Mesozoic magmatic arc in East Asian continental margin triggered by Paleo-Pacific plate subduction: Constraints from gravity and magnetic anomalies

Abstract

The Mesozoic East Asian Continental Margin (EACM) is generally considered as a continental magmatic arc triggered by Paleo-Pacific Plate subduction. However, the magmatic arc was not evident for a long time. This paper tries to use the gravity and magnetic responses along the magmatic arc to deeply explore its spatio-temporal distribution. Based on the gravity and magnetic anomalies of the Mesozoic magmatic arc on the EACM and combined with the integration of previous geological and geochronological studies, it is found that the tectonic features of the magmatic arc are more obvious in the fourth-order approximation/detail gravity anomaly fields by using wavelet multi-scale analysis. Furthermore, the residual crustal gravity anomalies containing the medium-wavelength components of the complete Bouguer gravity anomalies are analyzed for the identification of the Jurassic magmatic arcs. Finally, line-drawing analysis is performed on the fourth-order detail gravity anomaly field to explore the response of the Mesozoic magmatic arcs to Paleo-Pacific subduction on the EACM. Our results support that the magmatic arcs on the EACM mainly developed in the Late Triassic-Early Cretaceous Andean Active Continental Margin and in the late Early Cretaceous-Eocene transtensional continental margin. Our study contributes to the formation and refinement of the Paleo-Pacific Plate subduction mechanism and the Mesozoic tectonic evolutionary model of the EACM, and also provides geophysical evidence for the reconstruction of dynamic processes of the EACM.