japan sea a pull apart basin abstract recent field work in the hokkaido central belt and marine geology studies along the eastern margin of japan sea in addition to previously published data lead us to propose a new model of opening of the japan sea the synthesis of both on land and offshore structural data gives new constraints about the structural evolution of the system the rhombohedral shape of the japan basin and the particular tectonic behaviour of the margins on both east and west sides can be explained by an early eo oligocene rifting of a pull apart basin accommodated along two large right lateral shear zones east of korea and west of northeast japan and sakhalin it is followed during upper oligocene lower miocene by the main opening of the japan basin as a mega pull apart then a back arc spreading probably related to the subduction process induced the creation of the yamato and tsushima basins at the end of lower miocene and in middle miocene clockwise rotation of southwest japan larger than 20 or major bending of honshu mainland deduced from paleomagnetic studies is unlikely at this time since 1 or 2 my b p to present compression prevails along the eastern margin of the japan sea the generation of marginal basins as pull apart basins along intracontinental strike slip faults is a mechanism which has been proposed by other authors concerning the south china sea the question then is whether the fragmentation of the asiatic continent is an intracontinental deformation related process as proposed here or a subduction related one

transition from arc to intraplate magmatism associated with backarc rifting evolution of the sikhote alin volcanism k ar dates and chemical compositions of lavas in sikhote alin far east russia demonstrate marked secular variation in lava chemistry and suggest a linkage between magmatism and the major tectonic opening of the japan sea backarc basin lavas having typical arc magma chemistry were produced at 40 25 ma in the eastern part of sikhote alin a conspicuous volcanic hiatus is revealed in the region at 25 20 ma which is contemporaneous with the period of the major rifting of the backarc basin subduction related magmatism may have been switched off by an oceanward retreat of the arc trench system in contrast intraplate type lavas with typical hotspot magma compositions have dominated magmatism in both the eastern and western sikhote alin since 20 ma and occupy the eastern margin of the cenozoic intraplate magmatism in the ne asian continent

geometric test for late cretaceous paleogene intracontinental transform faulting in the canadian cordillera the tintina trench northern rocky mountain trench tt nrmt fault zone and the fraser river straight creek fr sc fault zone are separate en echelon concentric small circle fault segments of a composite intracontinental transform fault zone more than 2500 km long that cuts diagonally across the canadian cordillera from the outboard part of a tectonic collage of accreted foreign terranes in the south into the north american preaccretionary continental margin in the north most of the 450 km of right hand slip on the tt nrmt fault zone was transformed southward during the late cretaceous and paleocene into oblique convergence in the southern canadian rockies the remainder probably comprising less than 100 km was transformed southwestward during early and middle eocene time via a zone of distributed shear and east west crustal stretching into right hand slip on the en echelon fr sc fault zone these interpretations based on regional systematic mapping of geologic structures are in conflict with interpretations of paleomagnetic measurements that call for more than 1000 km of post mid cretaceous right hand displacement along the general locus of the tt nrmt fault zone involving foreign terranes and the parts of north america to which they had been accreted this paradox must be resolved

geological controls on matrix permeability of devonian gas shales in the horn river and liard basins northeastern british columbia canada abstract controls of matrix permeability are investigated for devonian gas shales from the horn river and liard basins in northeastern british columbia canada mineralogy is varied with high carbonate high quartz and moderate quartz carbonate and clay rich strata quartz content varies between 2 and 73 carbonate varies between 1 and 93 and clay varies between 3 and 33 the toc content ranges between 0 3 and 6 wt and porosity varies between about 1 and 7 for horn river basin samples quartz is mainly biogenic in origin derived from radiolarians toc content increases with the quartz content suggesting the toc and quartz both are derived from siliceous phytoplankton a positive relationship between porosity and quartz content is due to the positive relationship between quartz and toc matrix permeability parallel to bedding varies between 7 5e 02 and 7 1e 07 md at an effective stress of 15 mpa variation in permeability is due to a complex combination of factors that includes origin and distribution of minerals pore size distribution and fabric mercury intrusion capillary curves indicate that the higher matrix permeability values 2e 03 md occurs in samples that contain interconnected pore apertures greater than 16 m even when these samples may contain less macropores than low permeability samples the fabric of high permeability samples can be either isotropic or anisotropic however permeability of anisotropic samples is more sensitive to changes in effective stress than isotropic samples more highly anisotropic samples contain moderate amounts of quartz carbonate and in some clay high permeability samples that contain a more balanced ratio between micro meso and macroporosity would not only have faster flow rates but also greater access to sorbed gas within the microporosity compared to samples that lack mesopores several muskwa samples compared to evie and besa river samples contain higher quartz moderate clay and high toc content coupled with high permeability less sensitivity to effective stress and balanced ratios between micro meso and macroporosity would be a lower exploration risk due a greater propensity to fracture the ability to produce and store hydrocarbons due to higher toc contents and greater communication between macropores and micropores in the organic and clay fractions

