Continental subduction channel processes: Plate interface interaction during continental collision

Geochemistry of continental subduction-zone fluids

The composition of continental subduction-zone fluids varies dramatically from dilute aqueous solutions at subsolidus conditions to hydrous silicate melts at supersolidus conditions, with variable concentrations of fluid-mobile incompatible trace elements. At ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphic conditions, supercritical fluids may occur with variable compositions. The water component of these ...

Analogue modelling of continental collision: Influence of plate coupling on mantle lithosphere subduction, crustal deformation and surface topography

Postcollisional mafic igneous rocks record crust-mantle interaction during continental deep subduction

Findings of coesite and microdiamond in metamorphic rocks of supracrustal protolith led to the recognition of continental subduction to mantle depths. The crust-mantle interaction is expected to take place during subduction of the continental crust beneath the subcontinental lithospheric mantle wedge. This is recorded by postcollisional mafic igneous rocks in the Dabie-Sulu orogenic belt and it...

Far-field lithospheric deformation in Tibet during continental collision

[1] Crustal deformation along the present-day northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau has occurred since mid to late Eocene time, soon after India collided with Eurasia. Assuming that on these distance and time scales the lithosphere can be approximated using a thin viscous sheet, we show that far-field lithospheric deformation caused by an indenting boundary is expected to start shortly after c...

From Continental Drift to Plate Tectonics

SINCE THE l6TH CENTURY, CARTOGRAPHERS HAVE NOTICED THE jigsaw-puzzle fit of the continental edges. Since the 19th century, geologists have known that some fossil plants and animals are extraordinarily similar across the globe, and some sequences of rock formations in distant continents are also strikingly alike. At the turn of the 20th century, Austrian geologist Eduard Suess proposed the theor...