Slab rollback suggested by latest Miocene to Pliocene forearc stress and migration of volcanic front in southern Kyushu, northern Ryukyu Arc

Abstract

The northern Ryukyu Arc has active backarc rift, neutral-stress forearc, and active accretionary prism. The Okinawa Trough has been shaped by the episodic rifting in the backarc. Paleostresses were inferred in this study from mesoscale faults in Neogene forearc sediments called the Miyazaki Group, southeast Kyushu in the northern Ryukyu Arc. The forearc stress changed from compressional to extensional from the latest Miocene through Early Pliocene time. The stress history is concordant with the transition in tectonic regime from folding to rifting in the backarc. The transition in the stress state occurred simultaneously also with trenchward movement of the volcanic front. These phenomena suggest that the subducting slab under southern Kyushu became steeper in the Early Pliocene. Extensional tectonics ceased sometime in the late Pliocene or early to mid-Pleistocene, concordant with the counterclockwise change of subducting direction of the Philippine Sea Plate.