Slab-Dip Variability and Trench-Parallel Flow beneath Non-Uniform Overriding Plates: Insights form 3D Numerical Models
Abstract
Forces driving plate tectonics are reasonably well known but some factors controlling the dynamics and the geometry of subduction processes are still poorly understood. The effect of the thermal state of the subducting and overriding plates on the slab dip have been systematically studied in previous works by means of 2D and 3D numerical modeling. These models showed that kinematically-driven slabs subducting under a cold overriding plate are affected by an increased hydrodynamic suction, due to the lower temperature of the mantle wedge, which leads to a lower subduction angle, and eventually to the formation of flat slab segments. In these models the subduction is achieved by imposing a constant velocity at the top of the overriding plate, which may lead to unrealistic results. Here we present the results of 3D non-Newtonian thermo-mechanical numerical models, considering a dynamically-driven self-sustained subduction, to test the influence of a non-uniform overriding plate. Variations of the thermal state of the overriding plate along the trench cause variation in the hydrodynamic suction, which lead to variations of the slab dip along strike (Fig. 1) and a significant trench-parallel flow. When the material can flow around the edges of the slab, through the addition of lateral plates, the trench parallel flow is enhanced (Fig. 2), whereas the variations on the slab dip are diminished.; Effect of a non-uniform overriding plate on slab-dip. 3D view of the 1000 C isosurface. ; Effect of a non-uniform overriding plate on trench-parallel flow. Map view of the slab at different depths and times, showing the viscosity (colormap) and the velocity (arrows).
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFMDI23A2380R
- Keywords:
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- 0545 COMPUTATIONAL GEOPHYSICS / Modeling;
- 8120 TECTONOPHYSICS / Dynamics of lithosphere and mantle: general;
- 8170 TECTONOPHYSICS / Subduction zone processes