tectonic underplating versus out of sequence thrusting beneath the lesser himalaya insights from the analogue modeling of the nepal himalaya fold and thrust belt abstract the nepal himalaya fold and thrust belt is a classical two decollement thrust fold system the belt has been extensively studied by analogue and numerical modeling but the formation mechanism of the mid crustal duplex structure beneath the northern part of the lesser himalaya remains debated the formation of this thrust duplex has been attributed either to tectonic underplating along new ramps in response to the subducting indian plate or to out of sequence thrusting along preexisting ramps we conducted a series of experiments using analogue models employing a model setup that was faithful to the geological setting of the nepal himalaya we used industrial computed tomography ct and particle image velocimetry piv to generate detailed deformation maps the analogue models successfully reproduce the main structure of the nepal himalaya fold and thrust belt showing that the two competing processes i e underplating along new ramps and out of sequence thrusting along preexisting ramps operate alternately to form the duplex structure the models also show that underplating is associated with extensive foreland sedimentation analogous to the foreland molassic sedimentation in the sub himalaya which leads to a systematic recession of the deformation front and a smaller horse finally the recognition that out of sequence thrusting occurs in the interval between major underplating events provides important insights into the origin of the 2015 m w 7 8 gorkha earthquake

evidence for lithospheric detachment in the central andes from local earthquake tomography abstract data from three temporary seismic networks were merged for tomographic inversion although the deployments did not coincide in time spatial overlap was achieved by re occupying existing sites travel times and t operators of about 1600 earthquakes were inverted for 3d models of p p s and p wave attenuation q p 1 all three attributes provide a consistent image of the entire subduction zone on a lithospheric scale the tomographic images reveal low velocities and high attenuation in the crust and mantle underlying the western cordillera and most of the puna plateau indicative of weak rheology and mostly asthenospheric mantle in contrast forearc and eastern foreland are characterized by high q p values corresponding to cold temperatures in accordance with thermal models in the backarc between 23 s and 24 s a high velocity high q p structure beneath the eastern cordillera and eastern puna is interpreted as detaching continental lithosphere that has been thickened in the orogenic process south of this structure the mantle is characterized by low velocities high p s ratios and low q p values here it is believed that lithosphere originally underlying andean crust has already been removed this is supported by new estimates of crustal thickness and volcanic activity

the analogue shear zone from rheology to associated geometry the geometry of ductile strain localization phenomena is related to the rheology of the deformed rocks both qualitative and quantitative rheological properties of natural rocks have been estimated from finite field structures such as folds and shear zones we apply physical modelling to investigate the relationship between rheology and the temporal evolution of the width and transversal strain distribution in shear zones both of which have been used previously as rheological proxies geologically relevant materials with well characterized rheological properties newtonian strain hardening strain softening mohr coulomb are deformed in a shear box and observed with particle imaging velocimetry piv it is shown that the width and strain distribution histories in model shear zones display characteristic finite responses related to material properties as predicted by previous studies application of the results to natural shear zones in the field is discussed an investigation of the impact of 3d boundary conditions in the experiments demonstrates that quantitative methods for estimating rheology from finite natural structures must take these into account carefully

strain localisation and weakening of the lithosphere during extension we explore the sensitivity of extensional systems to the thermal structure of the lithosphere using numerical simulations that fully couple the energy momentum and continuity equations the rheology of the lithosphere is controlled by weakening processes such as shear heating that localises strain into shear zones and faults numerical models show that during extension of an initially unpatterned lithosphere structures develop spontaneously out of basic thermodynamic energy fluxes and without the imposition of ad hoc rules on strain localisation this contrasts with the classical mohr coulomb theory for brittle localisation which prescribes the angles of faults by a mathematical rule our results show that the mode of extension is sensitive to subtle changes in rheology heat flux and geometry of the system this sensitivity lies at the core of the variety and complexity observed in extensional systems localisation processes make the lithosphere weaker than previously estimated from the brace goetze quasi static approach consequently typical estimates for plate tectonic forces are capable of splitting the lithosphere under extension even without the role of active magmatism

dynamics of retreating slabs 2 insights from three dimensional laboratory experiments 1 a laboratory analogue of a three layer linear viscous slab upper mantle lower mantle system is established in a silicone putty honey and crystallized honey tank experiment the same setup as in the numerical investigation part 1 is used we focus on the interaction of the slab with the induced passive mantle flow by widely varying the mantle volume flux boundary conditions in our numerical experiments the lateral volume flux was set to zero in interpreting the results relative to the real earth the base of the box is taken as the bottom of the mantle convection system while the lateral boundaries may be associated with the presence of other nearby slabs dynamic force equilibrium assessed on the basis of an analytical review of forces is described for four different phases 1 the subduction initiation instability 2 the accelerating dynamic free fall phase of the slab 3 the dynamic interaction with the 660 km discontinuity and 4 a final phase of steady state trench retreat phase 3 is an important feature not observed in the numerical experiments this highly dynamic phase of interrupted trench retreat can therefore be attributed to boundary conditions on mantle volume flux on the basis of integration constants of force equilibrium in phases 2 and 4 we identify two different classes of volume flux one in which the lateral boundary can be considered open and the other class where it is closed closed boundary condition cases are obtained if any of the lateral box boundaries are 600 km away from the slab assuming a one to one relation between trench retreat and back arc spreading enigmatic observations of episodic opening of back arc basins can be explained by our experimental observations

scattering of near inertial internal waves along the japanese coast of the japan sea 1 the scattering of near inertial internal waves niiws induced at the tips of landmasses was investigated by mooring observations using current meters and thermometers in the surface layer along peninsulas and an island located along the japanese coast of the japan sea during the fall of 2006 signals of niiws were found in alongshore currents and in temperatures recorded near the seasonal thermocline the signals appeared after wind stress had reached a maximum and they lasted for more than 2 days relatively high current energy regions due to niiws were localized around the northern parts of the peninsulas and island the phase lag of the temperature fluctuations increased in the southern regions along the eastern coasts of the peninsulas and island the generation and propagation of niiws were investigated by numerical experiments that used a multilayer level model with realistic topography model results showed that niiws induced by the wind struck the tips of landmasses and scattered and that niiws were trapped by the coast and propagated with characteristics of coastal trapped waves ctws and then rapidly attenuated the ctws had a distorted current structure at landmass tips because of periodic beam like current structures from the seafloor these signals show that ctws radiate energy away from the shore as internal waves originating from topographical scattering which is considered to cause the rapid attenuation of the ctws

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

separating the influence of projected changes in air temperature and wind on patterns of sea level change and ocean heat content we present ocean model sensitivity experiments aimed at separating the influence of the projected changes in the thermal near surface air temperature and wind near surface winds forcing on the patterns of sea level and ocean heat content in the north atlantic the distribution of sea level change is more due to the thermal forcing whereas it is more due to the wind forcing in the north pacific in the southern ocean the thermal and wind forcing have a comparable influence in the ocean adjacent to antarctica the thermal forcing leads to an inflow of warmer waters on the continental shelves which is somewhat attenuated by the wind forcing the structure of the vertically integrated heat uptake is set by different processes at low and high latitudes at low latitudes it is dominated by the heat transport convergence whereas at high latitudes it represents a small residual of changes in the surface flux and advection of heat the structure of the horizontally integrated heat content tendency is set by the increase of downward heat flux by the mean circulation and comparable decrease of upward heat flux by the subgrid scale processes the upward eddy heat flux decreases and increases by almost the same magnitude in response to respectively the thermal and wind forcing regionally the surface heat loss and deep convection weaken in the labrador sea but intensify in the greenland sea in the region of sea ice retreat the enhanced heat flux anomaly in the subpolar atlantic is mainly caused by the thermal forcing

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

sunda strait and central sumatra fault sunda strait marks the limit between java trench frontal subduction and sumatra trench oblique subduction the right lateral central sumatra fault accommodates the oblique subduction it does not pass sunda strait but ends between sumatra and java in a complex pattern of dominantly normal faults associated with subsidence seismicity and volcanism we examine the implications of this phenomenon in sunda strait and in the adjacent fore arc basin and accretionary prism which underwent north south compression due to subduction as well as east west extension we propose that the strait is a consequence of the northwestward motion of the southwestern sumatra block along the central sumatra fault we also propose that the extensional zone in the sunda strait widens considerably to the southwest toward the trench and changes into a composite zone of deformation affected by strike slip as well as normal faulting

frontal accretion an internal clock for bivergent wedge deformation and surface uplift 1 we propose a conceptual model of frontal accretion within bivergent wedges which is based on two dimensional sandbox simulations and the analysis of particle displacement fields each frontal accretion cycle consists of a thrust initiation an underthrusting phase and a reactivation phase the location and magnitude of deformation within a bivergent wedge and its associated surface uplift vary systematically with the phase of the frontal accretion cycle and are thus predictable therefore the frontal accretion cycle can be considered as an internal clock for wedge scaled deformation and surface uplift we further demonstrate that the geometry of the deformation front and the spatial distribution of surface uplift can be used to infer the currently active phase within a frontal accretion cycle surface uplift of the axial zone and the retrowedge may reach up to half of the thickness of the incoming sedimentary layer during a frontal accretion cycle we estimate cycle duration to range between 104 and 105 years which is thus similar to the time frame of climatic cycles the proposed conceptual model provides an explanation for the commonly observed transience of deformation and surface uplift and for the discrepancy between geodetic paleoseismologic and geologic estimates of fault slip

rotation of the peruvian block from palaeomagnetic studies of the central andes palaeomagnetic studies were performed on the rocks of the central andes to test the hypothesis of oroclinal bending of the andes around the peru chile border natural remanent magnetization of mesozoic volcanic and sedimentary rocks of peru shows a counterclockwise shift of declination by several tens of degrees relative to the field directions of the same ages in the stable south american craton two mesozoic dyke swarms from arica region northernmost chile also indicate about 20 of declination shift in a counterclockwise sense these results suggest a considerable amount of counterclockwise rotation of large area north of arica that is oroclinal bending of the andes around some hinge near the peru chile border one neogene dyke swarm sampled in central peru also gave declination which deviates counterclockwisely by 15 if this declination shift is a result of the wide area tectonic rotation as suggested by the mesozoic rocks oroclinal bending appears to have continued until relatively recent times

rupture process of the 1964 prince william sound alaska earthquake from the combined inversion of seismic tsunami and geodetic data 1 four great earthquakes 1952 1960 1964 and 2004 have occurred since seismic monitoring began and only two since the installation of a global seismic network a reexamination of the 1964 m 9 2 prince william sound pws alaska earthquake is timely due to the 2004 sumatra earthquake because it adds constraints to the potential range of source parameters for these types of infrequent events and aids in the ability to predict the ground motions for other subduction zone including cascadia we first measured the durations of high frequency energy radiation from teleseismic p wave codas recorded by short period world wide standardized seismographic network wwssn sp instruments to put constraints on the earthquake rupture length the durations ranged between 250 and 600 s and are shorter in time between azimuths of 190 and 260 the fault length is estimated to range from 540 to 740 km rupturing at average speeds of 1 4 2 km s in a 220 238 direction we developed a multiple time window kinematic rupture model for the pws earthquake from the least squares inversion of teleseismic p waves tsunami tide gauge records and geodetic leveling survey observations based on the green s function technique we assume three major fault segments for the subduction zone dipping 6 12 based on geologic data the subfault size on the megathrust was set to 50 50 km the patton bay fault pbf imbricate thrust was assigned a 60 dip with a subfault size of 20 20 km we estimated a seismic moment of 5 52 1022 n m mw9 12 we identified three areas of major moment release on the pws segment near montague and middleton islands extending out to the trench beneath the portlock anticline on the cook segment between 58 n fracture zone and the kodiak bowie seamount chain and finally on the katmai segment off the coast of kodiak island extending to the trench our preferred rupture model has a peak slip of 14 9 m along the megathrust and 17 4 m along the pbf the addition of the pbf resulted in an 8 improvement in residuals and also had a significant effect on the overall slip distribution moment release occurred as deep as 50 km depth slab contour near the 350 c isotherm and mantle fore arc wedge which is about 10 20 km deeper than previous coupling depths

comparison of crustal thickening budget and shortening estimates in southern peru 12 14 s implications for mass balance and rotations in the bolivian orocline two fundamental questions of interest with regard to the andean plateau are the mass balance of material needed to create and sustain a 3 4 km high plateau and the relationship between the plateau and the bending of the bolivian orocline the link be tween these two questions is the distribution of shortening through the central andes is crustal shortening suffi cient to support an isostatically compensated 60 70 km thick crust is differential shortening between the hinge of the orocline and its limbs suffi cient to account for both physiographic curvature and measured rotations three dimensional 3 d models of deformation within curved orogens require in addition to paleomagnetic data viable two dimensional estimates of dis placements to this end we present new map data and use those data to derive estimates of shortening across the northern margin of the andean plateau the cross section extent from the eastern edge of the volcanic arc to the foreland basin is approximately one half of the physiographic width of the andean plateau in peru cross sectional shortening estimates in southern peru 12 14 s provide a preferred estimate of 123 km or 40 short ening with a minimum estimate of 58 km or 25 shortening and maximum estimate of 333 km or 65 shortening the largest con trolling factor on the magnitude of shorten ing is where basement becomes involved in thrust belt deformation using our preferred shortening estimate the differential shorten ing between our cross section on the northern margin of the bolivian orocline 12 14 s and cross sections across the axis of the bolivian orocline 17 18 s is 177 km corresponding to 23 of rotation the differential shortening for the young younger than 15 ma defor mation of the altiplano and subandean re gion between 12 14 s and 17 18 s is 88 km correlating to 11 5 of rotation while dif ferential shortening can account for young younger than 15 ma vertical axis rotations it cannot completely account for early 45 35 ma rotations 37 15 this suggests that forearc rotations refl ect both bending due to differential shortening 12 as well as block rotations 25 30 which facilitated defor mation in a tightening core and transported material toward the center of the orocline the preferred estimate of shortening is well short of the required 240 300 km of shorten ing needed to account for a 60 70 km thick crust under the entire plateau this suggests that for an isostatically equilibrated crust either 1 there is a signifi cant amount of shortening 100 150 km in the western half of the plateau that is hidden by the volcanic arc or 2 crustal material is being added to the peruvian section of the andean plateau most likely through lower crustal fl ow

slab breakoff insights from 3d thermo mechanical analogue modelling experiments abstract the detachment or breakoff of subducted lithosphere is investigated using scaled three dimensional thermo mechanical analogue experiments in which forces are measured and deformation is monitored using high speed particle imaging velocimetry piv the experiments demonstrate that the convergence rate in a subduction zone determine if and when slab detachment occurs slow subduction experiments with scaled convergence rates 1 cm yr 1 have lower peclet numbers and are characterized by lower tensile strength subducted lithosphere causing detachment to occur when the downward pull force exerted by a relatively short subducted slab is relatively low therefore when continental collision is preceded by slow oceanic subduction the hot and weak subducted lithosphere need not be very long or extremely negatively buoyant to cause detachment under such conditions detachment may occur sooner after the onset of continental subduction than previously predicted in contrast if collision is preceded by rapid subduction 10 cm yr 1 breakoff will be delayed and occur only when the convergence rate has slowed sufficiently to thermally weaken the slab and cause its eventual failure the analogue experiments further confirm that slab detachment occurs diachronously as it propagates along the plate boundary stereoscopic piv reveals a characteristic strain pattern that accompanies the detachment horizontal contraction and subsidence with scaled values up to 1200 m in the trench and forearc area precedes the passage of the detachment and is followed by horizontal extension and uplift up to 900 m high frequency monitoring captures rapid propagation of the detachment along the plate boundary at scaled rates of up to 100 cm yr 1 however this rate is not constant and interaction between the slab and lower mantle or opening of a backarc basin in the upper plate can reduce or stop slab breakoff propagation altogether

clockwise block rotations in northern chile indications for a large scale domino mechanism during the middle late eocene the andean deformational pattern of the northern chilean precordillera between 26 30 and 27 00 s suggests significant influence of an orogen oblique northwest trending pre andean basement structure the left lateral reactivation of this structure and the associated deformation can be explained by clockwise vertical axis rotations of forearc wide crustal blocks during the middle late eocene ca 39 3 ma induced by the coupling stress due to oblique northeastward subduction of the oceanic farallon plate beneath the south american continent the compressive stress at the leading edges of the blocks may have been accommodated 200 km away from the peru chile trench in what is now the precordillera where the magmatic arc was then located the postulated large scale domino mechanism explains the paleomagnetically observed in situ block rotations as well as the orientation segmentation and shear sense of major structural elements within large parts of the present forearc in northern chile

horizontal lithosphere compression and subduction constraints provided by physical modeling physical modeling of the subduction is performed with a two layered mantle model elastico plastic lithosphere and low viscosity asthenosphere and is governed by the criteria of similarity compression of the lithosphere in the area of a passive continental margin has been shown to produce a buckling instability in the oceanic plate with wavelengths of 200 km on the average later a localization of deformation occurs in sagging at some distance from the margin where a strongly dislocated linear ridge is formed due to the thrusting the plate then experiences a failure along the inclined zone and subduction starts the inner trench slope which forms therefore has a scraped structure and include a block of crushed and dislocated oceanic crust and sediments in the lower section if there is an old inclined fault striking across the compression of an oceanic lithosphere it is on that fault that a subduction zone is initiated the inner trench slope has then a different structure and forms due to normal faulting in the frontal part of the overriding plate the formation of a subduction zone requires a compression that is smaller than that in the preceding case by a factor of 2 or 3 the subducting plate experiences an elastico plastic bending and under specific conditions thrusting along the zone dipping from under the overriding plate oceanward and crossing the entire lithosphere the best agreement between generalized relief in subduction zone in the model and nature is achieved when a shear yield limit s 1 3 108 pa modulus of elasticity e about a few times 1011 pa and a thickness h 60 km are adopted for the real lithosphere

on the strength of interplate coupling and the rate of back arc convergence in the central andes an analysis of the interseismic velocity field 1 we interpret the interseismic crustal velocity field of the central andes using a simple three plate model in which the andean mountain belt is treated as a rigid microplate located between the nazca and south american soam plates we assume that the euler vectors associated with these plates are strictly coaxial and that the surface velocity field can be decomposed into an elastic loading field driven by locking of the main plate boundary and a smaller contribution associated with back arc convergence we obtain our best fit to the geodetic velocities if the main plate boundary is fully 100 locked between depths of 10 50 km and 8 5 of nazca soam plate convergence is achieved in the back arc by underthrusting of the brazilian shield beneath the subandean zone

subduction versus accretion of intra oceanic volcanic arcs insight from thermo mechanical analogue experiments we perform thermo mechanical laboratory experiments designed to explore the behaviour of the volcanic arc during intra oceanic arc continent collision following oceanic subduction and subsequent back arc opening the overriding oceanic lithosphere is made of two layers representing the oceanic crust and the lithospheric mantle this lithosphere carries a volcanic arc and is thinned and weakened beneath both the arc and the back arc basin the subducting plate contains three parts one layer oceanic and two layer crust and mantle continental lithosphere with a continental margin between them when the continental margin reaches the trench and starts subducting the overriding plate undergoes growing horizontal compression and finally fails in the vicinity of the back arc spreading centre which is the weakest part of this plate the failure can result in subduction of the whole arc plate comprised between the trench and the back arc spreading centre during subduction of the arc plate the mantle part of this plate subducts completely while the behaviour of the arc crust depends on its thickness and strength which is a function of composition and temperature we tested four cases with different arc crust thicknesses and composition rheology with total lithosphere thickness in the arc being constant three types of tectonic evolution have been obtained complete arc subduction complete arc accretion and partial arc subduction accretion the result is largely controlled by the crustal thickness of the arc a thin arc thickness equivalent to v16 km in nature made of the same strong material as the oceanic crust subducts completely without leaving any trace at the surface on the contrary a thick arc equivalent to v26 km in nature made of the same material is scraped off and accreted to the overriding plate the lower crust of such an arc is hotter therefore its strength at moho depth and coupling between crust and mantle are small in addition the thick arc has a high isostatic relief and hence a greater mechanical resistance to subduction therefore the arc is scraped off if the arc is made of a weaker continental like material or contains a weak layer low friction interface it is completely or partially scraped off even if it is small when there is no back arc opening before collision no thin and weak lithosphere in the rear of the arc the overriding plate fails in the arc area which may result in a complete fore arc block subduction with the volcanic arc remaining at the surface the obtained models are compared with mountain belts with nearly no trace of arc activity oman with accreted arc kohistan and with small remnants of subducted arc southern tibet 2003 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

bending the bolivian orocline in real time global positioning system gps data from the central andes record vertical axis rotations that are consistently counterclockwise in peru and bolivia north of the bend in the mountain belt and clockwise to the south in southern bolivia argentina and chile these geologically instantaneous rotations have the same sense as rotations that have accrued over millions of years and are recorded by paleomagnetic and geologic indicators the change in sign of the rotation at both decadal and million year time scales occurs across the axis of topographic symmetry that defines the bolivian orocline when extrapolated to a common time interval the magnitudes of rotation from geologic features and from gps are surprisingly similar given that a significant part of the instantaneous deformation field is probably elastic and due to interseismic locking of the plate boundary some of the interseismic deformation field must reflect permanent deformation and or some of the current elastic deformation will be converted to upper plate permanent deformation over time rather than be recovered by elastic rebound during interplate earthquakes we suggest that the spatial patterns of the elastic and the permanent modes of bending are similar because they are driven by the same stress field

topography and subduction geometry in the central andes clues to the mechanics of a noncollisional orogen the central andean orogen between 12 and 32 s latitude exhibits a high degree of spatial order principally an extraordinary bilateral symmetry that is common to the earth s surface the underlying wadati benioff zone and the nazca south america plate kinematics which has been stable since the mid tertiary this spatial order must reflect the physical mechanisms of mountain building in this noncollisional orogen the shapes of the topography and subduction zone can be reduced to symmetric and antisymmeric components relative to any vertical symmetry plane the particular plane which minimizes the antisymmetry and maximizes the symmetry is well resolved and is essentially coincident with the stable euler equator of nazca south america relative motion since the mid tertiary that the topography subduction geometry and persistent mid tertiary plate kinematics share common spatial and geometric elements suggests that the distribution of topography in this orogen depends strongly on the dynamics of subduction other factors that might affect the topography and underlying tectonics such as climate and inherited structural fabric which have different spatial characteristics must be of less significance at a continental scale furthermore the small components of asymmetry among the various elements of the orogen appear to be mutually related in a simple way it is possible that this coupled asymmetry is associated with a late tertiary change in plate kinematics these observations suggest that there is a close connection between plate tectonics and the form of the earth s surface in this noncollisional setting it follows that the distribution of topography near convergent plate boundaries may provide a powerful constraint for understanding the dynamics of subduction

lithospheric domains and controls on kimberlite emplacement slave province canada evidence from elastic thickness and upper mantle composition 1 we have mapped the deep structure of the slave craton by combining analysis the effective elastic thickness te with data on mantle samples from numerous kimberlites three dimensional mapping of the subcontinental lithospheric mantle sclm using mantle derived xenoliths and xenocrysts in kimberlites has shown that much of the craton is underlain by a strongly layered sclm a highly depleted upper layer low in basaltic components ca al fe is separated from a relatively fertile lower layer by a sharp boundary this boundary lies at 140 150 km depth in the lac de gras area and shallows to 100 km in the northern and southern parts of the craton weak lithosphere te 56 km in the younger eastern part of the craton is separated from the older western part by a zone of steep te gradient parallel to the major locus of kimberlite intrusion which may map the deep extension of the boundary between the two domains another strong te gradient across the kilohigok basin accompanies a marked compositional change in the upper layer of the lithospheric mantle the basin probably marks a major translithospheric fault correlations between te and mantle composition suggest that te is strongly influenced by the rheology of the upper mantle

uplift of the central andean plateau and bending of the bolivian orocline the topography of the central andes can be considered the primary tectonic signal of late cenozoic mountain building in an arid region where the effects of uplift and magmatism are little obscured by denudation the spatial coverage of the topographic signal is more complete than that for sparsely sampled geological and geophysical data a color coded image of digitized topography between 12 s and 37 s highlights the altiplano puna one of the world s most remarkable plateaus and reveals important physiographic clues about the formation of that major feature the topographic data combined with information on structure magmatism seismicity and paleomagnetism support a simple kinematical model for the late cenozoic evolution of the central andes the model does not require collisional effects or enormous volumes of intrusive additions to the crust but instead calls upon plausible amounts of crustal shortening and lithospheric thinning the model interrelates andean uplift a changing geometry of the subducted nazca plate and a changing outline in map view of the leading edge of the south american plate crustal shortening has accommodated convergence between the chilean peruvian forearc and the south american foreland the altiplano puna plateau can be constructed by a combination of crustal shortening and thickening and lithospheric thinning above a shallow dipping 20 30 subducted plate the seawardly concave bend of western south america the bolivian orocline was enhanced but not completely produced by an along strike variation in the amount of late cenozoic shortening maximum shortening in bolivia both produced the widest part of the plateau and increased the seaward concavity of the bolivian orocline the along strike variations of shortening are hypothesized to result from corresponding along strike variations in the width of a weakened zone in the overriding plate weakening occurs above the wedge of asthenosphere located between the subducted and overriding plates hence the width of the zone of weakening depends upon the dip of the subducted plate two types of shortening are recognized 1 a widespread basin and range laramide like shortening that characterizes modem activity in the sierras pampeanas and late miocene deformation of the altiplano puna and 2 on the eastern side of the cordilleras and plateau an east verging foreland fold thrust belt in which the underthrust foreland compresses and thickens the ductile lower crust and produces a plateau uplift of the upper crust the second type of shortening can be applied to plio quaternary deformations throughout the central andes but with a substantial narrowing of the region of plateau uplift in peru and south of 28 s a proposed monoclinal flexure of the upper crust on the western side of the plateau uplift explains the remarkably simple and regular morphology of the main western slope of the central andes the monocline is located above the tip of the asthenospheric wedge between the converging plates it is postulated to occur above the western limit of lower crustal thickening in the regions of horizontal subduction the monocline can be associated with a late miocene asthenospheric wedge tip

trench parallel shortening in the northern chilean forearc tectonic and climatic implications in the central andes the frictional coupling between south america and the subducting nazca plate occurs beneath the coastal cordillera of northern chile one of the most distinctive characteristics of the coastal cordillera is a suite of ew topographic scarps located between 19 and 21 6 s latitude these scarps are associated with predominantly south dipping reverse faults that have almost pure dip slip and produce shortening parallel to the plate boundary limited geochronology as well as more regional studies indicate that the scarps formed during the late miocene and early pliocene though some show activity extending into the quaternary in several areas the scarps dammed local drainages producing internally drained basins that accumulated evaporites this relationship indicates that the coastal cordillera was probably moister during the late miocene and pliocene than it is today and also indicates that the coastal cordillera has been significantly uplifted or that the coastal escarpment of northern chile has advanced significantly eastward since the pliocene the limited latitudinal extent of the ew scarps and their location symmetrically about the axis of topographic and wadati benioff zone symmetry suggest that they owe their origin to the concave seaward shape of the continental margin due to prior formation of the bolivian orocline

role of the plate margin curvature in the plateau buildup consequences for the central andes 1 the influence of convergent plate boundary curvature on the stress distribution in an overriding plate is explored using analytical and numerical modeling techniques trench parallel compression can be produced near the symmetry axis of a seaward concave plate boundary if the interplate friction is high and or if the subducting lithosphere has a low flexural rigidity which produces little nonhydrostatic normal stress on the plate boundary this situation favors the formation of trench parallel thrusts with minor trench parallel component of slip trench parallel compression is reduced along the most oblique parts of the plate boundary which favors the formation of strike slip faults with major trench parallel slip both the stress conditions on the interplate zone and the 3 d geometry of this zone control whether the trench parallel stress in the center of a seaward concave curvature is a tension or compression low dip angle and high convergence obliquity angle favor trench parallel compression in the central andes n s minor shortening in the center of the arica bend and strike slip systems north and south of the symmetry axis suggest that the effect of shear traction dominated during cenozoic time when the curvature of the plate boundary was forming this result suggests that the processes responsible for the formation of the plate boundary curvature were assisted by enhanced interplate friction and or reduced compressive nonhydrostatic normal stress for a geometry resembling the present day south american plate margin estimations of normal and shear stresses on the plate boundary suggest that the trench parallel stress in the center of the curvature is compressive

narrow subducting slabs and the origin of backarc basins abstract both tectonic and seismic data suggest that horizontally wide in the direction parallel to the axis of the trench dipping subducting slabs typically move stably at fixed angles to the horizontal and that their associated trenches migrate very slowly or not at all in contrast where backarc basins babs exist the associated trenches typically migrate at rates of several cm year this behavior may be related to the finite width of the slabs under babs analysis shows that hydrodynamic suction created by the downdip motion of a wide slab is sufficient to balance the pull of gravity on the heavy slab however for a narrow slab sideways asthenospheric flow into the slab overriding plate corner effectively eliminates the suction which results in the rapid sinking of the slab hydrodynamic modeling is used to quantify this hypothesis modeling is used also to show that wide slabs are stable in their inclined position not because of the gravitational wing like sliding but due to the lifting force produced by the negative pressure suction in the slab overriding plate corner finally the model results confirm that for relatively narrow slabs this lifting force is small and cannot counterbalance gravity therefore when bending moments in a narrow slab exceed the plastic yield limit the slab becomes unstable this instability can cause the rapid migration of the slab s hinge and the associated arc at rates of 10 20 cm year and thus form the bab

continental subduction and exhumation of high pressure rocks insights from thermo mechanical laboratory modelling abstract thermo mechanical physical modelling of continental subduction is performed to investigate the exhumation of deeply subducted continental crust the model consists of two lithospheric plates made of new temperature sensitive analogue materials the lithosphere is underlain by liquid asthenosphere the continental lithosphere contains three layers the weak sedimentary layer the crust made of a stronger material and of a still stronger lithospheric mantle the whole model is subjected to a constant vertical thermal gradient causing the strength reduction with depth in each lithospheric layer subduction is driven by both push force and pull force during subduction the subducting lithosphere is heating and the strength of its layers reduces the weakening continental crust reaches maximal depth of about 120 km and cannot subduct deeper because its frontal part starts to flow up the subducted crust undergoes complex deformation including indicated upward ductile flow of the most deeply subducted portions and localised failure of the subducted upper crust at about 50 km depth this failure results in the formation of the first crustal slice which rises up between the plates under the buoyancy force this process is accompanied by the delamination of the crustal and mantle layers of the subducting lithosphere the delamination front propagates upwards into the interplate zone resulting in the formation of two other crustal slices that also rise up between the plates average equivalent exhumation rate of the crustal material during delamination is about 1 cm year the crust asthenosphere boundary near the interplate zone is uplifted the subducted mantle layer then breaks off removing the pull force and thereby stopping the delamination and increasing horizontal compression of the lithosphere the latter produces shortening of the formed orogen and the growth of relief the modelling reveals an interesting burial exhumation evolution of the sedimentary cover during initial stages of continental subduction the sediments of the continental margin are dragged to the overriding plate base and are partially accreted at the deep part of the interplate zone at 60 70 km depth these sediments remain there until the beginning of delamination during which the pressure between the subducted crust and the overriding plate increases this results in squeezing the underplated sediments out part of them is extruded upwards along the interplate zone to about 30 km depth at an equivalent rate of 5 10 cm year

oblique plate convergence slip vectors and forearc deformation slip vectors from thrust earthquakes at subduction zones where convergence is oblique to the trench often point between the directions of relative plate convergence and normal to the trench axis suggesting that oblique convergence is taken up by partial decoupling decoupling means that a component of arc parallel motion of the leading edge of the upper plate results in less oblique thrusting at the trench partial decoupling is modeled by partitioning of oblique convergence into slip on thrust and strike slip faults that are parallel to the trench and to each other and starting with a force equilibrium condition a relationship between the obliquity and the earthquake slip vector orientation is derived assuming that either fault slips when shear stress on it reaches a yield stress oblique slip parallel to the plate vector should occur on the thrust fault when obliquity is smaller than a critical angle for obliquity at or greater than this angle the stress on the strike slip fault is large enough to start it slipping and when both faults are active the arc parallel motion of the forearc deflects the slip vector back toward the trench normal if we assume that continued slip on either fault occurs at constant stress but the two faults can be at different stresses the slip vector will maintain a constant angle relative to the trench normal even when obliquity is larger than the critical angle this limiting angle of the slip vector called max measured relative to the trench normal is simply the arcsine of the ratio of the shear forces resisting slip on the strike slip and thrust faults a consequence is that when the obliquity exceeds max the slip vectors on the thrust fault are sensitive only to the thrust fault orientation and contain no information about the convergence direction between the plates slip vectors at the java trench southwest of sumatra show the relationship clearly with max 20 5 while slip vectors at the aleutian trench show the relationship less clearly with max 25 to 45 the greater angle at the aleutian trench suggests that the upper plate is stronger in the aleutian arc relative to the thrust fault than in the sumatran arc consistent with the sumatran arc being continental and having a well developed strike slip fault while the aleutian arc is oceanic and without a clear transcurrent fault slip vectors at the philippine trench which like sumatra has a large strike slip fault inboard of it tend to stay within 25 of the trench normal when obliquity is as large as 50 if obliquity exceeds max and continues to increase along a subduction zone the rate of motion of the forearc relative to the upper plate will vary with obliquity in which case the forearc sliver should extend or contract parallel to the arc from the geometry of modern island arcs arc parallel extension should be the more common and has been hypothesized for both sumatra and the aleutians on the basis of earthquake slip vectors and for these and other arcs from geological observations from estimates of max and the arc parallel gradients in obliquity arc parallel strain rates are estimated to be 1 to 3 10 8 yr for the sumatran forearc 2 to 6 10 8 yr for the aleutian forearc and 0 3 to 3 10 8 yr for the philippine forearc oblique convergence and subsequent arc parallel extension if accompanied by crustal thinning may provide an important yet little appreciated mechanism for bringing high grade metamorphic rocks to the surface of subduction complexes

slab rollback rate and trench curvature controlled by arc deformation subduction systems are inherently three dimensional with significant along strike variations in the timing and style of deformation and magmatism geodynamic models used to explain such variations and associated trench curvature typically invoke mantle flow or along strike variations in the properties of the subducting lithosphere ignoring the role of the overriding plate here we use analogue experiments to investigate the dynamics of diachronous backarc basin opening in the models horizontal tension increases in the upper plate due to progressive subduction of negatively buoyant oceanic lithosphere the magmatic arc lithosphere eventually fails and backarc opening occurs via rollback of the forearc block arc failure initiates near the model edge and propagates diachronously along strike producing an arcuate plate boundary the experiments demonstrate that the trench rollback rate is limited by the propagation rate of arc failure conversely slab rollback generates additional horizontal tension in the adjacent magmatic arc lithosphere which drives along strike propagation of arc failure feedback between the rates of trench rollback and arc failure propagation eventually leads to a steady state which dictates the geometry of the backarc basin in map view in the experiment reported here the force and rate balance leads to a backarc basin with an ellipticity of 1 7 which matches the shape of the west mariana basin pacific ocean

dynamics of subduction and plate motion in laboratory experiments insights into the plate tectonics behavior of the earth 1 three dimensional laboratory experiments have been designed to investigate the way slab bearing plates move during subduction inside the mantle in our experiments a viscous plate of silicone lithosphere subducts under its negative buoyancy in a viscous layer of pure honey mantle varying thickness width viscosity and density of the plate and mantle three characteristic modes of subduction are observed a retreating trench mode mode i a retreating trench mode following a transient period of advancing trench mode ii and an advancing trench mode mode iii these modes are characterized by different partitioning of the amount of subduction into plate and trench motion our experiments show that the velocity of subduction can be modeled by the dynamic interaction between acting and resisting forces where lithospheric bending represents 75 95 of the total resisting forces however our experimental results also show the impossibility to predict a priori the plate velocity only from the velocity of subduction without considering trench migrations we find experimentally that the lithospheric radius of curvature which depends upon plate characteristics stiffness and thickness and the mantle thickness exerts a primary control on the trench behavior our results suggest that the complexity of the style of subduction could be controlled by geometrical rules of a plate bending inside a stratified mantle the earth system is in the crucial range for the interplay between the rigidity of the plate and the mantle stratification this setting may be the responsible for the complexity of the past and present tectonic styles

dynamics of retreating slabs 1 insights from two dimensional numerical experiments from the effects of mantle flux part 2 therefore in this paper we apply forces to the slab using simple analytical functions related to buoyancy and viscous forces in order to isolate the role of rheology on slab dynamics we analyze parameters for simplified elastic viscous and nonlinear viscoelastoplastic single layer models of slabs and compare them with a stratified thermomechanical viscoelastoplastic slab embedded in a thermal solution the near surface behavior of slabs is summarized by assessing the amplitude and wavelength of forebulge uplift for each rheology in the complete thermomechanical solutions vastly contrasting styles of slab dynamics and force balance are observed at top and bottom bends however we find that slab subduction can be modeled using simplified rheologies characterized by a narrow range of selected benchmark parameters the best fit linear viscosity ranges between 5 10 22 pa s and 5 10 23 pa s the closeness of the numerical solution to nature can be characterized by a deborah number 0 5 indicating that elasticity is an important ingredient in subduction index terms 8120 tectonophysics dynamics of lithosphere and mantle general 8159 tectonophysics rheology crust and lithosphere 8160 tectonophysics rheology general keywords subduction numerical models lithospheric rheology

paleomagnetic study of cretaceous rocks of peru south america evidence for rotation of the andes abstract paleomagnetic data for the cretaceous volcanic and sedimentary rocks in the andean region of peru are given reliable paleomagnetic field directions were obtained for three cretaceous albian to cenomanian formations from calcareous sediments in northern peru stable remanent magnetization directions were also derived from twelve cretaceous lava flows and dikes in coastal peru paleomagnetic data of the same age from the stable areas of south america such as brazil demonstrate that the paleomagnetic poles are nearly coincident with the present pole but peruvian paleomagnetic directions studied here showed several tens of degrees of counterclockwise declination shifts this suggests counterclockwise tectonic rotation of an extensive block which includes the whole of andean peru

