Deposition of serpentine-bearing conglomerate and its implications for Early Cretaceous tectonics in northern Japan

Abstract

The discovery of serpentinite-bearing conglomerate including detrital blue amphibole grains in Cretaceous forearc basin sediments in the northern part of Japan supports large tectonic movement in the forearc basin during the Early Cretaceous. Conglomerate and sandstone are intercalated in the Lower Cretaceous offshore mudstone sequence and contain serpentinite clasts, chromian spinels, blue amphiboles, and oolitic grains with chromian spinel nuclei. The conglomerate and sandstones were deposited as a debris flow consisting of an admixture of siliciclastic terrigenous sediments and calcareous biogenic material with serpentinite-derived sediments. The sandstones consist of feldspathic–lithic arenites and wackes, and their composition suggests that most of the terrigenous material was derived from the Cretaceous volcanic terrane and the Jurassic accretionary complex located to the west of the depositional basin. However, the serpentinite body correlated with the provenance of the sediments is not distributed in these terranes. Because the oolitic grains in the matrix of the conglomerate include only angular chromian spinels and serpentine clasts without quartz and feldspar grains, most of the serpentinite-derived sediments are considered to have been supplied primarily from a serpentinite body exposed along the shallow marine environments near the sedimentary basin. Therefore, the serpentine-derived sediments and feldspathic and lithic materials have essentially different sources. Thus, we may infer that the examined sediments are due to large slope failure affecting a relatively wide area of shallow coast involving the place where the serpentine body was emplaced and the place where river-fed terrigenous siliciclastic sediments accumulated. The stratigraphic range of the serpentinite-derived sediments, which are sporadically distributed in the Cretaceous forearc basin of northern Japan, suggests that the serpentinite-derived material was actively supplied to the forearc basin in Albian times. Recent tectono-stratigraphy of the Late Mesozoic accretionary complex in Japan reveals a strike–slip movement in the subduction zone around northeastern Asia. Large earthquakes affected by active strike–slip motion of the oceanic plate are inferred to be the trigger of tectonic movement, such as large slope failure following serpentine intrusion in the forearc region. Another possibility is that subduction of a large number of seamount on the oceanic plate might also cause a large change in basin morphology, bringing about large slope failure.