Search results for "subduction"
showing 10 items of 166 documents
High-pressure metamorphism in the Aegean, eastern Mediterranean: Underplating and exhumation from the Late Cretaceous until the Miocene to Recent abo…
2003
[1] We report 40Ar/39Ar ages from various tectonic units in the Aegean and westernmost Turkey. On the basis of published geochronologic data and our 40Ar/39Ar ages we propose that the Aegean is made up of several high-pressure units, which were successively underplated from the Late Cretaceous until the Miocene. Ages for high-pressure metamorphism range from 80–83 Ma in parts of the Vardar-Izmir-Ankara suture zone in the north to 21–24 Ma for the Basal unit in the Cyclades and the external high-pressure belt on Crete in the south. Published seismic data suggest that high-pressure metamorphism is currently occurring underneath Crete. Younging of high-pressure metamorphism in a southerly dire…
Late Hercynian Plate and Intraplate Processes within Europe
1987
The Hercynian orogenic belt of Europe consists of a central crystalline ridge which is accompanied on both sides by a rather unmetamorphosed foldbelt. It is speculated that the crystalline ridge represents some kind of island arc system underlain by a segment of continental crust. On both sides this island arc system was involved in subduction of oceanic crust, first of the Mideuropean Sea in the North and then of the Paleotethys in the South. When the continental areas to the north and south of the oceanic areas (North America/Northern Europe and Africa) finally got involved in the subduction processes, continent/continent collision took place on both sides of the island arc system. The tw…
3D Architecture and Plio-Quaternary evolution of the Paola Basin: New insights to the Forearc of the Tyrrhenian-Ionian Subduction System
2018
The 3D stratigraphic architecture and the Pliocene to Quaternary evolution of the Paola Basin (offshore western Calabria), a segment in the fore-arc of the Tyrrhenian-Ionian subduction system, are reconstructed by using a grid of unpublished of multi-channels, high-penetration, seismic-reflection profiles acquired in the frame of the project SINBUS, integrated by bathymetric data from EMODnet-Bathymetry portal. The Paola Basin is a NNW-SSE elongated, ~ 60 km long and ~20 km wide, slightly asymmetric syncline, which hosted Plio-Quaternary deposits up to 5.5 km thick in its depocenter. The Plio-Quaternary sequence shows an eastward progradational internal geometry that becomes sub-horizontal …
Constraints on the sources of post-collisional K-rich magmatism: The roles of continental clastic sediments and terrigenous blueschists
2017
Abstract The possible role of continental sediments in the generation of potassium-enriched lavas of the Alpine-Himalayan belt depends on their melting behaviour either during subduction or during post-collisional relaxation. Although usually classed as orogenic lavas, these volcanic rocks may result from re-melting of newly formed mantle lithosphere 30–40 million years after collision ends, and can thus be considered as the first stage of intraplate volcanism. The potassic component in these volcanics is characterized by a high Th/La signature for which there are two competing explanations: melting of subducted continental clastic sediments, and the involvement of lawsonite blueschists in …
Origin and crystallization history of Permian tholeiites from the Saar-Nahe trough, SW Germany
1973
The Hirschberg and Rodern diatremes, within the Permian Saar-Nahe trough, SW Germany, are composed chiefly of basaltic tuffs, with associated small intrusions of K-rich tholeiites. Several tholeiite bodies carry 2–20 mm crystals of magnesian clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene, the latter containing up to 5.5% Al2O3 and often extensively resorbed and rimmed by fine-grained olivine and clinopyroxene. Experimental duplication of these pyroxenes has been achieved under conditions of Pload=6–10 kb, T=1280–1080° C and 2–4 wt.-% H2O, confirming that they represent a rare occurence of high pressure phenocrysts in tholeiitic basalts. These conditions of pyroxene crystallization also place constraints o…
A Reappraisal of Redox Melting in the Earth’s Mantle as a Function of Tectonic Setting and Time
2010
Redox melting refers to any process by which melt is generated by the contact of a rock with a fluid or melt with a contrasting oxidation state. It was originally applied to melting owing to the oxidation of reduced CH4and H2-bearing fluids in contact with more oxidized blocks in the mantle, particularly recycled crustal blocks.This oxidation mechanism causes an increase in the activity of H2O by the reaction of CH4 with O2, and the increased aH2O causes a rapid drop in the solidus temperature, and is here termed hydrous redox melting (HRM). Recently, a second redox melting mechanism (carbonate redox melting; CRM) has been discovered that operates in more oxidized conditions, and may post-d…
The fate of subducted oceanic slabs in the shallow mantle: Insights from boron isotopes and light element composition of metasomatized blueschists fr…
2012
Abstract Serpentine muds from South Chamorro Seamount (SCS), drilled during ODP Leg 195 at Site 1200 contain metamafic clasts that experienced blueschist-facies metamorphism (including the critical mineral assemblage pumpellyite – Na-amphibole – epidote). These schists represent fragments from the actual slab–mantle interface at ~ 27 km depth. Their heterogeneous lithology with a metasomatic character indicates significant mobility of major elements in the Mariana forearc, a region of melange formation as it can also be observed in onland exposures such as the Catalina Schist. As the Mariana forearc blueschists show no late stage alteration they permit the direct study of material transfer …
Two-Stage Origin of K-Enrichment in Ultrapotassic Magmatism Simulated by Melting of Experimentally Metasomatized Mantle
2019
The generation of strongly potassic melts in the mantle requires the presence of phlogopite in the melting assemblage, while isotopic and trace element analyses of ultrapotassic rocks frequently indicate the involvement of subducted crustal lithologies in the source. However, phlogopite-free experiments that focus on melting of sedimentary rocks and subsequent hybridization with mantle rocks at pressures of 1&ndash
Self-consistent subduction initiation induced by mantle flow
2015
Mantle circulation in planets with strongly temperature-dependent viscosity results in stagnant-lid convection. It is fundamental to understand how this stagnant-lid regime can change into a plate-like convection regime as on the present-day Earth. Here, we use 2D numerical models to study subduction initiation from an initial stagnant lid with laboratory-consistent parameters and without pre-existing weak zones or kinematic boundary conditions. Our results show that subduction can be initiated dynamically as a result of a thermal localization instability. The lithosphere may deform in a stagnant-lid mode, an un-necking mode, a symmetric-subduction mode or an asymmetric-subduction mode. The…
Modeling evolution of the San Andreas Fault system in northern and central California
2012
[1] We present a three-dimensional finite element thermomechanical model idealizing the complex deformation processes associated with evolution of the San Andreas Fault system (SAFS) in northern and central California over the past 20 Myr. More specifically, we investigate the mechanisms responsible for the eastward (landward) migrationof the San Andreas plate boundary over time, a process thathas largely determined the evolution and present structure of SAFS. Two possible mechanisms had been previously suggested. One mechanism suggests that the Pacific plate first cools and captures uprising mantle in the slab window, subsequently causing accretion of the continental crustal blocks. An alt…