Lower plate serpentinite diapirism in the Calabrian Arc subduction complex.

ABSTRACT: Mantle-derived serpentinites have been detected at magma-poor rifted margins and above subduction zones, where they are usually produced by fluids released from the slab to the mantle wedge. Here we show evidence of a new class of serpentinite diapirs within the external subduction system of the Calabrian Arc, derived directly from the lower plate. Mantle serpentinites rise through lithospheric faults caused by incipient rifting and the collapse of the accretionary wedge. Mantle-derived diapirism is not linked directly to subduction processes. The serpentinites, formed probably during Mesozoic Tethyan rifting, were carried below the subduction system by plate convergence; lithospheric faults driving margin segmentation act as windows through which inherited serpentinites rise to the sub-se

SUBMITTER: Polonia A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5736553 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature