Controls of Subduction Geometry, Location of Magmatic Arcs, and Tectonics of Arc and Back-Arc Regions
Controls of subduction geometry, location of magmatic arcs, and tectonics of arc and back-arc regions TIMOTHY A. CROSS Exxon Production Research Company, P.O. Box 2189, Houston, Texas 77001 REX H. PILGER, JR. Department of Geology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803 ABSTRACT States), intra-arc extension (for example, convergence rate, direction and rate of the Basin and Range province), foreland absolute upper-plate motion, age of the de- Most variation in geometry and angle of fold and thrust belts, and Laramide-style scending plate, and subduction of aseismic inclination of subducted oceanic lithosphere tectonics. ridges, oceanic plateaus, or intraplate is caused by four interdependent factors. island-seamount chains. It is crucial to Combinations of (1) rapid absolute upper- INTRODUCTION recognize that, in the natural system of the plate motion toward the trench and active Earth, the major factors may interact and, overriding of the subducted plate, (2) rapid Since Luyendyk's (1970) pioneer attempt therefore, are interdependent variables. De- relative plate convergence, and (3) subduc- to relate subduction-zone geometry to some pending on the associations among them, in tion of intraplate island-seamount chains, fundamental aspect(s) of plate kinematics a historical and spatial context, their aseismic ridges, and oceanic plateaus and dynamics, subsequent investigations effects on the geometry of subducted litho- (anomalously low-density oceanic litho- have suggested an increasing variety and sphere can be additive, or by contrast, one sphere) cause low-angle subduction. Under complexity among possible controls and variable can act in opposition to another conditions of low-angle subduction, the resultant configurations of subduction variable and result in total or partial cancel- upper surface of the subducted plate is in zones.
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