A synthesis of the geologic evolution of Taiwan

Abstract

The island arc of Taiwan is composed of Cenozoic geosynclinal sediments more than 10,000 m thick, lying on a pre-Tertiary metamorphic basement. Pleistocene to Miocene andesitic islands surround the main island and are related mostly to arc magmatism. The Penghu Island Group in the Taiwan Strait is covered with Pleistocene flood basalt. Neogene shallow marine clastic sediments are exposed mainly in the western foothills with Pleistocene andesitic extrusives at the northern tip and the northeastern offshore islands. A thick sequence of Paleogene to Miocene argillitic to slaty metaclastic rocks underlies the western Central Range and forms the immediate sedimentary cover on the pre-Tertiary metamorphic complex to the east, which represents an older Mesozoic arc-trench system. The Coastal Range in eastern Taiwan is a Neogene andesitic magmatic arc, including also a large variety of volcaniclastic and turbiditic sediments. Cenozoic Taiwan is the site of arc-continent collision where the Luzon arc on the Philippine Sea plate overrides the Chinese continental margin on the Eurasian plate. East and northeast of Taiwan, the polarity of subduction changes whereby the oceanic Philippine Sea plate is subducting beneath the Ryukyu arc system on the Eurasian plate. Continent-arc collision in Taiwan island is anomalous and may occur in a broad belt of deformation rather than along a well-defined plate boundary or subduction zone.