evolutionary model of the himalaya tibet system geopoem based on new modelling geological and geophysical data a two dimensional thermo mechanical laboratory modelling of continental subduction was performed the subducting continental lithosphere includes a strong brittle upper crust a weak ductile lower crust and a strong upper mantle the lithosphere is underlain by a low viscosity asthenosphere subduction is produced by a piston push force and the pull force from the mantle lithospheric layer which is denser than the asthenosphere the lithospheric layers are composed of material whose strength is sensitive to and inversely proportional to temperature throughout the experiment the model surface was maintained under relatively low temperature and the model base at higher temperature the subduction rate satisfied the peclet criterion modelling confirms that the continental crust can be deeply subducted and shows that slab break off delamination and tectonic underplating are fundamental events with drastic consequences on the subsequent evolution of the convergent system combining these results with previous purely mechanical modelling we elaborate a new evolutionary model for the himalaya tibet convergent system the principal successive stages are 1 subduction of the indian continental lithosphere to 200 250 km depth following subduction of the tethys oceanic lithosphere 2 failure and rapid buoyancy driven uplift of the subducted continental crust from ca 100 km depth to some depth that varies along the mountain belt 20 30 km on average 3 break off of the indian subducted lithospheric mantle with the attached oceanic lithosphere 4 subduction underplating of the indian lithosphere under asia over a few to several hundred kilometers 5 delamination roll back and break off of the indian lithospheric mantle 6 failure of the indian crust in front of the mountain belt formation of the main central thrust and underthrusting of the next portion of indian lithosphere beneath tibet for a few hundred kilometers at the beginning of stage 6 the crustal slice corresponding to the crystalline himalayas undergoes erosion activated uplift and exhumation fl 2000 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

role of extensional tectonics in exhumation of eclogites and blueschists in an oblique subduction setting northeastern venezuela eclogites and blueschists in northeastern venezuela belong to a mid to late cretaceous subduction complex fore arc terrane related to right oblique subduction of the proto caribbean plate beneath the farallon plate along the leeward antilles volcanic island arc these rocks were metamorphosed at high pressures and subsequently underwent retrogradation at decreasing pressures but at constant or slightly increasing temperatures they underwent five phases of deformation three synmetamorphic and two postmetamorphic the major principal extensions x axes of each of the three synmetamorphic deformations are subparallel to the volcanic arc the extension parallel to the arc and the associated exhumation and uplift of the subduction complex fore arc terrane may have resulted primarily from an increase of the arc parallel displacement rate of this terrane caused by an increase of obliquity of plate convergence

varying mechanical coupling along the andean margin implications for trench curvature shortening and topography abstract convergent margins often exhibit spatial and temporal correlations between trench curvature overriding plate shortening and topography uplift that provide insights into the dynamics of subduction the andean system where the nazca plate plunges beneath continental south america is commonly regarded as the archetype of this class of tectonics systems there is distinctive evidence that the degree of mechanical coupling between converging plates i e the amount of resistive force mutually transmitted in the direction opposite to their motions may be at the present day significantly higher along the central andean margin compared to the northern and southern limbs however quantitative estimates of such resistance are still missing and would be desirable here we present laboratory models of subduction performed to investigate quantitatively how strong lateral coupling variations need to be to result in trench curvature tectonic shortening and distribution of topography comparable to estimates from the andean margin the analogue of a two layers newtonian lithosphere upper mantle system is established in a silicone putty glucose syrup tank model where lateral coupling variations along the interface between subducting and overriding plates are pre imposed despite the simplicity of our setup we estimate that coupling in the central margin as large as 20 of the driving force is sufficient to significantly inhibit the ability of the experimental overriding plate to slide above the subducting one as a consequence the central margin deforms and shortens more than elsewhere while the trench remains stationary as opposed to the advancing lateral limbs this causes the margin to evolve into a peculiar shape similar to the present day trench of the andean system

terrane motion by strike slip faulting of forearc slivers forearc slivers bounded by a trench and an active strike slip fault occur in about 50 of modern subduction zones analysis of earthquake slip vectors indicates that modern sliver terranes typically migrate at rates of 1 2 cm yr tertiary transport of some forearc slivers by 1000 km or more is therefore expected as a consequence of normal subduction active arc parallel strike slip faulting occurs whenever interplate coupling is strong and convergence is somewhat oblique strike slip rate increases with greater convergence obliquity

active tectonics of the andes nearly 90 mm a 1 of relative plate convergence is absorbed in the andean plate boundary zone the pattern of active tectonics shows remarkable variations in the way in which the plate slip vector is partitioned into displacement and strain and the ways in which compatibility between different segments is solved along any traverse across the plate boundary zone the sum of relative velocities between points must equal the relative plate motion we have developed a kinematic synthesis of displacement and strain partitioning in the andes from 47 s to 5 n relevant for the last 5 ma based upon 1 relative plate motion deduced from oceanic circuits giving a roughly constant azimuth between 075 and 080 2 moment tensor solutions for over 120 crustal earthquakes since 1960 3 structural studies of deformed plio pleistocene rocks 4 topographic geomorphic studies 5 palaeomagnetic data and 6 geodetic data we recognize four neotectonic zones with subzones and boundary transfer zones that are partitioned in different ways these zones are not coincident with the classic zones defined by the presence or absence of a volcanic chain or differences in finite displacements and strains and tectonic form the long term segmentation and finite evolution of the andes may not occur in constantly defined segments in space and time in segment 1 47 39 s the slip vector is partitioned into roughly orthogonal benioff zone slip with large magnitude large slip surface earthquakes and both distributed dextral shear giving clockwise rotations of up to 50 and dextral slip in the curved liquine ofqui fault system giving 5 10 of anticlockwise fore arc rotation in segment 2 39 20 s the slip vector is partitioned into benioff zone slip roughly parallel with the slip vector andean crustal shortening and a very small component of dextral slip including that on the atacama fault system between 39 and 34 s a cross strike dextral transfer which deflects the chile trench and the volcanic arc absorbs the shortening contrast between segments 1 and 2 in segment 3 20 6 s the slip vector is partitioned into roughly orthogonal benioff zone slip crustal shortening sinistral trench parallel faulting and northeast southwest extension compatibility between segments 2 and 3 is maintained by the sinistral east southeast trending cochabamba shear zone and north trending dextral faults in segment 4 6 s to 5 n the slip vector is partitioned into roughly orthogonal benioff zone slip and dextral strike slip faulting in the fore arc and volcanic chain

rock mechanics observations pertinent to the rheology of the continental lithosphere and the localization of strain along shear zones emphasized in this paper are the deformation processes and rheologies of rocks at high temperatures and high effective pressures conditions that are presumably appropriate to the lower crust and upper mantle in continental collision zones much recent progress has been made in understanding the flexure of the oceanic lithosphere using rock mechanics based yield criteria for the inelastic deformations at the top and base at mid plate depths stresses are likely to be supported elastically because bending strains and elastic stresses are low the collisional tectonic regime however is far more complex because very large permanent strains are sustained at mid plate depths and this requires us to include the broad transition between brittle and ductile flow moreover important changes in the ductile flow mechanisms occur at the intermediate temperatures found at mid plate depths two specific contributions of laboratory rock rheology research are considered in this paper first the high temperature steady state flow mechanisms and rheology of mafic and ultramafic rocks are reviewed with special emphasis on olivine and crystalline rocks rock strength decreases very markedly with increases in temperature and it is the onset of flow by high temperature ductile mechanisms that defines the base of the lithosphere the thickness of the continental lithosphere can therefore be defined by the depth to a particular isotherm tc above which at geologic strain rates the high temperature ductile strength falls below some arbitrary strength isobar e g 100 mpa for olivine tc is about 700 800 c but for other crustal silicates tc may be as low as 400 600 c suggesting that substantial decoupling may take place within thick continental crust and that strength may increase with depth at the moho as suggested by a number of workers on independent grounds put another way the moho is a rheological discontinuity a second class of laboratory observations pertains to the general phenomenon of ductile faulting in which ductile strains are localized into shear zones ductile faults have been produced in experiments of five different rock types and is generally expressed as strain softening in constant strain rate tests or as an accelerating creep rate stage at constant differential stress a number of physical mechanisms have been identified that may be responsible for ductile faulting including the onset of dynamic recrystallization phase changes hydrothermal alteration and hydrolytic weakening microscopic evidence for these processes as well as larger scale geological and geophysical observations suggest that ductile faulting in the middle to lower crust and upper mantle may greatly influence the distribution and magnitudes of differential stresses and the style of deformation in the overlying upper continental lithosphere

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

strain accumulation controls failure of a plate boundary zone linking deformation of the central andes and lithosphere mechanics 1 we make use of observations on orogenic strain accumulation and deformation partitioning in the central andes to explore the backarc strength evolution at the lithospheric scale in plan view the altiplano puna plateaux experienced rapid initial increase of surface area undergoing active deformation during the cenozoic beyond the maximum lateral extent reached around 10 15 ma 40 50 of entire proto andes undergoing deformation at 10 20 total strain rapid localization initiated at the eastern flank of the altiplano inter and subandean thrust belt but not at the puna latitude localization was associated with a significant increase in bulk shortening rate average fault slip rates equally increased by an order of magnitude following a protracted period of stable average rates estimates of strength evolution based on force balance calculations and critical wedge analysis suggest significant backarc weakening driving this change after the middle miocene strain accumulation led to localization and weakening with development of a detachment propagating through crust and upper mantle we find that lithosphere scale failure resulting from strain weakening beyond a critical strain threshold c 20 and fault coalescence with formation of a weak detachment in shales effective coefficient of friction 0 1 plays a key role in the evolution of the andes strain related lithosphere weakening appears to dominate over the impact of external forcing mechanisms such as variations of plate convergence mantle assisted processes or erosion comparison of these orogen scale observations with experimental rock rheology indicates substantial similarity of deformation behavior with similar weakening thresholds across a wide range of scales