a dynamical model of lithosphere extension and sedimentary basin formation convection in the upper mantle can give rise to normal stresses on the base of the continental lithosphere that may cause localized elevation of its surface and extensional deviatoric stresses this possibility is investigated assuming homogeneous biaxial strain in a continental lithosphere whose strength is governed by a combination of brittle failure and power law creep in the crust and by brittle power law or dorn law behavior in the mantle for a given geotherm and for rheologies based on current laboratory data the lithosphere responds to convection induced uplift in one of three ways depending primarily on the magnitude of the driving stresses these regimes are as follows 1 when the driving stress exceeds a threshold value the resulting strain rates are high enough greater than about 3 10 16 s 1 that the lithosphere strains almost isothermally its effective rheology is strain thinning and it undergoes accelerating extension the magnitude of the dynamic uplift required to produce the threshold value of the driving stress depends on the geotherm characterized here by the moho temperature and varies from about 1 km for a moho temperature of 700 c to around 3 km for a moho temperature of 550 c an uncertainty of at least 100 c is attached to these temperatures owing to the inaccuracies in extrapolating laboratory data to geological strain rates 2 at stress levels due to less than about half of the critical uplift extensional strain is negligible 3 at intermediate stress levels moderate uplift produces extension that is bounded by strength increases due to cooling of the ductile portion of the lithosphere during extension

pb isotopic compositions of archean komatiites and sulfides abstract pb isotopic compositions were measured in komatiites and other volcanic rocks from several archean greenstone belts and in magmatic and exhalative sulfides associated with these volcanics thin komatiite flows generally yielded pb pb isochron ages consistent with other geochronological or geological information but thicker basaltic flows gave ages that are too young these results suggest that the thin komatiite flows were hydrothermally altered during eruption and that this event is recorded by the pb pb age thicker basaltic flows resisted alteration during eruption but were affected by later events their pb pb ages probably correspond to the time of metamorphism and not to the time of emplacement magmatic and exhalative sulfides from the abitibi belt in canada fall on the same trend in the 207 pb 204 pb 206 pb 204 pb diagram as komatiites basalts sedimentary rocks and k feldspars from granites the calculated 1 value is 7 8 0 1 a similar suite of rocks and minerals from the kambalda area in australia has distinctly higher 207 pb 204 pb and a higher 1 of 8 3 nd isotopic data demonstrate that some kambalda rocks are highly contaminated with older continental crust the differences in initial pb isotopic compositions are attributed to the presence or absence and the age of underlying granitoid basement kambalda greenstones are underlain and contaminated by old 3 0 ga granitoid crust but significantly older granitoid basement appears absent from the abitibi belt the pb isotopic compositions of kambalda greenstones are dominated by the crustal component and do not represent the composition of the mantle source of these rocks the abitibi greenstones are not highly influenced by crustal contamination and their pb isotopic compositions may reflect those of archean mantle

