The thermal evolution of crustal exhumation subsequent to the subduction of the continental margin is modeled through numerical solutions to the two-dimensional heat conduction equation. The boundary conditions used in the modeling are basically constrained by available geophysical and geological observations in the Taiwan area. Temperature distributions are calculated at one-million-year inter...

The volume and interplay of mass-transport (MTD) and turbidite-system deposits varies on different continental margins depending on local and external controls such as active-margin or passive-margin tectonic setting and climatic and/or sea-level change. Erosion and breaching of local grabens at the shelf edge of the southern Bering Sea produce giant, gullied canyons and MTD sheets that dominat...

11 Multibeam swath bathymetry data collected through the Irish National Seabed Survey provides 12 direct evidence for extensive glaciation of the continental shelf off NW Ireland. Streamlined 13 subglacial bedforms on the inner shelf record former offshore-directed ice flow. The major 14 glacial features, however, consist of well developed, nested arcuate moraines which mark the 15 retreat of a...

The most spectacular example of a plate convergence event on Earth is the motion of the Indian plate towards Eurasia at speeds in excess of 18 cmyr−1 (ref. 1), and the subsequent collision. Continental buoyancy usually stalls subduction shortly after collision, as is seen in most sections of the Alpine–Himalayan chain. However, in the Indian section of this chain, plate velocities were merely r...

When continents break apart, continental crust and lithosphere are thinned until break-up is achieved and an oceanic basin is formed. The most remarkable and least understood structures associated with this process are up to 200 km wide areas of hyper-extended continental crust, which are partitioned between conjugate margins with pronounced asymmetry. Here we show, using high-resolution thermo...

S U M M A R Y We argue that subduction may be initiated at passive continental margins without shortening the lithosphere. Overcoming the lithosphere’s high compressive strength requires special circumstances, and these make it difficult to explain the nearly complete recycling of old sea-floor. Instead, we present a model that predicts tensile decoupling of the continental and oceanic lithosph...

Studies of the most surficial sedimentary record from passive continental margins provide crucial knowledge about dynamics and its changes through recent geological times. These studies allow understanding in detail influence both tectonic activity long-term bottom-current circulation over Late Quaternary dynamics. Using a large dataset multibeam bathymetry, chirp multi-channel seismic (MCS) re...

Large millennial-scale fluctuations of the southern margin of the North American Laurentide Ice Sheet occurred during the last deglaciation, when the margin was located between about 43 degrees and 49 degrees N. Fluctuations of the ice margin triggered episodic increases in the flux of freshwater to the North Atlantic by rerouting continental runoff from the Mississippi River drainage to the Hu...

Predicting the evolution of ice sheets requires numerical models able to accurately track the migration of ice sheet continental margins or grounding lines. We introduce a physically based moving-point approach for the flow of ice sheets based on the conservation of local masses. This allows the ice sheet margins to be tracked explicitly. Our approach is also well suited to capture waiting-time...