Cordilleran-type orogeny and episodic growth of continents: Insights from the circum-Pacific continental margins |
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| Authors: | Takahiro Tagami & Noriko Hasebe |
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| Institution: | Department of Geology and Mineralogy, Division of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606–8502;Email: <;>and, Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Science, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa 920–1192, Japan;Email: <;> |
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| Abstract: | A new material migration hypothesis for the plate subduction zone orogeny, so-called ‘the cordilleran-type orogeny’, is proposed on the basis of geological constraints as well as mechanics of accretionary wedges. The major tectonic processes of the hypothesis comprise: (i) episodic, extensive magmatism along the margin of an overriding plate; (ii) supply of voluminous igneous and eroded materials through forearc to trench, with an increase in the net sediment influx into trench; (iii) accelerated accretion of sediments beneath an overriding older accretionary wedge; and (iv) upward material migration within the wedge and resultant exhumation of high-P/T metamorphic rocks near the inland margin of the wedge. This hypothesis was validated by the test using available geo- and thermo-chronological data from two classical types of subduction-related orogens in Southwest Japan and California. The hypothesis, coupled with the thermochronologic point of view, requires the reconsideration of coevality of paired metamorphism. The temporal pairing is to be observed between the beginning of the regional high-T/P metamorphism and that of the uplift and exhumation of high-P/T metamorphism, with some time lag needed for material migration. Where the temporal pairing is examined therefore, the formation age of igneous rocks and related high-T/P metamorphic rocks should be compared to the exhumation age of high-P/T metamorphic rocks. The episodic, extensive magmatism that triggers the cordilleran-type orogeny shows a temporal correlation in the mid-Cretaceous for most circum-Pacific continental margins. The resultant widespread formation of accretionary complexes is also observed in the western part of the circum-Pacific margins. The deduced mid-Cretaceous circum-Pacific orogeny accompanied a gross increase in the continental crust production rate, and was approximately coeval with the Pangea breakup and the Central Pacific superplume episode, implying the orogeny as a part of the mid-Cretaceous pulsation of the Earth. |
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| Keywords: | accretionary wedge continental growth cordilleran-type orogeny episodic magmatism exhumation geochronology mid-Cretaceous pulsation |
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