When will the marginal sea grow up?

Abstract

<p>The back-arc marginal sea is a small ocean basin located between the volcanic arc and the continental crust. This area is not only an important gathering place for natural resources, but also an important place for plate interaction. Therefore, clarifying the origin and evolution of marginal seas can produce a huge boost for us to explore natural resources and improve the plate interaction mechanism. At present, the back-arc marginal sea with the largest opening rate of the Earth is the Lau Basin, and most marginal seas are generally in a state of medium-to-low-speed opening, such as the Mariana Trough, the Aegean Sea and the Caribbean Sea, and a small amount of marginal seas are even shortening, such as the Sea of Japan. What caused the marginal seas to open at different speeds?  In order to answer this question systematically and give a unified model for the origin and evolution of the marginal seas of the Earth, we must first figure out when the marginal sea will grow up. Therefore, we run 2-D and 3-D numerical experiments to test the possible effects of different factors on the evolution of the marginal sea. The results of our dynamic models can not only fit the evolution of the global marginal sea well, but also come to a robust conclusion: when the subducting plate stagnate in the transition zone, the opening rate of the marginal sea may decrease; but the marginal sea that stopped opening may still grow up again under special conditions. Furthermore, we explain the diversity of the current marginal sea evolution, which provides more theoretical foundations for the discipline of plate tectonics.</p><p> </p>