a re examination of the type area of the devono mississippian cariboo orogeny central british columbia three tectonostratigraphic successions are established from remapping of the area near barkerville and cariboo river the first of late proterozoic to cambrian sediments was deposited on the shallow to moderately deep platformal shelf west of and derived from the exposed north american craton the second is an unconformably overlying ordovician to permian sequence of sedimentary and volcanic rocks representing a basinal environment with periodic highs these packages of sediments were deposited on the north american craton and its western transitional extensions the third succession composed of oceanic chert and basalt of the permo pennsylvanian antler formation was thrust eastward over the other two during the early mesozoic the three successions were folded faulted and metamorphosed during the mid mesozoic columbian orogeny the devono mississippian cariboo orogeny which was thought to have affected all of the first sequence and part of the second could not be documented in its type locality

hot regions and the origin of marginal basins in the western pacific abstract volcanic provinces showing no genetic relationship to plate boundaries may be classified into two categories hot spots which are a few hundred kilometers across and may be nearly fixed in position with respect to deep mantle and hot regions which are a few thousand kilometers across and can migrate more freely the mantle upwellings which presumably give rise to them may originate at different depths by different causes it is observed that the marginal basins older than 15 ma of the western pacific become progressively younger northward with the exception of the south fiji basin this leads to the hypothesis that the spreading of marginal basins was caused by the mantle upwelling associated with a migrating hot region and that a hot region which started from the australia region in the late cretaceous migrated northward successively creating the tasman coral sea caroline south china parece vela shikoku and japan basins through paleocene eocene oligocene and early miocene time this hot region presently underlies northern china mongolia and adjacent areas another hot region is assumed to have caused the spreading of the south fiji basin and all the currently spreading basins in the southwestern pacific spreading of individual marginal basins occurred during the short period when a hot region was passing the pertinent area the main merit of this hypothesis is that it can explain the relationship between the location and age as well as the short duration of spreading of western pacific marginal basins marginal basins are formed commonly though not always in the overriding plates near subduction zones because in such a setting a spreading marginal basin is readily accommodated either by an oceanward movement of the nearby subduction zone or by a continentward movement and subduction of the overriding oceanic plate there are a few marginal basins that were formed in other tectonic settings and accommodated by some other mechanism of compensative subduction presumably the splitting of the supercontinent pangea was also caused mainly by the effect of the mantle upwelling associated with the same hot region that later migrated northward creating marginal basins in the western pacific the main basis for this presumption is the fact that the splitting of pangea was completed in the australia region in middle cretaceous time whereas the spreading of marginal basins in the western pacific began in the same australia region in the late cretaceous immediately following

opening of the sea of japan back arc basin by asthenospheric injection abstract the position of a volcanic front on an arc is governed by dehydration reactions of amphibole chlorite in down dragged hydrated peridotite at the base of the mantle wedge as these reactions are essentially pressure dependent ca 3 5 gpa the paleo position of a volcanic front offers an estimate for the depth of the subducted oceanic lithosphere beneath it this paper evaluates volcanism in the northeast japan arc since the oligocene and discusses the mass transportation in the mantle wedge during the episode of back arc extension in the sea of japan with reference to the migration of the volcanic front the volcanic front during the oligocene ca 30 ma was located along the western coast of the present northeast japan are and migrated about 200 km trenchwards at 23 ma before the opening of the sea of japan back arc basin it follows that the angle of subduction became steeper during the period of 30 23 ma triggered by the injection of the asthenosphere into the mantle wedge the back arc extension of the sea of japan between 21 and 14 ma is a manifestation of the dynamic process of the lithosphere due to the asthenospheric injection the temperature of the injecting asthenospheric mantle was higher than that of the surrounding upper mantle or lithosphere this caused the characteristic volcanism at 23 22 ma 1 high magnesian andesite volcanism took place in the near trench region 2 across arc compositional variation was not observed 3 the volume of volcanic materials increases towards the back arc side of volcanic arc the volcanic front has migrated over a short distance inwards less than 100 km since 15 ma possible as a result of cooling in the mantle wedge because both amphibole and chlorite break down at slightly higher pressures at lower temperatures the upper mantle materials which injected into the mantle wedge and caused back arc spreading are identical to those of the mid oceanic ridge basalt source in sr nd isotopic compositions because volcanic rocks in the back arc region of the northeast japan arc show secular variation in isotopic compositions from enriched to depleted isotopic characteristics during the last 30 ma

late cretaceous to early paleogene paleomagnetic results from sikhote alin far eastern russia implications for deformation of east asia abstract welded tuffs in the bogopol and sijanov groups were sampled at 27 sites from 12 caldera formations in the sikhote alin mountain range around kavalerovo 44 3 n 135 0 e for chronological and paleomagnetic studies k ar age dates show that the welded tuffs erupted between 66 ma and 46 ma all sites yield reliable paleomagnetic directions with unblocking temperatures higher than 560 c the high temperature component at 12 sites and the medium temperature component at 3 sites in the bogopol group show reversed polarity d 193 7 i 57 6 95 8 1 the high temperature component at 11 sites in the sijanov group showed both reversed and normal polarities and its mean direction reveals no detectable deflection from north d 2 9 i 59 6 95 11 2 the combined paleomagnetic direction of the two groups yields a paleomagnetic pole of 250 5 e 84 1 n a 95 8 8 which falls near cretaceous paleomagnetic poles from outer mongolia inner mongolia the north china block and the south china block the sikhote alin area appears not to have been subjected to detectable motion with respect to east asia since about 50 ma this implies that the sikhote alin area behaved as an integral part of east asia during the opening of the japan sea at about 15 ma however significant separation between the paleomagnetic poles of east asia and europe during the jurassic paleogene implies a major relative movement between these two blocks since the paleogene

geodynamic models of convergent margin tectonics transition from rifted margin to overthrust belt and consequences for foreland basin development a quantitative geodynamic model for overthrusting of a passive continental margin during attempted continental subduction demonstrates the mechanical and thermal coupling between overthrust loads the lithosphere and the associated foreland basin the model treats the lithosphere as a two dimensional nonuniform elastic plate whose strength is controlled thermally the thermal and flexural evolution of a margin is followed from initial rifting and passive margin development through overthrusting and foreland basin deposition to postdeformational erosion our models indicate the following 1 foreland basin geometry is relatively insensitive to the age of the preexisting passive margin prior to overthrusting sensitivity decreases the farther the overthrust load is empl ced onto the craton 2 foreland basin depth is strongly influenced by the size of the overthrust load maximum depths in excess of 10 km 6 mi can occur given overthrust topography similar to the present day himalayas 3 a few tens of kilometers of postdeformational erosion can occur across topographically high orogenic belts before moderate topography is attained very little of this eroded material is deposited in the foreland basin most must bypass the basin because it also is subjected to erosion and associated flexural uplift 4 thick overthrusts as interpreted from cocorp profiling are consistent with low topographic expression because they were emplaced on preexisting oceanic and stretched continental lithosphere

evidence for subduction related components in the subcontinental mantle from low 3he 4he and 40ar 36ar ratio in mantle xenoliths from far eastern russia abstract by applying both vacuum crushing and stepwise heating methods for the extraction of the noble gases we have discovered 3he 4he ratios much lower than the atmospheric ratio 0 3 ra ra is the atmospheric 3he 4he ratio of 1 4 10 6 and relatively low 40ar 36ar ratios spectroscopic and petrographic observations confirm that there are at least two compositionally distinct fluids in these xenoliths liquid co2 inclusions and melt inclusions with shrinkage bubbles based on the crushing experiments it is inferred that the inclusions of liquid co2 have a 3he 4he ratio similar to that of morb and the component with the low 3he 4he ratio is derived from the shrinkage bubbles in the melt inclusions for the present samples the 40ar 36ar ratios obtained by crushing were less than 1000 suggesting incorporation of atmospheric components in the source materials since low 40ar 36ar ratios were observed irrespective of the occurrence of the liquid co2 inclusions the atmospheric component exists in the melt inclusions ne and xe isotopes are also consistent with incorporation of atmospheric components since the far eastern russia area was located at a subduction zone in the jurassic early cretaceous period it is most likely that the melt inclusions displaying atmospheric noble gas characteristics together with low 3he 4he ratios have been derived from the jurassic cretaceous subducted slab although we cannot exclude the possibility that low 3he 4he ratios are due to the existence of minor u bearing minerals in the lithospheric continental mantle caused by metasomatism we have no petrographical evidence for such minerals in this area on the other hand 3he 4he ratios observed in the liquid co2 inclusions which are similar to the morb like value might reflect the general character of the upper mantle the far eastern russian mantle may therefore be a morb like source that has been partly infiltrated by subduction related fluids

