Early Tertiary fluid flow and pressure–temperature conditions in the Shimanto accretionary complex of south‐west Japan: constraints from fluid inclusions

Abstract

The pressure and temperature history of the Tertiary Shimanto belt of south‐west Japan has been elucidated by analysing fluids trapped in quartz crystals which grew syn‐kinematically along late‐stage brittle faults. The samples come from three areas that span the Paleogene exposures on the Muroto Peninsula of Shikoku Island. Applying microthermometric and laser Raman microsampling techniques to coeval water‐rich and carbonic fluid inclusions, we have constrained the pressure and temperature conditions that accompanied a widespread and kinematically distinct phase of deformation. The results suggest elevated geothermal gradients during late‐stage deformation, conditions that are in disaccord with previous plate reconstructions that have depicted old, thermally mature Pacific crust subducting beneath Eurasia during the early to middle Tertiary. These conditions can most easily be accounted for by including an additional plate boundary in the western Pacific during Paleogene time. Plate reconstructions that include the Kula plate in this region are therefore consistent with our findings. In addition, our results provide clues to the conditions that likely accompany seismogenic deformation at active convergent plate boundaries.