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Japan Sea, Opening History and Mechanism: a Synthesis Laurent Jolivet, Kensaku Tamaki, Marc Fournier

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Japan Sea, Opening History and Mechanism: a Synthesis Laurent Jolivet, Kensaku Tamaki, Marc Fournier Japan Sea, opening history and mechanism: A synthesis Laurent Jolivet, Kensaku Tamaki, Marc Fournier To cite this version: Laurent Jolivet, Kensaku Tamaki, Marc Fournier. Japan Sea, opening history and mechanism: A synthesis. Journal of Geophysical Research : Solid Earth, American Geophysical Union, 1994, 99 (B11), pp.22237-22259. 10.1029/93JB03463. insu-00726737 HAL Id: insu-00726737 https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00726737 Submitted on 31 Aug 2012 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 99, NO. Bll, PAGES 22,237-22,259, NOVEMBER 10, 1994 Japan Sea, openinghistory and mechanism:A synthesis Laurent Jolivet D6partementde G6ologie,Ecole Normale Sup6rieure,Paris, France Kensaku Tamaki OceanResearch Institute, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Marc Foumier D6partementde G6ologie,Ecole Normale Sup6rieure, Paris, France Abstract. The respectivetectonic effects of backarc spreadingand continental collision in Asia are consideredeither as two independentprocesses or asclosely interrelated. Extrusion tectonics assumesthat the openingof the SouthChina Seaand the left-lateralmotion along the Red River fault aregeometrically linked in a pull-apartmanner. This modelis not acceptedby several workersbecause the structurallink betweenthe two processesis not clearlydemonstrated. In the caseof theJapan Sea,, we canshow without ambiguity that back arc opening was controlled by largeintracontinental strike-slip faults which can be easilyunderstood as effects of the India-Asia collisionfar from the indenter.The JapanSea opened in the early Miocenein a broadpull-apart zonebetween two majordextral strike-slip shear zones. The first oneextends from northSakhalin to centralJapan along 2000 km, it hasaccommodated about 400 km of finite displacement. Deformationalong it variesfrom dextraltranspression in the northto dextraltranstension in the south.The secondis betweenKorea and SW Japanand has accommodated a smaller displacementof about200 km. The extensionaldomain in betweenlies in theback arc region of Japan.Distributed stretching of thearc crust resulted in theformation of mostof theJapan Sea, while localizedoceanic spreading at the southerntermination of the easterntranspressional shear zoneshaped the Japan Basin. The firstoceanic crust was formed in a smalltriangle based on the easternshear zone, and spreadingpropagated westward inside the pull-apartregion. Timing of oceanic crust formation, of formation of the dextral shear zones and of block rotation in between, as well as the internalstructure of the basinsand the geometryof deformationalong the master shearzones are usedto reconstructthe openinghistory. This evolutionis discussedby comparison to othermanifestations of the arc andback arc activity,such as the historyof sedimentationand volcanism.The paperthen suggests that the collisionof India canhave tectonic consequences as far northas Japan and Sakhalin and describes the geometricalrelation of backarc opening there and diffuse extrusion. Introduction is discussedgenerally in termsof extrusionversus crustal thickeningas a result of the indentationof Asia by India The deformationof Asia (Figures 1 and 2) is viewed (see, for instance, a recent discussionby Dewey et al. commonlyas if the region northof the indenter(Tibetan [1989] or Le Pichon et al. [1992]). The opening of the plateau,Tien Shan)and immediately east of it (Indochina) SouthChina Sea is, for instance,seen by Tapponnieret al. is deformedas a responseto the Himalayancollision only [ 1982] and Peltzer and Tapponnier[ 1988] as the resultof and the back-arc regions along the Sunda and Pacific extrusionof Indochina alone. The merely passiverole of trenchesare deforming as an effect of subductiononly, the subduction zone played in these schemesis very without any link between both. Moreover, most papers unlikely, however,given that large back arc basinsopened dealing with the Cenozoic deformation of the Asian along the eastern border of the Philippine Sea plate continentdescribe it in sucha way that the influenceof the (Shikoku-Parece Vela Basin) as a response to the eastern and southeasternplate boundariesis ignored, particularstress conditions created in the upperplate by althoughit is obviousthat large extensional and strike-slip the subductionof the Pacific plate. Far from the indenter, deformationis concentratedin the back arc regionsof the the most obvious deformation features related to collision Sunda and Pacific subduction trenches. Finite deformation are localized strike-slipshear zones such as the Red River fault or the Altyn Tagh fault. Further away from it, marginalbasins have openedduring the collisionprocess, Copyright1994 by the AmericanGeophysical Union. and one can consider collision as a possible cause for , opening [Tapponnieret al., 1982; Kimura and Tamaki, Papernumber 93JB03463. 