Pacific subduction control on Asian continental deformation including Tibetan extension and eastward extrusion tectonics

Schellart, Wouter P.; Chen, Zhihao; Strak, Vincent; Duarte, João C.; Rosas, Filipe

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-12337-9

Cited by 80 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…At the earlier stage of Neo‐Tethys subduction northward under the continental Eurasian plate between ~70 and 45 Ma, the subducting plate moved very fast, with a speed ranging between 10 and 20 cm/year (White & Lister, 2012). In addition, tectonic reconstructions show that the India‐Eurasia collision boundary has moved northward (Replumaz et al, 2004; Replumaz & Tapponnier, 2003; Schellart et al, 2019), which indicates trench advance and implies slab rollover. Particularly, recent work (Schellart et al, 2019) estimated that the India‐Eurasia collision zone has migrated approximately northward some 1,700 km over the last 50–55 Myr, with an average “trench” advance rate of about 3.2–3.5 cm/year.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Plate Length on Subduction Kinematics and Slab Geometry: Insights From Buoyancy‐Driven Analog Subduction Models

2020

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Subduction style is controlled by a variety of physical parameters. Here we investigate the effect of subducting plate length on subduction style using laboratory experiments of time-evolving buoyancy-driven subduction in 3-D space. The investigation includes two experimental sets, one with a lower (~740) and one with a higher (~1,680) subducting plate-to-mantle viscosity ratio (η SP /η M). Each set involves five models with a free-trailing-edge subducting plate and variable plate length (20-60 cm, scaling to 1,600-4,800 km), and one model with a fixed-trailing-edge subducting plate representing an infinitely long plate. Through determining the contact area between subducting plate and underlying mantle, plate length affects the resistance to trenchward motion of the subducting plate and thus controls the partitioning of the subduction velocity (v S) into the subducting plate velocity (v SP) and trench velocity (v T). This subduction partitioning thereby determines the subduction style by controlling the dip angle of the slab tip once it first touches the 660 km discontinuity. The low η SP /η M models display two subduction styles. Short plates (≤40 cm) induce a higher subduction partitioning ratio (v SP /v S), promoting trench advance and slab rollover geometries, whereas longer plates (≥50 cm) lead to a lower v SP /v S , producing continuous trench retreat and backward slab draping geometries. In contrast, the high η SP /η M models exclusively show trench retreat with draping geometries, as the high η SP /η M enables less slab bending before its tip touches the 660 km discontinuity. Our study indicates that future modeling work should consider the effects of plate length on the style and evolution of subduction.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Plate Length on Subduction Kinematics and Slab Geometry: Insights From Buoyancy‐Driven Analog Subduction Models

2020

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“…The role of pull from the southeast Asian oceanic slab to the whole Indian continent-Indian Ocean plate is invoked to drive the indentation motions of the Indian plate in the Cenozoic, as the slab pull force must have vanished here (Capitanio & Replumaz, 2013;Guillot et al, 2003). This is supported by stress field continuity throughout the Asian plate (Hieronymus et al, 2010;Schellart et al, 2019;Warners-Ruckstuhl et al, 2012) and mantle flow (Jolivet et al, 2018;Sternai et al, 2016) from Tibet toward the southeast Asia.…”

Section: Modeling the Force Balance Of Continental Tectonicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although here the "balanced topography assumption" (Warners-Ruckstuhl et al, 2012) is followed, implying that the topographic load is balance to the first order (plate-scale) by stress due to plate boundary forces (Lyon-Caen & Molnar, 1985). The role of crustal flow (Clark & Royden, 2000;England & McKenzie, 1982) and gravitational spreading has been addressed by several works focusing on a reduced Asian area (Bischoff & Flesch, 2018;Clark, 2012;Clark & Royden, 2000;Copley et al, 2010) (Schellart et al, 2019).…”

Section: Constraining the Forces Driving Asian Tectonicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several works addressed the Cenozoic dynamics of Asian tectonics by means of numerical and analog modeling, where the self-consistent force balance results into boundary forces and deformation inside the plate during subduction, slab break-off and collision (Bajolet et al, 2013;Capitanio et al, 2015;Capitanio & Replumaz, 2013;Pusok & Kaus, 2015;Sternai et al, 2016). These models showed that thickening and lateral motions are the results of subduction and far-field forces, such as the Indian slab pull, the ridge push, traction beneath India and the Pacific subduction (Becker & Faccenna, 2011;Capitanio et al, 2010;Ghosh et al, 2006;Schellart et al, 2019), and large-scale mantle tractions beneath Asia (Sternai et al, 2016). These works illustrate relevant processes explaining tectonic forces, surface motions, and deformation, although the application to current deformation and/or tectonics remains difficult: large-scale models cannot reproduce realistic lithospheric geometries, crustal structures, and topography, and most of the Cenozoic tectonics has now decreased or vanished outside of the Tibet and Tian Shan regions (e.g., Kreemer et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Current Deformation in the Tibetan Plateau: A Stress Gauge in the India‐Asia Collision Tectonics

