Island Arc最新文献

The investigation of whole-rock major and trace element geochemical data from metapelites, incorporating analyses from both previous studies and new localities within the Highland Complex (HC) of Sri Lanka and the Trivandrum Block of India (TB), aimed to discern the nature and tectonic setting of their provenance. Examination of chondritic REE distribution and K versus K/Rb diagrams suggests that the geochemistry of the studied metapelites closely resembles typical Post Archaean Australian Shale (PAAS), North American Shale Composite (NASC), and Upper Continental Crust (UCC), indicating minimal modification during high-grade metamorphism. Predominantly, the protoliths of the metasediments appear to be shales and greywackes derived from Proterozoic felsic to intermediate sources. Tectonic discrimination diagrams reveal that most metapelites correspond to active continental margins and continental island arcs. These geochemical characteristics suggest that the majority of studied metapelites in the HC and TB originate from felsic to intermediate sources, likely deposited within a continental arc setting. Subsequently, these sediments likely accreted in an accretionary prism and underwent metamorphism during continental-continental collision. The congruence in geochemical signatures between metapelites in the HC and TB, along with established tectonic, geochronological, petrological, mineralogical, and geophysical correlations, implies that precursor sediments of metasedimentary rocks were likely deposited within a laterally extensive Neoproterozoic sedimentary basin.

The Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO) formed shallow marine strata on continents and island arcs at ~15 Ma, and some of the MMCO strata later experienced uplift. The amount of uplift corresponded to sea level rise after the MMCO period, but ancient sea level could not be observed. This study uses a deductive approach to estimate the amount of uplift. The elevation of the youngest marine sedimentary layer of the MMCO strata approximates the sea level at the MMCO. The current elevation was reconstructed by adding the amount of denudation from the MMCO to the current elevation of the denuded MMCO strata at the outcrops, considering isostatic compensation. The amount of denudation since the MMCO period was estimated to be 180 m based on the global average denudation rate (Willenbring et al., 2013), and the estimated isostatic rebound was 153 m. By comparing the current, albeit virtual, elevation of the youngest marine sedimentary layer in the MMCO strata with sea level at the MMCO, the amount of uplift was estimated. For the MMCO sea level, a 66 m ice-free line was adopted. This method was applied to the Kibi Plateau in Southwest Japan, where the MMCO strata are distributed. The reliability of the denudation amount of 180 m for the MMCO strata was confirmed by paleo-water depths estimated using benthic foraminifera and mollusk fossils. The largest uplift of 504 ± 27 m occurred at the Jinseki-Kogen since 15 Ma. A positive correlation was observed between the amount of uplift and the current altitude of the Kibi Plateau. The Kibi Plateau's topography most likely evolved after the MMCO. It is concluded that a new perspective on estimating the uplift was obtained by taking denudation into account.

During the Mesozoic, the tectonic evolution of the southeastern margin of the South China Block was mainly influenced by the subduction of the Palaeo-Pacific Plate. The sedimentary basins along the southeastern margin of the South China Block have preserved the sedimentary record of this process. In this paper, the sedimentary rocks of the Lishan Formation and Zhangping Formation in the Zhangping area of the southeastern margin of the South China Block are studied in terms of sedimentology, petrography, lithogeochemistry, U–Pb chronology of detrital zircon, and zircon trace elements. The study shows that the detrital zircon U–Pb age of the Lishan Formation is 2965–202 Ma, with two major age groups: 253–220 Ma and 1925–1799 Ma; the detrital zircon U–Pb age of the Zhangping Formation is 2587–190 Ma, with two major age groups: 246–234 Ma and 1929–1861 Ma; the ancient sediments in the samples are affected by recycle, and the Early Jurassic source area in the study area is an acidic magma zone, while the Middle Jurassic source area is located in a moderately acidic magma zone and recycle body; the Early Jurassic Lishan Formation and Middle Jurassic Zhangping Formation are mainly derived from the Wuyi Massif. In the upper section of the Lishan Formation, the secondary age groups of ca.448 and ca.773 Ma occur, and the detrital zircons in this section are mainly from the Jiangnan orogenic belt. The ongoing subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Plate led to the formation of diverse back-arc basins within the region; during the Early Jurassic, it was a back-arc compressional basin, transitioning into a back-arc extensional basin during the Middle Jurassic.

