Transmogrification of ocean into continent: implications for continental evolution.

When continents collide, the typical embayments and protrusions along their rifted margins make it likely that fragments of seafloor will be trapped within the growing orogenic belt. These trapped seafloor fragments become preferential depocenters for marine and terrestrial sedimentation. After ∼0.5 Gy, the high radioactivity of their thick terrigenous sediment pile converts former seafloor into a unique form of continental crust and underlying lithosphere. We call this process transmogrification. Initially strong and low-lying basins that act as mechanically stronger blocks in the collisional orogeny will eventually warm, weaken, and thermoisostatically rise and will eventually transform into preferred sites for future continental rifting. In modern Asia, transmogrifying basins have induced the characteristic paired-mountain belt geomorphology associated with the assembly of this supercontinent, for example, the Himalaya/Tibet + Tian Shan surrounding the Tarim Basin that has greatly strengthened the East Asian Monsoon. The time-dependent temperature, uplift, and strength changes associated with transmogrification are relevant for improving our understanding of continental evolution, basin modeling, paleoclimate studies, and natural resources prospection.

A strength inversion origin for non-volcanic tremor.

Non-volcanic tremor is a particularly enigmatic form of seismic activity. In its most studied subduction zone setting, tremor typically occurs within the plate interface at or near the shallow and deep edges of the interseismically locked zone. Detailed seismic observations have shown that tremor is composed of repeating small low-frequency earthquakes, often accompanied by very-low-frequency earthquakes, all involving shear failure and slip. However, low-frequency earthquakes and very-low-frequency earthquakes within each cluster show nearly constant source durations for all observed magnitudes, which implies characteristic tremor sub-event sources of near-constant size. Here we integrate geological observations and geomechanical lab measurements on heterogeneous rock assemblages representative of the shallow tremor region offshore the Middle America Trench with numerical simulations to demonstrate that these tremor events are consistent with the seismic failure of relatively weaker blocks within a stronger matrix. In these subducting rocks, hydrothermalism has led to a strength-inversion from a weak matrix with relatively stronger blocks to a stronger matrix with embedded relatively weaker blocks. Tremor naturally occurs as the now-weaker blocks fail seismically while their surrounding matrix has not yet reached a state of general seismic failure.

Release of mineral-bound water prior to subduction tied to shallow seismogenic slip off Sumatra.

Plate-boundary fault rupture during the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman subduction earthquake extended closer to the trench than expected, increasing earthquake and tsunami size. International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 362 sampled incoming sediments offshore northern Sumatra, revealing recent release of fresh water within the deep sediments. Thermal modeling links this freshening to amorphous silica dehydration driven by rapid burial-induced temperature increases in the past 9 million years. Complete dehydration of silicates is expected before plate subduction, contrasting with prevailing models for subduction seismogenesis calling for fluid production during subduction. Shallow slip offshore Sumatra appears driven by diagenetic strengthening of deeply buried fault-forming sediments, contrasting with weakening proposed for the shallow Tohoku-Oki 2011 rupture, but our results are applicable to other thickly sedimented subduction zones including those with limited earthquake records.

Geological record of fluid flow and seismogenesis along an erosive subducting plate boundary.

Tectonic erosion of the overriding plate by the downgoing slab is believed to occur at half the Earth's subduction zones. In situ investigation of the geological processes at active erosive margins is extremely difficult owing to the deep marine environment and the net loss of forearc crust to deeper levels in the subduction zone. Until now, a fossil erosive subduction channel-the shear zone marking the plate boundary-has not been recognized in the field, so that seismic observations have provided the only information on plate boundary processes at erosive margins. Here we show that a fossil erosive margin is preserved in the Northern Apennines of Italy. It formed during the Tertiary transition from oceanic subduction to continental collision, and was preserved by the late deactivation and fossilization of the plate boundary. The outcropping erosive subduction channel is approximately 500 m thick. It is representative of the first 5 km of depth, with its deeper portions reaching approximately 150 degrees C. The fossil zone records several surprises. Two décollements were simultaneously active at the top and base of the subduction channel. Both deeper basal erosion and near-surface frontal erosion occurred. At shallow depths extension was a key deformation component within this erosive convergent plate boundary, and slip occurred without an observable fluid pressure cycle. At depths greater than about 3 km a fluid cycle is clearly shown by the development of veins and the alternation of fast (co-seismic) and slow (inter-seismic) slip. In the deepest portions of the outcropping subduction channel, extension is finally overprinted by compressional structures. In modern subduction zones the onset of seismic activity is believed to occur at approximately 150 degrees C, but in the fossil channel the onset occurred at cooler palaeo-temperatures.