Dynamic buckling of subducting slabs reconciles geological and geophysical observations

Lee, Changyeol; King, Scott D.

doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2011.10.033

Cited by 96 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Trench-motion fluctuations due to buckling can be enhanced if the upper plate can break and heal (Clark et al, 2008). Models where the slab buckles in its interaction with the transition zone produce variations in upper-plate stress on time scales similar to those observed in, for example, the Andes or backarc spreading phases for Tonga (Clark et al, 2008;Capitanio et al, 2010b;Lee and King, 2011). Karato et al (2001) proposed that slab weakening in the transition zone associated with small grain size around a wedge of metastable olivine in the slab's core may be key for trapping slab material in the transition zone and that this would be most effective for intermediate age slabs, which are hot and thin enough to bend but with a core that is cold enough to induce a sluggish olivine-to-wadleyite phase transition.…”

Section: Role Of Upper Plate and Mantle Resistance: External Controlsmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Several studies have estimated that some slabs, e.g., the Cocos, Java, and Hellenic slabs, thicken by a factor of 4-5 upon entering into the lower mantle, to widths of ~400 km (Ribe et al, 2007;Loiselet et al, 2010), or even 400-700 km for the slabs below North America (Sigloch and Mihalynuk, 2013); while thickening in the lower-mantle slab anomalies below the Indian plate has been estimated to be about a factor of 3 (Hafkenscheid et al, 2006). Such strong thickening has commonly been attributed to slab buckling that starts in the transition zone (Ribe et al, 2007;Běhounková and Čížková, 2008;Lee and King, 2011). Thickening has been inferred to be less for some of the older penetrating slabs below the western Pacific (Marianas, Kermadec, Loiselet et al, 2010) but may still be a factor of two, an amount which can also be achieved by simple compressional thickening (Gurnis and Hager, 1988;Běhounková and Čížková, 2008).…”

Section: Seismic Tomography: Lower-mantle Slabsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, trench motion is enhanced and modulated by interaction with a viscosity and/or phase change (Becker et al, 1999;Bellahsen et al, 2005;Capitanio et al, 2010b;Čížková and Bina, 2013;Garel et al, 2014;Agrusta et al, 2017). As the slab accumulates in the transition zone, alternating phases of somewhat higher and lower retreat velocities (with accompanying changes in dip) tend to develop Lee and King, 2011;Čížková and Bina, 2013;Garel et al, 2014). These fluctuations are an expression of slab buckling, because even where the slab flattens at the base of the transition zone, the deformation is essentially a buckling response (Houseman and Gubbins, 1997;Ribe et al, 2007), as is seen most clearly in models with weaker slabs or ones where sinking is enhanced (Lee and King, 2011;Čížková and Bina, 2013;Cerpa et al, 2014).…”

Section: Role Of Upper Plate and Mantle Resistance: External Controlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the slab accumulates in the transition zone, alternating phases of somewhat higher and lower retreat velocities (with accompanying changes in dip) tend to develop Lee and King, 2011;Čížková and Bina, 2013;Garel et al, 2014). These fluctuations are an expression of slab buckling, because even where the slab flattens at the base of the transition zone, the deformation is essentially a buckling response (Houseman and Gubbins, 1997;Ribe et al, 2007), as is seen most clearly in models with weaker slabs or ones where sinking is enhanced (Lee and King, 2011;Čížková and Bina, 2013;Cerpa et al, 2014). Trench-motion fluctuations due to buckling can be enhanced if the upper plate can break and heal (Clark et al, 2008).…”

Section: Role Of Upper Plate and Mantle Resistance: External Controlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Models predict significant buckling and thereby thickening when the viscosity contrast encountered by the slabs at the base of the transition zone is at least a factor of 20 or 30 (Gurnis and Hager, 1988;Gaherty and Hager, 1994;King, 2002;Běhounková and Čížková, 2008;Lee and King, 2011;Čížková and Bina, 2013) The increase in slab pull due to a shallowing olivine to wadsleyite phase transition in the slab ~400 km depth may enhance buckling (Běhounková and Čížková, 2008). Finally, some amount of transition-zone slab buckling is consistent with focal mechanisms (e.g., Myhill, 2012), as well as with high seismic strain rates inferred for the Tonga slab (Giardini and Woodhouse, 1984;Bevis, 1988;Holt, 1995).…”