Serpentinite mélanges occur as thin horizons up to 350 m thick within coherent schists of the Nishisonogi unit of the Nagasaki Metamorphic Complex located in western Kyushu, which represent serpentinite-hosted exhumation channels within a Cretaceous subduction complex. This study gives the petrography of coherent schists and various tectonic block types embedded in serpentinite or chlorite-actinolite schist of the mélange. The P–T conditions recorded in these rocks were compared, to clarify a possible exhumation process and style of the Nishisonogi unit. In the mélange, two types of tectonic blocks were recognized based on peak temperature conditions: a lower temperature type (400–590°C) and a higher temperature type (780–830°C), the latter of which shows temperatures higher than those of the coherent schists (370–450°C). The garnet glaucophanite in the coherent schists shows a prograde pressure increment from 0.9 to 2.3 GPa. The serpentinite mélange comprises tectonic blocks with peak temperatures higher than those of the coherent schists, indicating that blocks from the deep structural levels of the lower-plate underwent tectonic mixing into the mélange during exhumation. Ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) conditions have not been recorded either in the coherent schists or in the serpentinite mélanges, although microdiamonds have been reported from the Yukinoura mélange located at the western margin of the Nishisonogi unit (Nishiyama et al., Scientific Reports, 2020, 10, 11645). A possible correlation between the Nishisonogi unit and other HP metamorphic rocks or belts (Renge rocks, Suo Belt and Sanbagawa Belt) was examined to conclude that the Nishisonogi unit is a unique paleo-subduction complex in terms of the coexistence of HP subduction complex with intercalated serpentinite mélanges and a UHP mélange derived from the slab-mantle interface.

Eocene to Lower Miocene coal-bearing formations in northern and western Kyushu, northern Ryukyu arc, are folded, and the horizontal compression has been attributed to the opening of the Japan Sea or to the significant movement along the Median Tectonic Line and its southwestern extension. However, the timing and implication of the folding are not well understood. To deal with these issues, we studied the Amakusa region where the folded Eocene strata with a total thickness of a few kilometers. Paleomagnetic directions of Middle Miocene intrusions and of Late Miocene lavas were measured in this study to apply the fold test to judge the relative timing of the folding and magmatism. As a result, the concentration of the directions was improved by the tilt-correction, indicating the folding younger than the magmatism. Our detailed geological mapping revealed that the folding is older than a horizontally-lying basaltic lava which yielded a K–Ar age of 6.8 Ma, because folded Eocene formations were truncated and unconformably blanketed by the lava. In addition, we found that some of the normal faults trending perpendicular to the folds were reactivated as transfer faults after the normal faulting which also postdated the magmatism. This reactivation is concordant with the above-mentioned relative timing. Synthesizing geological data from surrounding regions, we conclude that the folding was probably contemporaneous with the Taiwan-Shinji fold belt which grew in the Ryukyu and southwest Japan backarcs. Since the simultaneous compression affected not only these regions but also northeast Japan, the compression possibly resulted from the resumed subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate in the Serravallian–Tortonian time.

Multiple branch oceans existed in the Paleo-Asian Ocean (PAO), but their closure times are in dispute and unclear, which constrains our understanding of the final closure time of the PAO and the tectonic evolution of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). This study focuses on the Permian plutons of the northern Alxa, which is located in the middle segment of the southern CAOB that recorded the final subduction history of the PAO. We performed the 1:50000 mapping, whole-rock geochemistry, geochronology, and Sr-Nd-Hf isotopic analysis and compiled the Sr-Nd-Hf isotopic compositions and whole-rock geochemical data of igneous rocks from the northern Alxa. LA-ICP-MS zircon U–Pb dating reveals the study plutons emplaced in the Early Permian (285–296 Ma). Whole-rock geochemical data show the intrusion belongs to medium-K calc-alkaline peraluminous highly fractionated I-type granite, enriched in Rb, K, Th, Pb, and depleted in Nb, Ta, Ti, Sr, and P elements, which suggest a subduction arc-related setting and metaluminous to weak peraluminous parental magma. The weak negative ε_Nd(t) (from −2.3 to −1.2), relatively high I_Sr (0.704772–0.708037) and depleted mantle model ages T_DM (1.14–1.49 Ga), combining with weak negative to slightly positive ε_Hf(t) (from −2.0 to +4.1) and crustal model ages T_DM^C (1.18–1.43 Ga), indicate that the parental magma might originate from remelting of the Mesoproterozoic lower crust and mixing with mantle-derived materials. The field occurrence, deformation, and geochemical features, integrating with the compiled data and regional geology, show that the igneous rocks formed before or after the late Early Permian show different features in terms of deformation, zircon saturation temperatures, crustal thickness, potassium contents, and ε_Hf(t) values. This might relate to the closure of the Yagan branch ocean of the PAO in northern Alxa.