invited review paper neogene to quaternary tectonics of the coastal cordillera northern chile abstract the extreme aridity of the northern chilean coastal cordillera enables the complete preservation of permanent deformation related to the coupling between nazca and south america the region between antofagasta and arica is characterized by four types of late cenozoic structures ew striking reverse faults ns striking normal faults sparse wnw and nnw striking right lateral strike slip faults and unimodal and bimodal populations of surface cracks the ew reverse faults occur only between 19 and 21 40 s latitude and have been active since at least 6 ma to present a march 2007 earthquake demonstrates that this deformation can occur during the interseismic phase of the plate boundary seismic cycle the ns normal faults are most abundant near antofagasta and mejillones and diminish in significance northward several of these faults in both the antofagasta and the salar grande area have been reactivated as reverse faults causing minor topographic inversion we suggest that normal faults move during both interseismic and coseismic deformation and are fundamentally very weak surface cracks are ubiquitous throughout the region and form by both non tectonic and tectonic mechanisms a significant proportion forms during coseismic deformation and thus may be used to identify long lived rupture segments on the plate boundary overall forearc deformation is very slow with permanent strain rates of 1 5 nstrain year and fault slip rates less than 0 5 mm year

on the relationship between the formation of shear zones and the form of the flow law for rocks undergoing dynamic recrystallization abstract the formation and maintenance of shear zones in rocks at high temperatures when viscous flow takes place at constant volume requires strain weakening several processes can lead to a strain weakening characteristic in the flow of such rocks to high strains but conventional experimental rock mechanics techniques cannot normally provide high quality mechanical data to high strains recent experimental data for calcite marble have demonstrated strain weakening accompanied by dynamic recrystallization a power law with strain exponent r can be used to describe the dependence of the flow stress on strain together with the conventional description of the dependence of strain rate on stress described by a stress exponent n the stable localization of strain into shear zones is favoured by more negative values of r e g r 0 8 and more positive values of n e g n 5 to 7 a further important factor is the critical strain e0 for the onset of recrystallization and hence strain weakening shear zone formation is favoured by smaller values for e0 shear zone formation weakens the crustal section in which they occur but the amount of weakening may not be great perhaps no more than 50 of the previous steady state flow stress certain rock types such as mafic igneous rocks may through their mechanical properties be more susceptible to shear zone formation than others such as mica schists it is emphasized that the analysis presented is based upon a strain dependent flow law that describes single phase dynamic recrystallization by grain boundary migration that leads to enhanced recovery without any change in deformation mechanism no consideration is given to possibly important effects arising from the activation of grain size sensitive flow or to potential weakening effects arising from syntectonic metamorphic reactions

back arc extension in the andaman sea tectonic and magmatic processes imaged by high precision teleseismic double difference earthquake relocation 1 the geometry kinematics and mode of back arc extension along the andaman sea plate boundary are refined using a new set of significantly improved hypocenters global centroid moment tensor cmt solutions and high resolution bathymetry by applying cross correlation and double difference dd algorithms to regional and teleseismic waveforms and arrival times from international seismological centre and national earthquake information center bulletins 1964 2009 we resolve the fine scale structure and spatiotemporal behavior of active faults in the andaman sea the new data reveal that back arc extension is primarily accommodated at the andaman back arc spreading center absc at 10 which hosted three major earthquake swarms in 1984 2006 and 2009 short term spreading rates estimated from extensional moment tensors account for less than 10 of the long term 3 0 3 8 cm yr spreading rate indicating that spreading by intrusion and the formation of new crust make up for the difference a spatiotemporal analysis of the swarms and coulomb stress modeling show that dike intrusions are the primary driver for brittle failure in the absc while spreading direction is close to ridge normal it is oblique to the adjacent transforms the resulting component of e w extension across the transforms is expressed by deep basins on either side of the rift and a change to extensional faulting along the west andaman fault system after the mw 9 2 sumatra andaman earthquake of 2004 a possible skew in slip vectors of earthquakes in the eastern part of the absc indicates an en echelon arrangement of extensional structures suggesting that the present segment geometry is not in equilibrium with current plate motion demands and thus the ridge experiences ongoing re adjustment

oceanic plateaus the fragmentation of continents and mountain building many anomalous rises in today s oceans may be submerged continental fragments detached from previous continents ancient island arcs or basaltic piles formed by hot spots and spreading centers these rises are embedded in their respective moving oceanic plates and are fated to be consumed at active margins where such rises are being consumed at present e g the nazca ridge they cause cessation of volcanism disruption of the downgoing slab and possible shifts in plate boundary configuration many past rises including numerous continental fragments have been recognized within mountain belts as allochthonous terranes they constitute a large portion of the orogenic belts in the north pacific from mexico through western north america alaska east siberia japan and in new zealand the orogenic deformation in these belts is possibly the result of the accretion of the allochthonous terranes many terranes have been accreted with substantial deformation also in the alpine chain well before major continent continent collisions it is suggested therefore that the accretion of fragments may be the common process of the deformation phase of mountain building subduction of normal oceanic crust may be insufficient for deformation whereas full continent continent collision may not be necessary the general validity of this conclusion depends critically on whether allochthonous terranes caused orogenic deformation in the andes or not most of the accreted fragments with continental affinities in the mesozoic cenozoic orogenic belts of the world can be traced back to the breakup of gondwana beginning with a pacifica domain in the permian through a larger india domain in the early mesozoic and continuing through the separation of the somalia plate in the near future the reasons for this 250 million year breakup process are not known but some kind of thermal process possible of mantle wide scale is implied

analogue modelling of continental collision influence of plate coupling on mantle lithosphere subduction crustal deformation and surface topography abstract the role of the plate boundary in a continental collisional setting is investigated by lithospheric scale analogue models key variables in this study are the degree of coupling at the plate interface and along the moho of the lower plate as well as the geometry of the plate contact they control the onset of intra plate deformation orogenic architecture amount of mantle lithosphere subduction and basin development in all experiments deformation initiates at the plate interface by the formation of a pop up structure a vertical plate boundary with respect to the shortening direction results in buckling of the lithosphere whereas experiments with an inclined plate boundary show underthrusting and foreland basin development without orogenic wedge formation continental collision and coinciding mantle lithosphere subduction may occur only if the lower crust of the foreland plate is weak enough promoting crust mantle decoupling during decoupling the weak lower crust beneath the orogen thickens significantly by ductile flow as it detaches from the down going mantle lithosphere this lower crustal thickening effects the distribution of upper crustal deformation and topography subduction of weak lower crust is favored when the weak plate interface has a significant thickness 15 km in nature and a high amount of shortening is applied increasing coupling at the plate interface through time leads to intra plate deformation by thickening and gentle folding and influences surface uplift and subsidence above the plate interface the transition from a mechanically decoupled plate boundary with a significant amount of mantle lithosphere subduction towards stronger plate coupling resulting in intra plate deformation and topography development can be recorded in for instance the caucasus the colombian cordillera the pyrenees and the alps thickening of the lower crust as portrayed for the western alps does not demand a strong frictional type behavior of the lower crust but can also be the consequence of ductile processes

subduction of the lithosphere and back arc dynamics insights from physical modeling physical modeling of the subduction of an elastico plastic lithosphere underlained by a low viscosity asthenosphere and driven by both horizontal compressional force and gravitational sinking of the subducting plate has shown the subduction regime to be strongly affected by 1 a where a and 1 are the asthenosphere and lithosphere densities at 0 a steady state process develops which requires a horizontal lithosphere compression of h 0 3 0 4 s 108 pa where s is the lithosphere yield limit the central part of the leading wedge of the overriding plate is nonisostatically elevated in this case especially in the region of the frontal arc which corresponds to a free air gravity anomaly maximum of 200 400 mgal a decrease in 0 compression of the overriding plate is considerably less from the onset of subduction and then decreases during subduction at some point compression changes into tension tensional nonhydrostatic stresses grow during the process to a value near h 0 1 0 2 s 0 4 108 pa both subsidence of the overriding wedge below the isostatic equilibrium level and an increase in the benioif dip angle accompany this process the gravity anomaly maximum is displaced into the volcanic arc in this subduction regime where it is normally less than 150 mgal if some weaknesses are present in the overriding plate tensional stresses result in a failure of the lithosphere at these locations and the broken lithosphere segment the arc plate starts to move counter to the subduction plate the arc plate slides along the underthrusting plate s surface without loss of contact and causes back arc opening hydrostatic suction prevents the plates from being separated this effect is caused by the peculiarity of a mechanical system whereby a low viscosity asthenosphere and a plastic lithosphere which effective yield limit is considerably lower than the hydrostatic stresses in the plate if the overriding lithosphere is not weakened enough to fail under the existing tension then the hanging slab breaks down under its own weight when it reaches a specific length both interacting plates undergo isostatic recovery in this case and the whole cycle is repeated again the hydrostatic suction effect also provides back arc tension under other conditions such as when asthenospheric flow forces the subducted plate to move away from the island arc

shocks in a box an analogue model of subduction earthquake cycles with application to seismotectonic forearc evolution 1 we introduce and test an experimental approach to simulate elastoplastic megathrust earthquake cycles using an analogue model and apply it to study the seismotectonic evolution of subduction zones the quasi two dimensional analogue model features rate and state dependent elastic frictional plastic and viscoelastic material properties and is scaled for gravity inertia elasticity friction and viscosity the experiments are monitored with a high resolution strain analysis tool based on digital image correlation particle imaging velocimetry piv providing deformation time series comparable to seismologic geodetic and geologic observations in order to separate elastic and nonelastic effects inherent the experimental deformation patterns we integrate elastic dislocation modeling edm into a hybrid approach we use the analogue earthquake slip and interseismic locking distribution as edm dislocation input and forward model the coseismic and interseismic elastic response the residual which remains when the edm prediction is subtracted from the experimental deformation pattern highlights the accumulation of permanent deformation in the model the setup generates analogue earthquake sequences with realistic source mechanisms and elastic forearc response and recurrence patterns and reproduces principal earthquake scaling relations by applying the model to an accretionary type plate margin we demonstrate how strain localization at the rupture peripheries may lead to a seismotectonically segmented forearc including a tectonically stable shelf and coastal high 20 plate convergence accommodated by internal shortening overlying the area of large megathrust earthquake slip fifty to 75 of plate convergence is accommodated by internal shortening in the slope region where earthquake slip tapers out toward the trench the inner forearc region remains undeformed and represents a basin

