Differential subsidence of the forearc wedge of the Ryukyu (Nansei-Shoto) Arc caused by subduction of ridges on the Philippine Sea Plate

Abstract

The Philippine Sea Plate (PSP) carrying several ridges has been sudbucting under the Ryukyu (Nansei-Shoto) Arc since middle Miocene. Because no extensive accretionary prism has been growing along the Ryukyu Trench, the arc provides an opportunity to examine effects of ridge subduction on structure of the forearc wedge and a clue to reconstruct ancient plate motion of the PSP that is inferred to have changed between NW and NNW. To examine this perspective, we clarified structure of the Ryukyu forearc wedge based on seismic profiles and bathymetric data and related them to ridge subduction. An erosional unconformity between pre-Neogen and Neogene rocks is widely recognized through the Ryukyu Arc, and we divided the forearc wedges into Zones I to IV from southwest to northeast by difference of depth of the erosional unconformity. We correlated these four zones to the locations of ridge subduction that have been shifting NE or SW along the Ryukyu Trench. Zone I is underlain by the largely subsided unconformity and we attributed the structure to tearing of the Eurasia plate due to subduction of the western margin of the PSP including the Luzon Arc. Zone II consists of a wide terrace on the shallow erosional unconformity, and no ridge that was subducting in this zone is known. Zone III is characterized by the seaward descending unconformity covered with a thick sequence of Neogene sediments and is related to subduction of the NW-SE trending Daito Ridge and the E-W trending Amami Plateau. Zone IV has the deeper unconformity and slope geometry and corresponds to subduction of the NNW-SSE trending Kyushu-Palau Ridge. The structure of the Ryukyu forearc is consistently related to subduction of ridges on the PSP, suggesting that the change of the plate motion of the PSP can be precisely reconstructed by further detailed survey.