Igneous rocks are fractured during cooling from magma to form cooling joints, which are typically columnar joints in volcanic rocks, while orthogonal joints are considered typical for plutonic rocks. We performed a 3D study of joint systems in a granitic batholith of the Okueyama granite in western Japan, which has its roof and its internal structures from the roof to 1000 m downward exposed. We used an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to observe the joints in outcrops from various angles. Based on our study, we propose a schematic model for joint systems in a granitic pluton. A granitic pluton has zones of rock columns below the roof and next to the wall. The rock column zone below the roof is as thick as 300 m, and its higher portions form steep cliffs, probably because of increased resistance to weathering. The axes of the rock columns are nearly vertical below the roof and gently plunge next to the walls, with high intersection angles with the wall. The distribution of columnar joints near only the roof and walls suggests that the granite cooled more rapidly near the roof and walls than in the core of the pluton. When the granite was jointed by parallel joints during cooling, the rock slabs between the parallel joints near the roof and the walls are subdivided into columns with polygonal cross-sections. This suggests that the granite was fractured by parallel joints at a temperature immediately below the solidus, after which the rock slabs were subdivided into rock columns during further cooling.

The Early Cretaceous Takanokura Formation in the eastern part of the Abukuma Mountains consists of a lower felsic ignimbrite and upper intermediate lavas and volcaniclastic rocks, representing the initial arc-type in northeast Japan. In this study, I analyzed the major and trace element contents and Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic ratios of these eruptive products; then, I discussed their magma genesis based on their geochemical properties. Although igneous rocks of the same period in other localities of northeast Japan are characterized by the occurrence of adakites, these volcanism are composed of non-adakitic high- to medium-K andesite to rhyolite that are rich in large-ion lithophile elements and poor in high-field-strength elements and have low Sr/Y values and flat heavy rare earth element patterns. Furthermore, these rocks have high radiogenic Pb isotopic ratios. The rhyolite and dacite have been thought to derive from crustal melting, whereas the andesite formed by the mixing of crustal felsic melts and mafic magmas generated by melting of the lithospheric mantle. Although previous studies attributed the formation of the Early Cretaceous adakites to the hot subduction of a mid-ocean ridge, recent global plate motion reconstructions reject this model. To generate magma from a cold slab and lithospheric mantle that does not spontaneously melt, the mantle wedge under northeast Japan must have experienced heating. During this period, the volcanic province along the eastern margin of Eurasia expanded rapidly toward the trench, forming grabens. Therefore, I concluded that the advance of the hot asthenosphere into the forearc region that led to this expansion, which caused the retreat of the subduction boundary of the paleo-Pacific plate to retreat and ultimately converted northeast Japan from an accretionary complex into a volcanically active region.

Trace elements in igneous zircon crystals exhibit variability within single crystals or among populations of crystals, demonstrating heightened sensitivity to changes in melt composition. The three distinct types of zircons in the Nuqara caldera complex (659 ± 16 Ma andesites, 602.3 ± 4.4 Ma rhyolites, and 589.4 ± 6.1 Ma rhyolite porphyry; A, B, and C, respectively) signify a collective geological history influencing the multistage magmatic evolution. Significantly, the studied zircons demonstrate growth rate and variable length-to-width ratios that progressively increase from A to C. Ti-in-zircon geothermometer (T_Ti-in-zrc = 924°C) along with the internal structure and geochemistry of type A zircons, such as very weak cathodoluminescence (CL) brightness, zoning, and higher concentrations of some trace elements content, suggest their formation during the early, hotter, and less-evolved melt stage of volcanic activity. Type B zircons exhibit T_Ti-in-zrc (833°C) and commonly display resorption with an absence of singular dark CL, indicating substantial reheating of the magma reservoir. The interaction between the incoming evolved magma and the resident magma results in the formation of zircon rims during the magma cooling, featuring significant overlaps in zircon trace elements. This final phase in the Nuqara caldera complex marks the complete hybridization of the initially distinct magmas, culminating in a gradual cooling process. The newly formed zircons (type C) are characterized by light CL features with weak zoning occurring either as the rim of the oscillatory zoned zircon or as an individual zircon grain. Their less evolved chemical signature and T_Ti-in-zrc (708°C) highlight the significance of this final stage in shaping the overall geochemical and thermal evolution. The obtained zircon data, spanning from the initial crystallization to the subsequent recharge, mixing, and hybridization stages, delineate the discernible phases in the formation of the Nuqara caldera, providing insights into the transitions from subduction to collision-related geological processes.