Capitanio

2020

Geochem Geophys Geosyst

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Geodetic velocities and mantle seismic anisotropy provide relevant constraints to the dynamics of the Asian continent. Here, these are compared to numerical models of subduction, collision, and upper plate deformation, developing features similar to the present‐day India‐Asia region. Varying buoyancy and far‐field forces, the models provide coupled surface and mantle motions and deformation allowing a first‐order agreement to the observables in the Tibetan area. Observed trends are reproduced when the pull from the Indian slab vanishes and the neighboring southeast Asian slab drives extrusion in eastern Tibet, matching GPS rotation and convergence‐perpendicular component, and a far‐field force acts to increase the GPS convergence‐parallel component and lithospheric thickening observed in the Tian Shan‐Tibetan domain. The net force exerted on the Tibetan lithosphere is ~2.6 × 1012 N/m, mostly due to neighboring southeast Asian subduction, and raises to ~2.8 × 1012 N/m, when additional far‐field forces apply. Largest suction force exerted on the Sunda margin is ~2.4 × 1012 N/m, whereas the comparison to seismic anisotropy supports the idea that the mantle is passive. These are interpreted in the context of the differential along‐strike dynamics of the Indian‐southeast Asian subduction: The coupled indentation‐suction along the plate margin drives large‐scale extrusion, while the excess stress along the Indian margin is accommodated by Tibetan lithospheric thickening. The models constrain the boundary forces and lithospheric processes of the Asian tectonics and emphasize the role of large‐scale coupling of the Indian margin and the southeast Asian subduction.

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“…Recently, Boutelier et al [2019]) described PIV-derived finite deformation by U. Contrastingly, the infinitesimal strain tensor (equation 15) that has often been used to describe relatively large deformations (e.g. [Adam et al, 2013, Hoth et al, 2007, Sun et al, 2018, Poppe et al, 2019, Schellart et al, 2019), describes shape changes properly only for small shears and small rotations. Especially, quantities such as principal strains, area change, and rotation from the infinitesimal strain tensor no longer hold for large shear (section 2.5.4).…”

Section: Correct Strain Tensors For Large Deformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping and classifying large deformation from digital imagery: application to analogue models of lithosphere deformation

Broerse¹,

Krstekanić²,

Kasbergen³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), an image cross-correlation technique, is widely used for obtaining velocity fields from series of images of deforming objects. Rather than instantaneous velocities, we are interested in reconstructing cumulative deformation, and use PIV-derived incremental displacements for this purpose. Our focus is on analogue models of tectonic processes, which can accumulate large deformation. Importantly, PIV provides incremental displacements during analogue model evolution in a spatial reference (Eulerian) frame, without the need for explicit markers in a model. We integrate the displacements in a material reference (Lagrangian) frame, such that displacements can be integrated to track the spatial accumulative deformation field as a function of time. To describe cumulative, finite deformation, various strain tensors have been developed, and we discuss what strain measure best describes large shape changes, as standard infinitesimal strain tensors no longer apply for large deformation. PIV or comparable techniques have become a common method to determine strain in analogue models. However, the qualitative interpretation of observed strain has remained problematic for complex settings. Hence, PIV-derived displacements have not been fully exploited before, as methods to qualitatively characterize cumulative, large strain have been lacking. Notably, in tectonic settings, different types of deformation-extension, shortening, strike-slip-can be superimposed. We demonstrate that when shape changes are de-1 non-peer reviewed EarthArXiv preprint submitted for review to Geophysical Journal International scribed in terms of Hencky strains, a logarithmic strain measure, finite deformation can be qualitatively described. Thereby, our method introduces a physically meaningful classification of large 2D strains. We show that our method allows for accurate mapping of tectonic structures in analogue models of lithospheric deformation, and complements visual inspection of fault geometries. Our method can easily discern complex strike-slip shear zones, thrust faults and extensional structures and its evolution in time. Our software to compute deformation is freely available and can be used to post-process incremental displacements from PIV or similar autocorrelation methods.

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Pacific subduction control on Asian continental deformation including Tibetan extension and eastward extrusion tectonics

Cited by 80 publications

References 80 publications

Effect of Plate Length on Subduction Kinematics and Slab Geometry: Insights From Buoyancy‐Driven Analog Subduction Models

Effect of Plate Length on Subduction Kinematics and Slab Geometry: Insights From Buoyancy‐Driven Analog Subduction Models

Current Deformation in the Tibetan Plateau: A Stress Gauge in the India‐Asia Collision Tectonics

Mapping and classifying large deformation from digital imagery: application to analogue models of lithosphere deformation

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