late triassic arc related potassic igneous rocks in the north american cordillera igneous rocks of late triassic age are widespread in the cordillera of western north america and except in wrangellia consist of subduction related plutonic and volcanic suites many of these including those in the stikinia quesnellia rattlesnake creek and jackson terrenes and in southern california are clinopyroxene rich and belong to high potassium and shoshonitic rock series features that are generally absent from older and younger igneous rocks in the same terranes the late triassic subduction related rocks are exposed in two discontinuous belts that lie east and west of the cache creek terrane in canada and correlative melange terranes farther south stratigraphic and structural data suggest that these belts were spatially separate magmatic arcs in late triassic time tectonic implications of this analysis include an explanation of middle jurassic cordilleran deformation as the result of collision of the western with the eastern belt absence of late triassic links between stikinia and quesnellia disassociation of stikinia with terranes in northwestern nevada and tentative correlation of the wallowa seven devils terrane with stikinia rather than wrangellia

intraplate volcanism controlled by back arc and continental structures in ne asia inferred from transdimensional bayesian ambient noise tomography intraplate volcanism adjacent to active continental margins is not simply explained by plate tectonics or plume interaction recent volcanoes in northeast ne asia including ne china and the korean peninsula are characterized by heterogeneous tectonic structures and geochemical compositions here we apply a transdimensional bayesian tomography to estimate high resolution images of group and phase velocity variations with periods between 8 and 70 s the method provides robust estimations of velocity maps and the reliability of results is tested through carefully designed synthetic recovery experiments our maps reveal two sublithospheric low velocity anomalies that connect back arc regions in japan and ryukyu trench with current margins of continental lithosphere where the volcanoes are distributed combined with evidences from previous geochemical and geophysical studies we argue that the volcanoes are related to the low velocity structures associated with back arc processes and preexisting continental lithosphere

crustal evolution of the eastern canadian cordillera the cordillera is not like the himalayas the himalayas are supported by the indian continent that was thrust under the asian continent the eastern cordillera is supported not by imbricated continents but by imbricated continental margin of the ancient western north america that ancient margin was compressed and imbricated as it was confined between the north american craton and the minicontinent of stikinia in the eastern canadian cordillera tectonic thickening is in the collision zone and not on either side of it as for example in the tibetan plateau where the underthrust indian continent has duplicated the thickness of the crust in the eastern canadian cordillera jurassic and early cretaceous thrusts and faults are directed away from the collision zone toward the converging blocks the oppositely directed thrust faults outline wedge shaped sheets of rock sedimentary and volcanic rocks cover the crystalline rocks on which they were deposited basement and the underlying upper mantle may have been detached from each other during the compression the basement therefore would have imbricated internally between the cover and the mantle as a duplex structure confinement of the ancient margin s basement between the colliding blocks requires that the volume of basement under the margin be the same as that presently between the colliding blocks the possibility of such an equality has been tested and confirmed in cross section the cross section of the ancient western margin from that test has many features comparable to cross sections recently drawn through the eastern continental margin of canada

detachment faulting and the evolution of passive continental margins major detachment faults play a key role in the lithospheric extension process in the basin and range province and may also be important in other continental extension terranes such detachment faulting leads to an inherent asymmetry of extensional structure and of uplift subsidence patterns detachment models developed for the formation of metamorphic core complexes can also be applied to the formation of passive continental margins we therefore suggest the existence of upper plate and lower plate passive margins these give rise to a complementary asymmetry of opposing margins after continental breakup transfer faults offset marginal features and allow margins to switch from upper plate to lower plate characteristics along strike

