Southwest Pacific Absolute Plate Kinematic Reconstruction Reveals Major Cenozoic Tonga-Kermadec Slab Dragging.

ABSTRACT: Tectonic plates subducting at trenches having strikes oblique to the absolute subducting plate motion undergo trench-parallel slab motion through the mantle, recently defined as a form of "slab dragging." We investigate here long-term slab-dragging components of the Tonga-Kermadec subduction system driven by absolute Pacific plate motion. To this end we develop a kinematic restoration of Tonga-Kermadec Trench motion placed in a mantle reference frame and compare it to tomographically imaged slabs in the mantle. Estimating Tonga-Kermadec subduction initiation is challenging because another (New Caledonia) subduction zone existed during the Paleogene between the Australia and Pacific plates. We test partitioning of plate convergence across the Paleogene New Caledonia and Tonga-Kermadec subdu

SUBMITTER: van de Lagemaat SHA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6175462 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature