Sediment subduction versus accretion around the pacific

Abstract

Abstract Subducting oceanic plates are typically broken by normal faults as they bend downward into subduction zones, usually forming regular patterns of grabens. The faults strike parallel or subparallel to the trench axes and are most commonly 5–10 km in spacing and width. Rupture occurs initially near the outer topographic high and vertical displacement or graben depth increases as the plate descends, the 400 m or more at many trench axes. It is suggested that the grabens provide void spaces within the surface of the subducting plate, below the plane of subduction, into which the trench sediments are tectonically displaced and thus subducted. Around the Pacific, the only regions of apparent fore-arc sediment accretion are where the graben structures are missing or masked by thick sediment deposits. Even in these cases sediment subduction, by inclusion in subducting plate grabens or by other mechanisms, must be invoked to explain the relatively small fore-arc sediment volumes compared to calculated accretion volumes based on historical convergence. Where trench sediment volumes are small compared to the graben volumes the grabens may abrade the leading edge and underside of the overriding plate and subduct the eroded material. It is concluded that sediment subduction is dominant around the Circum-Pacific and that the bending-induced graben structures of the subducting plates are a major factor for sediment subduction and tectonic erosion.