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

lithospheric folding based understanding on the origin of the back arc basaltic magmatism beneath jeju volcanic island 1 compression near collisional plate boundaries causes lithospheric folding which results in the decrease of the pressure beneath the ridge of the fold while the pressure beneath the trough increases the decompression beneath the lithosphere is likely to bring on basaltic magmatism along and below the ridge we investigate the subsurface structure beneath jeju cheju volcanic island and its vicinity and propose an alternative hypothesis that the basaltic magma beneath the island could be caused by episodic lithospheric folding unlike the prevailing hypothesis of the intraplate basaltic magmatism that requires extending lithosphere our hypothesis can explain how the basaltic magma could be generated at the back arc regions without the extension

stratigraphy and deformational history of the scrip nappe monashee mountains british columbia the scrip nappe a large recumbent anticline that occupies the northern selkirk and northern monashee mountains has an inverted lower limb some 50 km in length across strike and comprises stratigraphic divisions of the hadrynian horsethief creek group which can be traced southward with decreasing metamorphic grade through the selkirk mountains to the northern purcell mountains the scrip nappe has a southwesterly vergence and it formed that way during the first folding phase of the mesozoic columbian orogeny metamorphism no greater than biotite zone accompanied that first deformation the nappe was subsequently refolded into tight northeast verging folds metamorphism rose to upper amphibolite facies late in the second deformation phase after the metamorphic climax northeast verging buckle folds and associated crenulation cleavage formed locally during a third folding episode the entire nappe complex was then carried northeastward on the purcell thrust over the folds and thrusts of the western r

cordilleria a newly defined canadian microcontinent palaeomagnetic data and geological field evidence indicate that most of the western canadian cordillera lay 1 500 km south of its present position in the early cretaceous we suggest that this region comprised a microcontinent termed cordilleria which moved on the kula plate and collided with the craton 100 myr ago to form first the mackenzie mountains and then the rockies

imbricated terranes of the cariboo gold belt with correlations and implications for tectonics in southeastern british columbia the cariboo gold belt of east central british columbia is divided into four fault bounded sequences of distinct stratigraphy they are from east to west the cariboo continental shelf sediments barkerville continental shelf sediments and intercalated volcanics slide mountain rift related submarine pillow basalt chert and diorite and quesnel island arc sediments and subaqueous volcanics terranes each is separated from others by thrust faults grit phyllite limestone and volcanics of the barkerville terrane may be correlative with the eagle bay formation near adams lake and the lardeau group near kootenay lake barkerville terrane may be part of a more regional rock package selkirk terrane which is defined to include kootenay terrane badshot formation and horsethief creek and hamill groups selkirk terrane is i separated everywhere by a low angle fault from the overlying age equivalent but stratigraphically and structurally different cariboo terrane and ii separated by a system of f

multiple magma sources involved in marginal sea formation pb sr and nd isotopic evidence from the japan sea region the cenozoic basaltic rocks in sikhote alin and sakhalin exhibit a change over 55 m y from subduction zone related to continental rift related volcanism as the japan sea opened between eastern sikhote alin and the japan arc the temporal geochemical trends in volcanic rocks erupted before and during the opening of the japan sea suggesting that there was a change in magma source from the lithosphere to the depleted asthenosphere as the japan sea opening progressed two geochemical groups can be identified within the basalts that postdate the japan sea opening tholeiitic basalts and alkalic basalts as the tholeiitic basalts have emi type signatures we propose that the tholeiites had a significant contribution from an emi type precambrian subcontinental lithospheric mantle the alkalic basalts yielding geochemical characteristics similar to enriched oceanic island basalts may have been derived from the subcontinental asthenospheric mantle the opening of the japan sea was triggered by lateral migration of asthenospheric mantle from beneath northeast china toward the japan arc

crustal structure in tibet high seismic velocity in the lower crust a least squares procedure is used to extract pure path tibetan group velocities in the period range 8 100 s from fundamental mode rayleigh and love waves recorded along 50 mixed paths the crustal model derived from these dispersion data reveals that the lower half of the very thick 74 10 km tibetan crust has a shear velocity similar to those found in the lower crust beneath stable continental and shield regions a second interesting feature of the model is the presence of a prominent low velocity channel at midcrustal depth the uniqueness of the tibetan crustal structure places the plateau region in a class by itself among tectonic provinces characterized by high heat flow and or wide spread recent volcanism setting stringent constraints on tectonic models of the tibetan plateau

on the evolution of marginal basins this paper presents a critique of the models proposed to explain the formation of back arc basins those marginal basins located behind active or inactive trench systems and whose origin is inferred to be subduction related several marginal basins are not generically back arc but rather are related to the initiation of subduction continental rifting or plate boundary readjustments models of back arc basin formation must be consistent with the observed characteristics of back arc basins which include the following 1 the crustal structure and magnetic lineation patterns of back arc and major ocean basins are similar implying that the processes of crustal accretion in both tectonic environments are also similar 2 arc trench systems without currently spreading back arc basins are in the majority 3 although petrographically similar to and within the compositional range of midocean ridge basalts morb back arc basin basalts babb show consistent geochemical differences from n type morb and are in many respects transitional toward island arc tholeiites iat 4 distinct babb and iat mantle sources may be in extremely close proximity during the initial rifting of an island arc 5 rifting of the volcanic arc may occur on either side of the line of active volcanoes 50 km and may vary from one side to the other along strike 6 a remnant arc is not always developed 7 back arc spreading may be initiated above subducted lithosphere but with time the center of spreading migrates away from the arc and no longer overlies a benioff zone and 8 there is no simple correlation between the timing of global plate reorganizations and the formation of back arc basins the three main classes of models proposed to explain back arc basin formation are mantle diapirism induced aesthenospheric convection and global plate kinematics because the driving mechanism for the first two classes of models is provided by the local subducting slab these models fail to explain the temporal and spatial distribution of back arc basins the third class of models proposes that back arc basins should form whenever global plate interactions require divergence between the overriding plate and the trench line the latter being observed to move only in a seaward direction with respect to a hot spot reference frame however the tectonic setting of several back arc basins suggests that they represent more than just a passive response to kinematic boundary conditions for example some dynamic back arc force seems required to move the new hebrides tonga and south sandwich forearc plates seaward neither the local nor the global models adequately specify the necessary and or sufficient conditions for back arc basin formation a better understanding of the processes associated with the initiation of rifting and of subduction is required arc rifting and back arc spreading are both secondary phenomena to subduction but they are also primary extensional phenomena fundamentally analogous to continental rifting and the initial spreading of major ocean basins

the role of the shuswap metamorphic complex in cordilleran tectonism a review the shuswap metamorphic complex consists of three parts each with unique stratigraphy and orogenic evolution separated by major faults of diverse nature and having in common only a post late mesozoic tectonic history the first part the monashee complex is a possible extension of the precambrian shield that contains limited evidence of mesozoic orogenesis and that was rapidly uplifted during the cretaceous to paleogene the monashee decollement a warped mylonite zone interpreted as a regional thrust fault active through the middle jurassic separates this complex from the second part which contains rocks correlative with hadrynian to late paleozoic strata of the pericratonic prism the third part the okanagan complex straddling the 49th parallel from the okanagan valley to kootenay lake contains the probable exhumed roots of a mesozoic magmatic arc built upon possible north american continental and transitional crust and includes late paleozoic and early mesozoic suspect terranes the columbian or

secular variation of magma source compositions beneath the northeast japan arc abstract sr and nd isotopic compositions were determined for tertiary volcanic rocks with ages of 22 16 and 8 ma along the volcanic front in the ne japan arc in order to examine the secular variation of magma source compositions in the mantle wedge these rocks show no through time variation in both sr and nd isotope ratios 0 70412 0 704759 and 2 09 4 12 units respectively it follows that the subduction components do not increasingly pollute the magma source region during the continuous subduction of oceanic lithosphere the degree of pollution by the subduction components is controlled by the amount of clinopyroxene and aluminous phases in mantle wedge peridotites because h 2 o which causes partial melting of the mantle wedge beneath a volcanic front is supplied by the breakdown of both amphibole and chlorite in the dragged hydrated peridotite formed by the addition of slab derived fluid beneath the fore arc region