The Evolution of the Island Arc of Japan and the Formation of Granites in the Circum-Pacific Belt

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The Evolution of the Island Arc of Japan and the Formation of Granites in the Circum-Pacific Belt JOURNALOF GEOMAGNETISMAND GEOELECTRICITY VOL. 23, No. 3, 4, 1971 The Evolution of the Island Arc of Japan and the Formation of Granites in the Circum-Pacific Belt Naoto KAWAI, Tadashi NAKAJIMA and Kimio HIROOKa+ Department of Material Physics, Faculty of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan (Received April 27, 1971) Abstract From a palaeomagnetic study and radiometric investigation of Cretaceous intrusive rocks it was recently suggested that the Palaeozoic basin formed in the northeastern Japan was severely deformed at the end of Mesozoic era. This resulted in a narrowing and shortening of the entire length of the Japanese islands. The northeastern block moved southwestward by approximately 200km and southwestern northeastward by 150km, whereas the middle block remained relative- ly unmoved but was compressed between the two blocks. As the compressional forces increased, first the Palaeozoic sediments of the central block were uplifted, and subsequently the "median line" was formed. Along the latter line, the northern half of the southern block moved eastward relative to the southern half. A strong uniaxial stress superimposed upon a hydrostatic one oc- curred associated with the relative movement. The sediments as the results recrystallized to form the three major metamorphic belts. During and after these movements, the compressed zone in the middle of the island was push- ed to the east to form a great warp in the island. Such a simple model of a bend accompanied by a tension crack as predicted by Kawai, Ito and Kume several years ago was reconsidered. The contraction of the basin was finally related to the eastward drift of Asian continent upon the Creta- ceous Pacific sea floor. The drift of the continents around the Pacific resulted in the narrowing of the ocean as well as the shortening of the coastal line. That of the Japanese islands is a part of the shortening that occurred around the Pacific zone. We suggest that the heat of friction was accumulated at the deep-seismic plane (Benioff zone) at which the down and west going ocean floor and the up-thrusting mantle have been conflicting. The mantle nearby the deep-seismic plane was, therefore, warmed up until it partially melted. An acidic and migmatitic magma initiated at the friction interface was intruded into the pre-exist- ing fracture zone occupying the front. Production of frictional heat was, we believe, succeeded even in the Tertiary period when effective drift was no longer evident but the retardation of the motion of the continent was much stronger. Heat required to cause the Tertiary volcanic activity might be due to this friction. 1. Palaeomagnetic Results and Radiometric Dating of Igneous Rocks Sedimentary and igneous rocks ranging in age from Triassic to the Recent were collected from various localities in Japan. The directions of natural remanent magnet- ism of these rocks were measured. The results obtained show that the directions found + Present Address: Faculty of Education , Fukui University 267 268 N. KAWAI, T. NAKAJIMA and K. HIROOKA were nearly parallel or antiparallel in the late Tertiary rocks regardless of the localities from which the rock specimens were collected, although there exist local differences in the direction of the remanent magnetism in pre-Tertiary rocks. Rocks from the northeastern Japan are all found to have northwesterly directions. In contrast those from the southwestern Japan have northeasterly directions. In order to reconcile the discrepancy, Kawai et al. (1961) proposed an occurrence of a land mass motion with which it is possible to bend a comparatively straight pre- Cretaceous land to form the present bow-shaped island arc. They assumed an anti- clockwise rotation of the northern Japan by about 50° relative to the southern Japan. This great bend was estimated to have been made at the end of Mesozoic era. Recently an extensive survey was carried out with the aim of determining the geo- logical age of a number of igneous rocks intruded during the time of the deformation. Thus, it became possible not only to know when the bending was initiated and came to the end but also to clarify the relation between the plastic deformation and the igneous activity. Granites and granodiorites whose ages were already determined by Kawano and Ueda (1964, 1966) were collected from the northeastern Japan. After AC. and thermal cleaning the remanent magnetism was measured under an astatic magnetometer. In Table 1 are tabulated the results of the measurements, localities from which the rocks were collected, and the geologic ages determined. In Fig. 1 are shown the dis- tribution of magnetic declinations and the localities of