A general model of arc-continent collision and subduction polarity reversal from Taiwan and the Irish Caledonides

Abstract

Abstract The collision of the Luzon Arc with southern China represents the best example of arc-continent collision in the modern oceans, and compares closely with the Early Ordovician accretion of the Lough Nafooey arc of Connemara, Ireland, to the passive margin of Laurentia. We propose a general model for steady-state arc-continent collision in which arc crust is progressively added to a passive margin during a process of compression, metamorphism and magmatism lasting 3–10 Ma at any one location on the margin. Depending on the obliquity of the angle of collision, the timing of active collision may be diachronous and long-lived along the margin. Magmatism accompanying accretion can be more enriched in incompatible trace elements than average continental crust, contrasting with more depleted magmatism prior to collision. Accretion of a mixture of depleted and enriched arc lithologies to the continental margin allows the continental crust to grow through time by arc-passive margin collision events. During the collision the upper and middle arc crust are detached from the depleted ultramafic lower crust, which is subducted along with the mantle lithosphere on which the arc was founded. Rapid (2–3 Ma) exhumation and gravitational collapse of the collisional orogen forms the Okinawa and South Mayo Troughs in Taiwan and western Ireland, respectively. These basins are filled by detritus eroded from the adjacent collision zone. During subsequent subduction polarity reversal, continuous tearing and retreat of the oceanic lithosphere along the former continent-ocean transition provides space for the new subducting oceanic plate to descend without need for breaking of the original slab.