps caused by magmatic activity are found at depths of 25 40 km distinct s wave reflectors corresponding to the upper surfaces of magma bodies are found at depths of 10 18 km large crustal earthquakes also occur around the low velocity zones these observations reveal the distribution of magma reservoirs at depths and elucidate its relation with shallow seismicity beneath volcanic arcs

exhumation of u hp lt rocks caused by diachronous slab breakoff abstract three dimensional thermo mechanical analogue models investigate how diachronous slab breakoff may lead to the exhumation of subducted continental crust slab breakoff initiates spontaneously in one location and migrates laterally along the plate boundary causing a transient excess downward pull force on the plate boundary in front of the propagating slab tear this pull force locally reduces the pressure between the plates which promotes buoyancy driven exhumation of subducted crust however both the surface area undergoing the pressure reduction and its duration are limited our experiments show that the rate of slab breakoff propagation controls both the duration of the pull force and the magnitude of pressure reduction our results further demonstrate that exhumation occurs where the slab breakoff propagation rate is lowest rather than where the pull force is strongest corresponding to where the slab tear initiates or terminates

experimental constraints on recycling of potassium from subducted oceanic crust petrological experiments on oceanic crust samples characterize the recycling of potassium from mid ocean ridge basalts and sediments metasomatism could develop directly and continuously from subducted potassium bearing crust from shallow levels to a maximum depth of 300 kilometers phengite a potassium rich mica is the principal potassium host at subsolidus conditions it transports potassium and water to depths of up to 300 kilometers and could yield over the entire depth range potassium rich fluids or melts depending on the specific geotherm which are likely to constitute one of the primary metasomatic agents for generation of calc alkaline magmas

fractal analysis applied to characteristic segments of the san andreas fault fractal theory is applied in a quantitative analysis of the san andreas fault saf geometry the method which directly measures the increase in total fault length with a decrease in ruler size gives the fractal dimension d and scaling properties for the chosen length band 0 5 1000 km a physical interpretation of d is that it measures the irregularity of the fault trace in the selected band the fault is subdivided into six segments of distinctive seismic behavior a main fault trace which shows either maximum coseismic slip or creeping was selected for analysis with three alternative branches examined for the saf system south of san bernardino branches of the fault trace are not considered in this work fractal dimensions calculated for the different segments range from 1 0008 to 1 0191 and are different from 1 0 to the 95 confidence interval these small changes reflect the overall smoothness of the main fault trace significant variations in d among segments indicate heterogeneities in the fault smoothness along strike d also changes significantly from the short length band to the long length band where the demarcation point ranges from 1 to 2 km the short length band has larger d values a slight correlation is obtained between the fractal dimension of the main trace and the extent of subparallel faulting this indicates some correspondence between the main fault trace irregularity and the complexity of subsidiary fault traces in plan view

buoyancy driven magma fracture a mechanism for ascent through the lithosphere and the emplacement of diamonds magma driven fractures must be an important mechanism for the transport of magma through the crust and lithosphere dikes are pervasive throughout the crust and clearly play an important role in active volcanoes a magma fracture is the only mechanism that allows sufficiently high magma velocities to prevent complete solidification during transport through cold country rock the analysis of magma driven fractures is complex because it involves flow in the fracture often turbulent the elastic deformation of the country rock surrounding the fracture and the propagation of the fracture for vertically propagating magma fractures buoyancy forces may be the dominant driving mechanism in order to simplify the analysis of this problem we neglect the elastic distortion of the country rock and the fracturing process we consider a buoyant fluid initially in an elliptical two dimensional cavity the shape of the upwardly deforming cavity is shown to satisfy the nonlinear kinematic wave equation for laminar flow the cavity initially deforms but does not move upward at a critical time the solution near the top of the crack becomes multivalued indicating the presence of an upwardly propagating shock wave the tail of the upwardly propagating crack closes but does not move upwards solutions have also been obtained for turbulent flow velocities of upward propagation for appropriate parameter values indicate this mechanism can explain the observed characteristics of kimberlite eruptions inclusion of elastic and fracture properties will determine the structure of the shock wave that is the crack tip but would not effect the applicability of our solution