Section: Lower-mantle Slab Morphologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Subduction-transition zone interaction: A review

et al. 2017

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Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. ABSTRACTAs subducting plates reach the base of the upper mantle, some appear to flatten and stagnate, while others seemingly go through unimpeded. This variable resistance to slab sinking has been proposed to affect long-term thermal and chemical mantle circulation. A review of observational constraints and dynamic models highlights that neither the increase in viscosity between upper and lower mantle (likely by a factor 20-50) nor the coincident endothermic phase transition in the main mantle silicates (with a likely Clapeyron slope of -1 to -2 MPa/K) suffice to stagnate slabs. However, together the two provide enough resistance to temporarily stagnate subducting plates, if they subduct accompanied by significant trench retreat. Older, stronger plates are more capable of inducing trench retreat, explaining why backarc spreading and flat slabs tend to be associated with old-plate subduction. Slab viscosities that are ~2 orders of magnitude higher than background mantle (effective yield stresses of 100-300 MPa) lead to similar styles of deformation as those revealed by seismic tomography and slab earthquakes. None of the current transition-zone slabs seem to have stagnated there more than 60 m.y. Since modeled slab destabilization takes more than 100 m.y., lower-mantle entry is apparently usually triggered (e.g., by changes in plate buoyancy). Many of the complex morphologies of lower-mantle slabs can be the result of sinking and subsequent deformation of originally stagnated slabs, which can retain flat morphologies in the top of the lower mantle, fold as they sink deeper, and eventually form bulky shapes in the deep mantle.

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Section: Role Of Upper Plate and Mantle Resistance: External Controlsmentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Seismic Tomography: Lower-mantle Slabsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Role Of Upper Plate and Mantle Resistance: External Controlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Role Of Upper Plate and Mantle Resistance: External Controlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Lower-mantle Slab Morphologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Subduction-transition zone interaction: A review

et al. 2017

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A fictitious domain method for lithosphere‐asthenosphere interaction: Application to periodic slab folding in the upper mantle

Cerpa

Hassani

Gerbault

et al. 2014

Geochem Geophys Geosyst

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We present a new approach for the lithosphere-asthenosphere interaction in subduction zones.The lithosphere is modeled as a Maxwell viscoelastic body sinking in the viscous asthenosphere. Both domains are discretized by the finite element method, and we use a staggered coupling method. The interaction is provided by a nonmatching interface method called the fictitious domain method. We describe a simplified formulation of this numerical technique and present 2-D examples and benchmarks. We aim at studying the effect of mantle viscosity on the cyclicity of slab folding at the 660 km depth transition zone. Such cyclicity has previously been shown to occur depending on the kinematics of both the overriding and subducting plates, in analog and numerical models that approximate the 660 km depth transition zone as an impenetrable barrier. Here we applied far-field plate velocities corresponding to those of the South-American and Nazca plates at present. Our models show that the viscosity of the asthenosphere impacts on folding cyclicity and consequently on the slab's dip as well as the stress regime of the overriding plate. Values of the mantle viscosity between 3 and 5 3 10 20 Pa s are found to produce cycles similar to those reported for the Andes, which are of the order of 30-40 Myr (based on magmatism and sedimentological records). Moreover, we discuss the episodic development of horizontal subduction induced by cyclic folding and, hence, propose a new explanation for episodes of flat subduction under the South-American plate.

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Interaction of subducted slabs with the mantle transition‐zone: A regime diagram from 2‐D thermo‐mechanical models with a mobile trench and an overriding plate

Garel

Goes

Davies

et al. 2014

Geochem Geophys Geosyst

184

294

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Transition zone slab deformation influences Earth's thermal, chemical, and tectonic evolution.However, the mechanisms responsible for the wide range of imaged slab morphologies remain debated. Here we use 2-D thermo-mechanical models with a mobile trench, an overriding plate, a temperature and stress-dependent rheology, and a 10, 30, or 100-fold increase in lower mantle viscosity, to investigate the effect of initial subducting and overriding-plate ages on slab-transition zone interaction. Four subduction styles emerge: (i) a ''vertical folding'' mode, with a quasi-stationary trench, near-vertical subduction, and buckling/folding at depth (VF); (ii) slabs that induce mild trench retreat, which are flattened/''horizontally deflected'' and stagnate at the upper-lower mantle interface (HD); (iii) inclined slabs, which result from rapid sinking and strong trench retreat (ISR); (iv) a two-stage mode, displaying backward-bent and subsequently inclined slabs, with late trench retreat (BIR). Transitions from regime (i) to (iii) occur with increasing subducting plate age (i.e., buoyancy and strength). Regime (iv) develops for old (strong) subducting and overriding plates. We find that the interplay between trench motion and slab deformation at depth dictates the subduction style, both being controlled by slab strength, which is consistent with predictions from previous compositional subduction models. However, due to feedbacks between deformation, sinking rate, temperature, and slab strength, the subducting plate buoyancy, overriding plate strength, and upper-lower mantle viscosity jump are also important controls in thermo-mechanical subduction. For intermediate upper-lower mantle viscosity jumps (330), our regimes reproduce the diverse range of seismically imaged slab morphologies.

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Dynamic buckling of subducting slabs reconciles geological and geophysical observations

Cited by 96 publications

References 45 publications

Subduction-transition zone interaction: A review

Subduction-transition zone interaction: A review

A fictitious domain method for lithosphere‐asthenosphere interaction: Application to periodic slab folding in the upper mantle

Interaction of subducted slabs with the mantle transition‐zone: A regime diagram from 2‐D thermo‐mechanical models with a mobile trench and an overriding plate

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