the collected rocks. The intrusive rocks in the northeastern Japan, according to the K-Ar dating of Kawano's results (1967), can be classified into the following three major groups; KITAKAMI MASSIF of the ages ranging from 120m.y. to 110m.y., ABUKUMA MASSIF of the ages ranging from 100m.y. to 90m.y. and ASAHI-TIDE MASSIF of the ages ranging from 70m.y. to 55m.y. The granitic rocks of Kitakami Massif were collected from the following localities, Sugo, Akabane, Ochiai, Hosozawa, Hitokabe, Senmaya, Tono, Yoshihama and Otomo in Iwate Pref. and also from Kinkazan in Miyagi Pref. The rocks of Abukuma Massif were collected from Abukuma, Shiobite, Tsushima and Hirusone in Fukushima Pref. On the other hand the rocks of Asahi-Tide Massif were collected from Nogawa Dam, Yakuwa Dam, Suganodai, Sekigawa and Ootorigawa in Yamagata Pref., respectively. In the Kitakami Massif, the oldest rock (121m.y.) has the most westerly declination of 61°W, and the youngest (106m.y.) has declination of 35°W. In Abukuma Massif, declinations of the oldest (101m.y.) and youngest (92 m.y.) rocks are 33°W and 7°E, respectively. In the above two districtss the rocks having intermediate age have intermediate declination as shown in the Schmidt's equal area projection (Fig. 2). On the other hand, Asahi-Tide intrusive rocks have almost easterly declinations. In Figs. 3 and 4 are shown the changes of magnetic declinations and incli- nations, respectively, with geologic age in the northeastern Japan. In Fig. 3, it can be seen that the change of declination occurred twice, once in a range extending from 120 to 115m.y. and then in a range from 100 to 85m.y. The Evolution of the Island Arc of Japan and the Formation of Granites in the Circum-Pacific Belt 269 Fig. 1 Directions of remanent magnetization of Cretaceous rocks in Japan A detailed palaeomagnetic research of the southwestern Japan had already been carried out by Kawai et al. (1961) and also followed by Sasajima et al. (1966, 1968). The results are summarized in Table 2. The localities from which the rocks were collected are all in the regions west of the geotectonic structure, the "Fossa Magna", and north of the "median line" as shown in Figs. 1 and 8. In Figs. 5 and 6 are shown the changes of declination and inclination, respectively, with geologic time in the southwestern Japan. As shown in Fig. 5, no abrupt change of declination occurred in the southwestern Japan. The declination decreased gradually from 60°E to 40°E in a range from the Cretaceous to the Paleogene, and this gradual change has continued to the present. It seems 270 N. KAWAI, T. NAKAJIMA and K. HIROOKA Fig. 2 Direction of N.R.M. of granitic rocks from the northeastern Japan (plotted on a Schmidt's equal area projection) AM, SB, YM, etc, are the abbreviations of the localities of the sampling sites tabulated in Table 1, and the numbers annexed to them in the brackets are the determined ages in million years. Fig. 3 Change in declination of N.R.M, with geologic time in the northeastern Japan. The Evolution of the Island Acr of Japan and the Formation of Granites in the Circum-Pacific Belt 271 Fig. 4 Change in inclination of N.R.M, with geologic time in the northeastern Japan Fig. 5 Change in declination of N.R.M, with geologic time in the southwestern Japan (Sasajima et al. 1966 and 1968) 272 N. KAWAI, T. NAKAJIMA and K. HIROOKA Fig. 6 Change in inclination of N.R.M, with geologic time in the southwestern Japan (Sasajima et al. 1966 and 1968) Fig. 7 Change in declination in Japan (summarized from Fig. 3 and Fig. 5) The Evolution of the Island Arc of Japan and the Formation of Granites in the Circum-Pacific Belt 273 reasonable to consider that this continuous curve is the result of the so-called "polar wan- dering". In Fig. 7 are summarized the changes of declination in both the northeastern and southwestern Japan. Mean declinations of the remanent vectors in Kitakami district differ by 85° and that in Abukuma district differ by 50° from the mean declination of the southwestern Japan. On the other hand, the mean declination of the rocks in Asahi- Iide does not show a large difference from the southwestern Japan. In contrast to the remarkable differences in declination in the above-mentioned districts, one cannot find any large difference in the inclination of the magnetic vectors over the entire island as shown in Figs. 4 and 6. In order to explain the facts mentioned above the present authors (1969) proposed an occurrence of an extreme plastic deformation in which are involved not only a great bend in the middle of the island but also other subsidiary bends at other places. At the present stage of our study in which the sequence of the Cretaceous intrusion was well clarified by means of radiometric age determination, it is possible to discuss the land mass deformation much more in detail as will be shown in the following para- graphs.
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