a consistent model for fluid distribution viscosity distribution and flow thermal structure in subduction zone water plays crucial roles in the subduction zone dynamics affecting the thermal flow structure through the fluid processes we aim to understand what controls the dynamics and construct a model to solve consistently fluid generation fluid transport its reaction with the solid and resultant viscosity and thermal flow structure we highlight the effect of mechanical weakening of rocks associated with hydration the viscosity of serpentinite serp in subduction zones critically controls the flow thermal structure via extent of mechanical coupling between the subducting slab and overlying mantle wedge when serp is greater than 1021 pa s the thermal flow structure reaches a steady state beneath the volcanic zone and the melting region expands until cin initial water content in the subducting oceanic crust reaches 3 wt and it does not expand from 3 wt on the other hand when serp is less than 1019 pa s the greater water dependence of viscosity expressed by a larger fv confines a hot material to a narrower channel intruding into the wedge corner from a deeper part of the back arc region consequently the overall heat flux becomes less for a larger fv when ageba age of back arc basin as a rifted lithosphere 7 5 ma the increase in fv weakens but shifts the melting region toward the trench side because of the narrow channel flow intruding into the wedge corner where as it shuts down melting when ageba 20 ma several model cases particularly those with serp 1020 to 1021 pa s and a relatively large fv for cin 2 to 3 wt broadly account for the observations in the northeast japan arc i e location and width of volcanic chain extent of serpentinite surface heat flow and seismic tomography although the large variability of surface heat flow and seismic tomographic images does not allow us to constrain the parameter range tightly

thermal and geochemical evolution of the mantle wedge in the northeast japan arc 1 contribution from experimental petrology melting phase relations at high pressures have been examined for four mg rich basalts from both the trench and the backarc sides of the miocene ne japan arc all these basalts crystallize olivine and orthopyroxene on the liquidus at pressures lower and higher than the point of multiple saturation with those two phases respectively the pressure of multiple saturation is rather constant for all samples 1 0 1 4 gpa suggesting that 1 there was no across arc variation in the depth of magma segregation in the miocene ne japan arc 2 the depth of magma segregation remains constant since 20 ma in the trench side of the volcanic arc whereas it has changed from 30 40 km to 60 km beneath the backarc side of the arc this temporal variation may be caused by increasing thickness of the lithosphere beneath the backarc region associated with cooling of the mantle wedge after the opening of the japan sea backarc basin in the early miocene

strain partitioning and interplate friction in oblique subduction zones constraints provided by experimental modeling physical modeling of oblique subduction is performed to study the mechanism of strain partitioning the model is two layer and includes the elasto plastic lithosphere the overriding and subducting plates and the low viscosity liquid asthenosphere the subduction is driven by a push force from a piston and a pull force when the density contrast ap between the subducting plate and the asthenosphere is positive we vary both ap and the interplate friction frictional stresses slip partitioning is obtained only in the models with high interplate friction and only when the overrid ing plate contains a weak zone this zone in the models corresponds either to locally thinned litho sphere or to cut fault the horizontal trench normal component of the interplate friction force ffh can be comparable with the absolute value of the horizontal component of the nonhydrostatic interplate pressure force fph in the subduction zone ffh is always negative compression while fph can be either negative compressional subduction regime or positive extensional regime high friction which promotes partitioning can completely cancel the extensional suction force fph back arc tension and strike slip faulting appear thus as conflicting processes although they can coexist in the same subduction zone depending on the relative values of relevant forces it ap pears that high friction can exist only in compressional subduction zones where partitioning should develop more easily this conclusion is supported by the comparison of two oblique subduction zones having similar geometry the compressional southern kurile zone strong partitioning and extensional southern ryukyu zone no lithospheric scale partitioning other factors controlling the strain partitioning are the length of the oblique subductlon zone the boundary conditions at the transverse limits of the forearc sliver and of course the obliquity of subduction