Title
Causes and consequences of flat-slab subduction in southern Peru
Date Issued
01 January 2017
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Bishop B.T.
Beck S.L.
Zandt G.
Wagner L.
Long M.
Antonijevic S.K.
Kumar A.
Publisher(s)
Geological Society of America
Abstract
Flat or near-horizontal subduction of oceanic lithosphere has been an important tectonic process both currently and in the geologic past. Subduction of the aseismic Nazca Ridge beneath South America has been associated with the onset of flat subduction and the termination of arc volcanism in Peru, making it an ideal place to study flat-slab subduction. Recently acquired seismic recordings for 144 broadband seismic stations in Peru permit us to image the Mohorovicic discontinuity (Moho) of the subducted oceanic Nazca plate, Nazca Ridge, and the overlying continental Moho of the South American crust in detail through the calculation of receiver functions. We find that the subducted over-thickened ridge crust is likely significantly eclogitized ~350 km from the trench, requiring that the inboard continuation of the flat slab be supported by mechanisms other than low-density crustal material. This continuation coincides with a low-velocity anomaly identified in prior tomography studies of the region immediately below the flat slab, and this anomaly may provide some support for the flat slab. The subduction of the Nazca Ridge has displaced most, if not the entire South American lithospheric mantle beneath the high Andes as well as up to 10 km of the lowermost continental crust. The lack of deep upper-plate seismicity suggests that the Andean crust has remained warm during flat subduction and is deforming ductilely around the subducted ridge. This deformation shows significant coupling between the subducting Nazca oceanic plate and overriding South American continental plate up to ~500 km from the trench. These results provide important modern constraints for interpreting the geological consequences of past and present flat-slab subduction locations globally.
Start page
1392
End page
1407
Volume
13
Issue
5
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Oceanografía, Hidrología, Recursos hídricos
Geología
Ingeniería ambiental y geológica
Geografía física
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85030647407
Source
Geosphere
ISSN of the container
1553040X
Sponsor(s)
This work was supported by National Science Foundation grants EAR-0943991, EAR-0907880, EAR-1415914, EAR-0943962, and EAR-0944184. B. Bishop was also supported by: University of Arizona Graduate College Scholarship, Sumner Scholarship, BP General Scholarship, Galileo Circle Scholarship, and Chevron-Texaco Geology Fellowship. We also thank the following individuals and organizations: CAUGHT/PULSE instrumentation by the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) through the PASSCAL Instrument Center; CAUGHT/PULSE station installation, maintenance by Cristóbal Condori and other IGP members, Oak Rankin, along with participants from University of Arizona, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Yale University, and PASSCAL; data set management by PASSCAL and data set retrieval by the IRIS Data Management System; and Rob Clayton and Paul Davis for early access to eight stations of the PeruSE network. We also thank Shanaka de Silva and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions that have greatly helped us to improve this manuscript.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus