Dataset Information

Southwest Pacific Absolute Plate Kinematic Reconstruction Reveals Major Cenozoic Tonga-Kermadec Slab Dragging.

ABSTRACT: Tectonic plates subducting at trenches having strikes oblique to the absolute subducting plate motion undergo trench-parallel slab motion through the mantle, recently defined as a form of "slab dragging." We investigate here long-term slab-dragging components of the Tonga-Kermadec subduction system driven by absolute Pacific plate motion. To this end we develop a kinematic restoration of Tonga-Kermadec Trench motion placed in a mantle reference frame and compare it to tomographically imaged slabs in the mantle. Estimating Tonga-Kermadec subduction initiation is challenging because another (New Caledonia) subduction zone existed during the Paleogene between the Australia and Pacific plates. We test partitioning of plate convergence across the Paleogene New Caledonia and Tonga-Kermadec subduction zones against resulting mantle structure and show that most, if not all, Tonga-Kermadec subduction occurred after ca. 30 Ma. Since then, Tonga-Kermadec subduction has accommodated 1,700 to 3,500 km of subduction along the southern and northern ends of the trench, respectively. When placed in a mantle reference frame, the predominantly westward directed subduction evolved while the Tonga-Kermadec Trench underwent ~1,200 km of northward absolute motion. We infer that the entire Tonga-Kermadec slab was laterally transported through the mantle over 1,200 km. Such slab dragging by the Pacific plate may explain observed deep-slab deformation and may also have significant effects on surface tectonics, both resulting from the resistance to slab dragging by the viscous mantle.

SUBMITTER: van de Lagemaat SHA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6175462 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Southwest Pacific Absolute Plate Kinematic Reconstruction Reveals Major Cenozoic Tonga-Kermadec Slab Dragging.

van de Lagemaat Suzanna H A SHA van Hinsbergen Douwe J J DJJ Boschman Lydian M LM Kamp Peter J J PJJ Spakman Wim W

Tectonics 20180818 8

Tectonic plates subducting at trenches having strikes oblique to the absolute subducting plate motion undergo trench-parallel slab motion through the mantle, recently defined as a form of "slab dragging." We investigate here long-term slab-dragging components of the Tonga-Kermadec subduction system driven by absolute Pacific plate motion. To this end we develop a kinematic restoration of Tonga-Kermadec Trench motion placed in a mantle reference frame and compare it to tomographically imaged slab ...[more]

PMID: 30344365

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Project description:SE Asia comprises a heterogeneous assemblage of fragments derived from Cathaysia (Eurasia) in the north and Gondwana in the south, separated by suture zones representing closed former ocean basins. The western part of the region comprises Sundaland, which was formed by Late Permian-Triassic amalgamation of continental and arc fragments now found in Indochina, the Thai Penisula, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sumatra. On Borneo, the Kuching Zone formed the eastern margin of Sundaland since the Triassic. To the SE of the Kuching Zone, the Gondwana-derived continental fragments of SW Borneo and East Kalimantan accreted in the Cretaceous. South China-derived fragments accreted to north of the Kuching Zone in the Miocene. Deciphering this complex geodynamic history of SE Asia requires restoration of its deformation history, but quantitative constraints are often sparse. Paleomagnetism may provide such constraints. Previous paleomagnetic studies demonstrated that Sundaland and fragments in Borneo underwent vertical axis rotations since the Cretaceous. We provide new paleomagnetic data from Eocene-Miocene sedimentary rocks in the Kutai Basin, east Borneo, and critically reevaluate the published database, omitting sites that do not pass widely used, up-to-date reliability criteria. We use the resulting database to develop an updated kinematic restoration. We test the regional or local nature of paleomagnetic rotations against fits between the restored orientation of the Sunda Trench and seismic tomography images of the associated slabs. Paleomagnetic data and mantle tomography of the Sunda slab indicate that Sundaland did not experience significant vertical axis rotations since the Late Jurassic. Paleomagnetic data show that Borneo underwent a ~35° counterclockwise rotation constrained to the Late Eocene and an additional ~10° counterclockwise rotation since the Early Miocene. How this rotation was accommodated relative to Sundaland is enigmatic but likely involved distributed extension in the West Java Sea between Borneo and Sumatra. This Late Eocene-Early Oligocene rotation is contemporaneous with and may have been driven by a marked change in motion of Australia relative to Eurasia, from eastward to northward, which also has led to the initiation of subduction along the eastern Sunda trench and the proto-South China Sea to the south and north of Borneo, respectively.

Dataset Information

Southwest Pacific Absolute Plate Kinematic Reconstruction Reveals Major Cenozoic Tonga-Kermadec Slab Dragging.

Publications

Southwest Pacific Absolute Plate Kinematic Reconstruction Reveals Major Cenozoic Tonga-Kermadec Slab Dragging.

Similar Datasets

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