development of the gulf of guayaquil ecuador during the quaternary as an effect of the north andean block tectonic escape 1 interpretation of industrial multichannel seismic profiles and well data are used to identify the main tectonic features of the gulf of guayaquil gg area these include two e w trending major detachments the posorja and the jambeli detachment systems which represent half grabens with oppositely dipping detachments to the south and to the north respectively the ne sw trending puna santa clara fault system developed as a transfer fault system between the posorja and the jambeli detachments the esperanza and the jambeli basins exhibit 3 4 km of sediment that accumulated during the past 1 6 1 8 myr the puna santa clara fault system bounds the esperanza and the jambeli basins evidencing that the evolution of these basins is tightly controlled by the two detachments at depth to the west the n s trending domito fault system bounding the posorja detachment system and the esperanza basin to the west acted as a transfer zone between the shelf area and the continental slope the pliocene series show no significant variations in thickness throughout the gulf of guayaquil area suggesting that no important tectonic deformation occurred from 5 2 to 1 8 1 6 ma the major period of tectonic deformation in the gulf of guayaquil area occurred during the pleistocene times three main tectonic steps are identified from early pleistocene to 180 ka major subsidence occurred along the esperanza and jambeli basins from 180 to 140 ka most of the gulf of guayaquil area was above sea level during the isotope substage 6 low stand from 140 ka to present tectonic activity is restricted along the normal faults bounding the esperanza basin the tenguel fault and the puna santa clara and domito fault systems a n s trending tensional stress regime characterizes the pleistocene times throughout the northward drifting of the north andean block is proposed to control the tectonic evolution and associated subsidence of the gulf of guayaquil area it is also accepted that the collision of the carnegie ridge with the trench axis has to play a major role in controlling the north andean block northward drift because the carnegie ridge subduction is possibly an ongoing process which began prior to the pliocene we postulate the along strike morphology of the ridge at the origin of interplate coupling variations the subduction of an along strike positive relief of the ridge is proposed at the origin of the major tectonic reorganization of the gg area occurring at 1 8 1 6 ma

lithosphere tearing at step faults response to edges of subduction zones abstract slab edges are a relatively common feature in plate tectonics two prominent examples are the northern end of the tonga subduction zone and the southern end of the new hebrides subduction zone near such horizontal terminations of subduction trenches ongoing tearing of oceanic lithosphere is a geometric consequence we refer to such kinks in the plate boundary as a subduction transform edge propagator or step other steps are the north and south ends of the lesser antilles trench the north end of the south sandwich trench the south end of the vrancea trench and both ends of the calabria trench volcanism near steps is distinct from typical arc volcanism in some cases slab edges appear to coincide with mantle plumes using 3d mechanical models we establish that step faults are stable plate tectonic features in most circumstances in the probably rare cases that the resistance to fault propagation is high slab break off will occur relative motion along the transform segment of the plate boundary often is non uniform and the step is not a transform plate boundary in the rigid plate tectonics sense of the phrase step propagation may result in substantial deformation rotation topography and sedimentary basins with a very specific time space evolution surface velocities are substantially affected by nearby steps

forearc basin formation in the tectonic wake of a collision driven coastwise migrating crustal block the example of the north andean block and the extensional gulf of guayaquil tumbes basin ecuador peru border area trench parallel extensional strain resulting from the northward drift of the north andean block has controlled the tectonic evolution of the gulf of guayaquil tumbes basin at least for the past 1 8 1 6 ma industrial multichannel seismic and well data document that e w to ene low angle detachment normal faults the posorja and jambeli detachment systems to the north and the tumbes detachment system to the south accommodated the main subsidence step along the shelf area during late pliocene quaternary times 1 8 1 6 ma to present two tectonic regimes showing different styles and ages controlled the evolution of the southern ecuador and northern peru continental margin and shelf the n s extensional regime along the shelf area is related to north andean block drift whereas the e w extensional regime along the continental margin results from tectonic erosion at depth strain rotation takes place along a major n s trending transfer system formed by the inner domito fault and the inner banco peru fault which bound the detachment systems to the west the strike slip component along this transfer system roughly located at the continental margin shelf break evolved as a response to slip along the detachment systems bounding the basin to the north and to the south the tumbes detachment system is the master fault controlling basin evolution through time and it may represent the shallower expression of a reactivated obduction megathrust it connects landward with the continental structures assumed to be part of the eastern frontier of the north andean block for the past 2 ma the total lengthening calculated along a complete n s transect of the gulf of guayaquil tumbes basin ranges between 13 5 and 20 km this lengthening is compatible with the documented drift of the north andean block for the same period of time the gulf of guayaquil tumbes basin is not a classical pull apart basin it exemplifies a particular type of pull apart basin basically controlled by 1 detachments extending downward across the brittle crust and 2 plate coupling along the subduction decollement which controls the inward segmentation of deformation

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

trench motion slab geometry and viscous stresses in subduction systems summary a semi analytic 3 d model for subduction within a newtonian viscous upper mantle provides a dynamically consistent means of computing viscous stress trench motion and slab geometry in subduction systems although negative slab buoyancy provides the basic driving force for subduction slabs that extend from the surface to the base of the upper mantle are oversupported by viscous stresses in the shallow 100 150 km mantle and undersupported by viscous stresses at greater depth in the upper mantle these deeper parts of the subduction system act as an engine for subduction while shallower parts act as a brake on trench motion trench migration rates and slab geometry reflect a competition between these two effects during steady state subduction trench migration rates vary approximately linearly with slab buoyancy and model rates of trench motion are in good agreement with the range of observed rates for a two layer upper mantle viscosity of 2 10 20 pa s above 300 km and 5 10 20 pa s below steady state slab dip increases as slab density decreases especially for very low density slabs which dip significantly more steeply than high density slabs the horizontal velocity at the top of the lower mantle measured relative to the foreland has a very large effect on trench migration rates rivalling or even exceeding that of slab buoyancy slab width parallel to the trench also has a significant effect on trench migration rates due to the viscous pressure of toroidal flow around the slab the stiffness of the subducting lithosphere does not exert a significant effect on trench migration rates or slab geometries for rigidities compatible with oceanic lithosphere very stiff slabs with elastic plate thicknesses more that 40 km or viscosities in the range of 10 25 10 26 pa s subduct significantly more slowly than weak slabs with trench migration rates in the range of half to a third that of weak slabs large unexpected effects on trench migration rates and slab geometry are exerted by the structure and density of the frontal prism and overriding plate indicating that local geology can exert important constraints on slab dynamics during non steady state subduction rates of trench migration respond rapidly as variably buoyant lithosphere penetrates into the asthenosphere in the absence of other driving forces for convergence trench migration rates can change by a factor of two or more in as little as 2 3 myr for example from 35 to 70 mm yr 1 when an oceanic piece of slab follows a continental one into the subduction system subduction of variable buoyancy lithosphere is accompanied by changes in slab dip with depth and through time

kinematics of subduction and subduction induced flow in the upper mantle 1 results of fluid dynamical experiments are presented to model the kinematics of lithospheric subduction in the upper mantle the experiments model a dense high viscosity plate subducting lithosphere overlying a less dense low viscosity layer upper mantle the overriding lithosphere is not incorporated several important features of slab behavior were investigated including the temporal variability of hinge line migration the kinematic behavior of the slab and the subduction induced upper mantle flow both fixed and free trailing edge boundary conditions of the subducting plate were investigated results show that hinge line retreat is a natural consequence of subduction of a negatively buoyant slab the migration rate increases until the slab approaches the upper lower mantle discontinuity resulting in a decrease in migration rate followed by a renewed increase and finally approaching a steady state slab retreat results in mantle flow with material initially located underneath the slab flowing around the lateral slab edges toward the mantle wedge experimental results indicate that all rollback induced flow occurs around the lateral slab edges forcing the hinge line to attain a convex shape toward the direction of retreat no signs for poloidal flow underneath the slab tip have been detected only a small component of toroidal type flow was observed underneath slanting slab tips for a fixed trailing edge the slab does not sink vertically downward but sinks at an angle in a regressive manner for a free trailing edge slab sinking is oriented more vertically while the surface part of the subducting plate is pulled into the subduction zone

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

role of lateral mantle flow in the evolution of subduction systems insights from laboratory experiments summary we present 3 d laboratory experiments constructed to investigate the pattern of mantle flow around a subducting slab under different boundary conditions in particular we present a set of experiments characterized by different conditions imposed at the trailing edge of the subducting plate that is plate fixed in the far field plate detached in the far field imposed plate motion experiments have been performed using a silicone slab floating inside a honey tank to simulate a thin viscous lithosphere subducting in a viscous mantle for each set we show differences between models that do or do not include the possibility of out of plane lateral flow in the mantle by varying the lateral boundary conditions our results illustrate how a subducting slab vertically confined over a 660 km equivalent depth can be influenced in its geometry and in its kinematics by the presence or absence of possible lateral pathways on the basis of these results we show implications for natural subduction systems and we highlight the importance of suitable simulations of lateral viscosity variations to obtain a realistic simulation of the history of subduction

the suspended sediment dynamics in the inner mongolia reaches of the upper yellow river article i nfo suspended sediment dynamics are still imperfectly understood especially in the upper yellow river where few studies on this issue have been conducted this study analyzed the variability in suspended sediment concentration at different temporal scales within flood monthly seasonal and annual using a dataset up to 49 years long 1954 2002 at toudaoguai station this paper provided insight into the characteristics of suspended sediment transport in the ningxia inner mongolia reaches of the upper yellow river the results show that in a single flood event changes in ssc are not simultaneous with changes in discharge resulting in counterclockwise hysteretic loops clockwise loops or figure eight loops the c q loops and sediment rating curves for different seasons had different characters the diversiform c q loops in the inner mongolia reaches of the upper yellow river may be mainly caused by the sediment inputs from tributaries the differ ent propagation velocity of sediment and water discharge spatial and temporal storage depletion processes of available sediment at annual scale the variations of annual mean discharge and ssc displayed a similar gradually deceasing trend and the relation between water discharge and ssc during 1954 2002 could be de scribed by a cubic polynomial function since the joint operation of liujiaxia and longyangxia reservoirs after 1986 the transport capacity of the upper yellow river has been much reduced

role of kilometer scale weak circular heterogeneities on upper crustal deformation patterns evidence from scaled analogue modeling and the sudbury basin canada the sudbury basin is a non cylindrical fold basin occupying the central portion of the sudbury impact structure the impact structure lends itself excellently to explore the structural evolution of continental crust containing a circular region of long term weakness in a series of scaled analogue experiments various model crustal configurations were shortened horizontally at a constant rate in mechanically weakened crust model basins formed that mimic several first order structural characteristics of the sudbury basin 1 asymmetric non cylindrical folding of the basin 2 structures indicating concentric shortening around lateral basin termini and 3 the presence of a zone of strain concentration near the hinge zones of model basins geometrically and kinematically this zone corresponds to the south range shear zone of the sudbury basin according to our experiments this shear zone is a direct mechanical consequence of basin formation rather than the result of thrusting following folding overall the models highlight the structurally anomalous character of the sudbury basin within the paleoproterozoic eastern penokean orogen in particular our models suggest that the basin formed by pure shear thickening of crust whereas transpressive deformation prevailed elsewhere in the orogen the model basin is deformed by thickening and non cylindrical synformal buckling while conjugate transpressive shear zones propagated away from its lateral tips this is consistent with pure shear deformation of a weak circular inclusion in a strong matrix the models suggest that the sudbury basin formed as a consequence of long term weakening of the upper crust by meteorite impact

on the relationships between slab dip back arc stress upper plate absolute motion and crustal nature in subduction zones 1 statistical analysis of modern oceanic subduction zone parameters such as the age of a downgoing plate or the absolute plate motions is performed in order to investigate which parameter controls the dip of a slab and conversely what the influence of slab geometry is on upper plate behavior for that purpose parameters have been determined from global databases along 159 transects from all subduction zones that are not perturbed by nearby collision or ridge plateau seamount subduction on the basis of tomographic images slabs that penetrate through or lie on the 670 km discontinuity are also identified the results of the statistical analysis are as follows 1 back arc stress correlates with slab dip i e back arc spreading is observed for deep dips deeper than 125 km larger than 50 whereas back arc shortening occurs only for deep dips less than 30 2 slab dip correlates with absolute motion of the overriding plate the correlation is even better when the slab lies on or even more penetrates through the 670 km discontinuity 3 slabs dip more steeply by about 20 on average beneath oceanic overriding plates than beneath continental ones 4 slabs dip more steeply on average by about 10 near edges 5 slab dip does not correlate with the magnitude of slab pull the age of subducting lithosphere at the trench the thermal regime of the subducting lithosphere the convergence rate or the subduction polarity east versus west the present study provides evidence that the upper plate absolute motion plays an important role on slab dip as well as on upper plate strain retreating overriding plates are often oceanic ones and thus may partially explain the steeper slab dips beneath oceanic upper plates one can infer that low slab dips correlate well with compression in continental advancing upper plates whereas steep dips are often associated with extension in oceanic retreating upper plates excess weight of old slabs is often counterbalanced by other forces probably asthenospheric in origin such as lateral mantle flow near slab edges or anchor forces to determine slab dip

grain size evolution and the rheology of ductile shear zones from laboratory experiments to postseismic creep abstract geologic experimental and geodetic studies indicate that ductile shear zones do not deform in steady state we present a theoretical model for an elastically loaded ductile shear zone deforming by combined dislocation and diffusion creep in which grain size is allowed to evolve toward its equilibrium recrystallized value several grain size evolution laws are considered simulations of laboratory experiments show that grain size evolution can lead to changes in the dominant deformation mechanism that are accompanied by transient strain weakening or strain strengthening episodes reminiscent of laboratory observations ductile shear zones can also produce postseismic creep as observed in geodetic data following large earthquakes non steady state ductile creep is difficult to differentiate from frictional sliding with velocity strengthening friction hence ductile creep may play a role in the transition from velocity weakening to velocity strengthening friction with increasing temperature

a unified description of localization for application to large scale tectonics 1 localized regions of deformation such as faults and shear zones are ubiquitous in the earth s lithosphere however we lack a simple unified framework of localization that is independent of the mechanism or scale of localization we address this issue by introducing the effective stress exponent ne a parameter that describes how a material responds to a local perturbation of an internal variable being tested for localization the value of ne is based on micromechanics a localizing regime has a negative ne indicating a weakening behavior and localization is stronger for more negative 1 ne we present expressions for the effective stress exponent associated with several mechanisms that trigger localization at large scale brittle failure with loss of cohesion elastoplasticity rate and state dependent friction shear heating and grain size feedback in ductile rocks in most cases localization does not arise solely from the relation between stress and deformation but instead requires a positive feedback between the rheology and internal variables brittle mechanisms failure and friction are generally described by ne of the order of 100 shear heating requires an already localized forcing which could be provided by a brittle fault at shallower levels of the lithosphere grain size reduction combined with a transition from dislocation to diffusion creep leads to localization only if the grain size departs significantly from its equilibrium value because either large scale flow moves rocks through different thermodynamic environments or new grains are nucleated when shear heating or grain size feedback produce localization 1 ne can be extremely negative and can control lithospheric scale localization

depth extent of the lau back arc spreading center and its relation to subduction processes seismic tomography and wave form inversion revealed that very slow velocity anomalies 5 to 7 percent beneath the active lau spreading center extend to 100 kilometer depth and are connected to moderately slow anomalies 2 to 4 percent in the mantle wedge to 400 kilometer depth these results indicate that geodynamic systems associated with back arc spreading are related to deep processes such as the convective circulation in the mantle wedge and deep dehydration reactions in the subducting slab the slow regions associated with the tonga arc and the lau back arc are separated at shallow levels but merge at depths greater than 100 kilometers suggesting that slab components of back arc magmas occur through mixing at these depths

physical modelling of lithosphere subduction in collision zones abstract physical mechanical modeling of continental collision is performed with a 4 layered mantle model compositionally distinct layers of hydrocarbons are used to model a lithosphere which consists of two crustal layers the upper one quasi brittle the lower one plastic and a plastic mantle layer the lower crustal layer the crustal asthenosphere has a low yield limit a low viscosity liquid water represents the asthenosphere under the lithosphere lateral compression of the model plate by a piston is the driving mechanism of collision similarity criteria are satisfied in the modeling the collisional process was investigated with various boundary conditions and values of the model parameters the yield limit and the thickness of the crustal asthenosphere were varied as well as the action of the piston on the plate the force was applied either throughout the plate section or on its mantle layer only in the latter case this layer slipped relative to the upper crust hence different results were obtained a more realistic pattern seems to occur when the yield limit of the crustal asthenosphere is not too small and free sliding of the crustal layers over the mantle lithosphere is not possible the upper crustal layer then experiences failure in the collision zone and thrusting develops there intensive thickening of the lower crust was observed the mantle layer being subducted like oceanic lithosphere in a subduction zone

complex patterns of fluid and melt transport in the central andean subduction zone revealed by attenuation tomography abstract we present a high resolution 3 d model of p wave attenuation q p 1 for the central andean subduction zone data from 1500 mostly intermediate depth 60 250 km earthquakes recorded at three temporary seismic networks covering the forearc arc and backarc around 23 s were used for tomographic inversion the forearc is characterised by uniformly high q p values indicating low temperature rocks in accordance with low surface heat flow values prominent low q p anomalies are found beneath the magmatic arc and the backarc in the crust and mantle continuous regions of low q p connect earthquake clusters at 100 km and 200 km depth with zones of active volcanism in the arc and backarc fluids fluxed from the subducted oceanic lithosphere into the overlying mantle wedge where they induce melting explain our observations we propose that low q p regions indicate source and ascent pathways of metamorphic fluids and partial melts ascent of fluids and melts as imaged by seismic q p are not vertical as is often implicitely assumed instead sources of fluids are located at different depth levels and ascent paths are complex and exhibit significant variation within the study area the largest quaternary backarc volcano cerro tuzgle is fed by mantle melts which are imaged as a plume of low q p material that reaches to the strong earthquake cluster at 200 km depth

paleogene building of the bolivian orocline tectonic restoration of the central andes in 2 d map view using available information on the magnitude and age of tectonic shortening as well as paleomagnetically determined tectonic rotations we have run a series of 2 d map view restorations of the central andes neogene shortening in the foreland belt induced only slight orogenic curvature of the central andes the constraints on the ages of the large observed fore arc rotations average of 37 counterclockwise in southern peru and 29 clockwise in northern chile indicate that the bolivian orocline formed during the eocene oligocene as a consequence of differential shortening focused in the eastern cordillera to minimize local block rotations along the fore arc the restoration that best fits the central andean rotation pattern requires about 400 km of total paleogene plus neogene shortening near the arica bend this value corresponds to the upper bound of estimates of maximum horizontal shortening for the central andes along strike variations in horizontal shortening in the back arc induced bending of the continental margin block rotations with fore arc along strike extension and or orogen parallel transport of upper crustal material toward the symmetry axis of the orocline

oblique subduction and collision forearc tectonics of the kuril arc the tectonics of the southwestern kuril arc are a result of the oblique subduction of the pacific plate at the kuril trench in association with forearc sliver migration caused by the oblique subduction collision tectonics occur at the leading margin of the sliver and tensional tectonics take place at the tapering margin as a result of the collision a deep crustal section of island arc is observed at the leading margin of the forearc sliver tectonics of the kuril arc related to oblique subduction are different from those of the western sunda arc where backarc spreading occurs at the leading margin this difference is due to margin morphology of the oblique subduction zone

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