Rapid subduction initiation and magmatism in the Western Pacific driven by internal vertical forces

Maunder, B.; Prytulak, J.; Goes, S.; Reagan, M.

Abstract

Plate tectonics requires the formation of plate boundaries. Particularly important is the enigmatic initiation of subduction: the sliding of one plate below the other, and the primary driver of plate tectonics. A continuous, in situ record of subduction initiation was recovered by the International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 352, which drilled a segment of the fore-arc of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana subduction system, revealing a distinct magmatic progression with a rapid timescale (approximately 1 million years). Here, using numerical models, we demonstrate that these observations cannot be produced by previously proposed horizontal external forcing. Instead a geodynamic evolution that is dominated by internal, vertical forces produces both the temporal and spatial distribution of magmatic products, and progresses to self-sustained subduction. Such a primarily internally driven initiation event is necessarily whole-plate scale and the rock sequence generated (also found along the Tethyan margin) may be considered as a smoking gun for this type of event.

Citation

Maunder, B., Prytulak, J., Goes, S., & Reagan, M. (2020). Rapid subduction initiation and magmatism in the Western Pacific driven by internal vertical forces. Nature Communications, 11(1), Article 1874. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15737-4

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 12, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Apr 20, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020
• Deposit Date: Apr 21, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 21, 2020
• Journal: Nature Communications
• Electronic ISSN: 2041-1723
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 1874
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15737-4
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1272987