The podiform chromitite deposits of the Ordovician Sorkhband ultramafic complex, southwestern Makran, are the largest chromitite deposits in Iran. The Sorkhband ultramafic complex comprises of a northern part of dunite, podiform chromitite, olivine clinopyroxenite, wehrlite and olivine websterite and a southern part of foliated diopsidic harzburgite with subordinate dunite, olivine clinopyroxen...

[1] Oceanic lithosphere undergoes permanent deformation during subduction once the stresses exceed the elastic limit. Departures from elastic behavior occur by brittle failure in the shallow lithosphere and by a combination of lowand high-temperature creep at greater depths. We combine laboratory-based rheological models with estimates of slab shape from earthquake hypocenters to quantify the b...

This review of subduction and geodynamic models is organized around three central questions: (1) Why is subduction asymmetric? (2) Are subducted slabs strong or weak? (3) How do subducted slabs interact with phase transformations, changes in mantle rheology, and possibly chemical boundaries in the mantle? Based on laboratory measurements of the temperature dependence of olivine, one would concl...

The formation and exhumation of high and ultrahigh-pressure, (U)HP, rocks of crustal origin appears to be ubiquitous during Phanerozoic plate subduction and continental collision events. Exhumation of (U)HP material has been shown in some orogens to have occurred only once, during a single short-lived event; in other cases exhumation appears to have occurred multiple discrete times or during a ...

A large amount of water is brought into the Earth’s mantle at subduction zones. Upon subduction, water is released from the subducting slab in a series of metamorphic reactions. The resulting flux into the mantle wedge modifies its chemical and physical properties by mineral hydration with associated weakening, flux melting and changes in the dynamics and thermal structure of subduction zones. ...

The collision of thickened crust with subduction zones significantly modifies subduction. These accretion events lead to net growth of continents and drive much of the subduction-related tectonism. Terrane collision may also have a profound effect on the size, coupling, and rupture characteristics of large intraplate earthquakes. The present accretion of exotic terranes with the Alaska subducti...