Rocks metamorphosed under high-pressure (HP) and ultra high-pressure (UHP) conditions in subduction zones come back to the surface relatively soon after their burial and at rates comparable to plate boundary velocities. In the Mediterranean realm, their occurrence in several belts related to a single subduction event shows that the burial-exhumation cycle is a recurrent transient process. Using...

Cenozoic convergence between the Indian and Asian plates produced the archetypical continental collision zone comprising the Himalaya mountain belt and the Tibetan Plateau. How and where India-Asia convergence was accommodated after collision at or before 52 Ma remains a long-standing controversy. Since 52 Ma, the two plates have converged up to 3,600 ± 35 km, yet the upper crustal shortening d...

The metamorphic sole rocks at the base of mantle peridotites from the Mersin ophiolite consist of amphibolites and metasedimentary lithologies. Mineral parageneses in the metamorphic sole rocks exhibit amphibolite and greenschist facies assemblages. Geothermobarometric studies based on mineral assemblages and chemical compositions of minerals indicate that average metamorphic temperature during...

salafchegan-khorhe volcanic rocks are exposed within urumieh-dokhtar magmatic belt. different kinds of volcanic and subvolcanic rocks of calc-alkaline to alkaline character have been reported throughout this magmatic belt. since, isotopic investigations are very useful for detection of magma petrogenesis and because no isotopic studies have been done in this area, so a geochemical and isotopic ...

The Izu-Bonin-Mariana (IBM) island arc formed following initiation of subduction of the Pacific plate beneath the Philippine Sea plate at about 52 Ma. Site U1438 of IODP Expedition 351 was drilled to sample the oceanic basement on which the IBM arc was constructed, to better understand magmatism prior to and during the subduction initiation event. Site U1438 igneous basement Unit 1 (150 m) was ...

The B and Pb isotope systems are widely applied tracers of recycling processes occurring during subduction. Studies examining these complementary systems as a pair enjoy considerable success, where B primarily records the thermal and fluid evolution of the subducting slab, whereas the tripartite Pb system constrains the source of subducted material returned to volcanic arcs. However, interpreta...

It is generally accepted that continental subduction and crustal exhumation play an important role in the evolution of many orogenic belts. A variety of geological evidence suggests that continental crust is occasionally subducted to depths of tens to perhaps 150 km (e.g. Chopin, 1984; Dewey et al., 1993; Matte et al., 1997). Recently, a series of simulations (Chemenda, 1993; Chemenda et al., 1...

Global topographic data and the assumption of Airy isostasy have been used to estimate the crustal volumes of the continents and the oceanic and continental submarine plateaus. The calculated crustal volumes are 7182 X lo6 km3 for the continents, 242 x lo6 km3 for continental submarine plateaus, and 369 X lo6 km3 for oceanic plateaus. The Falkland Plateau and the Lord Howe Rise are the two larg...

In the process of subducted slab capture, a spreading ridge approaches subparallel to a subduction zone following the trailing edge of a downgoing plate. Eventually the downgoing plate is too young and small to subduct, and spreading stops. The spreading ridge stalls many tens of kilometres outboard of the subduction zone. The subducted plate welds to the outboard plate across the dormant sprea...

[1] Although mantle slabs ultimately drive plate motions, the mechanism by which they do so remains unclear. A detached slab descending through the mantle will excite mantle flow that exerts shear tractions on the base of the surface plates. This ‘‘slab suction’’ force drives subducting and overriding plates symmetrically toward subduction zones. Alternatively, cold, strong slabs may effectivel...