1986; Jolivet et al., 1990]. This paper deals with the 0148-0227/94/93JB-03463505.00 openingmechanism of marginalbasins settled onto the 22,237 22,238 JOLIVET ET AL.' JAPAN SEA, OPENING HISTORY AND MECHANISM EURASIA ß ß I INDIAI 10'N ß ß IPRESENTI colli • Figure 1. General geodynamicframework of Asia, SoutheastAsia, and the northwestPacific. Fault patterninside Asia after Tapponnieret al. [1982].Doubleopen arrows represent the directionof relative convergenceacross intracontinental thrust zones,open semi-arrowsrepresent the senseof relative motionalong major strike-slipfaults, open single arrows represent relative direction of motionof the subductingplate in subductionzones, and solid divergentarrows representdirection of relative divergenceacross major zonesof extension. margin of the deformingEurasia and showshow back arc thePhilippine Sea plate makes it unlikelythat the opening openingand intracontinental strike-slip faults cooperate to is dueonly to collisionbecause there is a priori no link shapethose basins on the exampleof theJapan Sea. betweenthe internaldeformation of the PhilippineSea Most of the northwestPacific large back arc basins plate and the India-Eurasiainteractions. Pacific subduction opened between the late Oligocene to middle Miocene obviouslyplayed a largerole in theopening, as recognized [Taylor and Karner, 1983;Mrozowski and Hayes, 1979; earlier by most authors working on marginal basins Taylor and Hayes, 1983; Tamaki, 1986; Briais, 1989; [Karig, 1971; Uyedaand Kanarnori,1979; Uyeda, 1986; Chamot-Rookeet al., 1987;Taylor et al., 1990;Rangin et Viallon et al., 1986; Uyeda and McCabe, 1983; Tarnaki al., 1990a, b; Tamaki and Honza, 1991]. Most are now in and Honza, 1991; Honza, 1991]. Analog experiments a closingstage [Tamaki and Honza, 1984;Rangin and performedby $hemenda[1993] showthat trenchroll back Silver, 1991],active back arc spreadingand rifting being and back arc opening during fast convergenceare activeonly alongthe easternmargin of thePhilippine Sea physicallyfeasible. In someconditions, tensional stresses plate in the Mariana trough [Karig et al., 1978; Stern et can be appliedto the upperplate and lead to the opening al., 1984] and Bonin rift [Taylor, 1992], and in the of oceanicbasins above a convergentzone. The geometry Okinawa trough [Wageman et al., 1970; Kimura, 1985; of the East Asian marginalbasins is, however,controlled Letouzeyand Kimura, 1985; $ibuet et al., 1987]. That the by large strike-slipfaults, which can hardlybe relatedto largest basinsopened at almost the sametime from the the subductionprocess only. The Red River fault has,for Sulu Sea to the Kuril basinon the Eurasianmargin, and instance, accommodated some 500 km of left-lateral the Shikoku-PareceVela basin on the easternmargin of displacementduring the South China Sea opening, JOLIVET ET AL.: JAPAN SEA, OPENING HISTORY AND MECHANISM 22,239 60øE 70øE 80øE 90øE 100øE 110øE 120øE 130øE 140øE 50øN 40øN 30øN 20øN 10øN Figure 2. Generalbathymetry and topography of Asia andwest Pacific. Contours: 5000, 3000, 1000, 0, -1000, and -3000 are represented.Regions deeper than 3000 meters(oceanic crust in general)in marginal seasare ruled. according to Tapponnier et al. [1982, 1986, 1990] or flow and basementdepth [TamakL 1988] and the tectonic Peltzer and Tapponnier [ 1988]. Dextral motion is known history of the margins [lijima and Tada, 1990, and also along the marginsof the JapanSea and extends2000 references therein]. It instead contradicts the classical km far from the subductionzone along northeastJapan considerationthat the Japan Sea opened by fast rigid and Sakhalin [Lallemand and Jolivet, 1985; Jolivet and rotations in a bar-door fashion, as deduced from Miyashita, 1985; Jolivet and Huchon, 1989; Jolivet et al., paleomagnetic data (Otofuji and Matsuda [1983], and 1991, 1992; Fournier et al., 1994]. Total dextral offset subsequentpapers). Subsidence history of severalsections was recentlyquantified to a minimum 400 km [Jolivetand insidethe basinand alongthe margins[Ingle, 1992] is also Tamaki, 1992]. CenozoicN-S dextralstrike-slip motion is consistentwith the pull-apart model that we proposed recordedalso in the regionof the North China basin[Chen
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