Subduction and

abduction mechanism
in basin formation
 Subduction
• Subduction is a geological process in which the
oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at
convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a
tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a
second plate, the heavier plate dives beneath the second plate
and sinks into the mantle. A region where this process occurs is
known as a subduction zone, and its surface expression is
known as an arc-trench complex. The process of subduction
has created most of the Earth's continental crust. Rates of
subduction are typically measured in centimeters per year, with
the average rate of convergence being approximately two to
eight centimeters per year along most plate boundaries.
The Juan de Fuca plate sinks below the North America plate
at the Cascadia subduction zone
• Subduction is possible because the cold oceanic lithosphere is
slightly denser than the underlying asthenosphere, the hot, ductile
layer in the upper mantle underlying the cold, rigid lithosphere.
Once initiated, stable subduction is driven mostly by the negative
buoyancy of the dense subducting lithosphere. The slab sinks into
the mantle largely under its weight.
• Earthquakes are common along the subduction zone, and fluids
released by the subducting plate trigger volcanism in the
overriding plate. If the subducting plate sinks at a shallow angle,
the overriding plate develops a belt of deformation characterized
by crustal thickening, mountain building, and metamorphism.
Subduction at a steeper angle is characterized by the formation of
back-arc basins.
• According to the provisions of the concept of global tectonic plates, the
subduction zone is located on the border of two adjacent lithosphere
plates, where the collision of two lithosphere plates occurs (mostly
oceanic and continental) and moving denser and thin plate with oceanic
crust under other.

The Pacific Ocean goes under China

• In the classical version, subduction is
realized in the case of the collision of two
oceanic, or oceanic and continental
plates. However, in the last decade, it
was found that during the collision of
continental lithosphere plates, there is
also a place to move one lithosphere
plate under another, this phenomenon
was called the continental subduction.
But at the same time there is no
immersion from the plate in the mantle
due to the reduced density of the
continental crust. The result is boredom
and overgrowth of tectonic plates with
the formation of folded belts with high
ridges. A classic example is the
Himalayas.
• According to the theory of tectonic plates, the mechanism of subduction
(reduction and destruction of the oceanic crust) is compensated by
spreading - the mechanism of formation of the young oceanic crust in
the mid-oceanic ridges. At the same time, in the zones of subduction
there is a constant increase in the continental crust at the expense of
accretion - the destruction and intense washing of the sedimentary
cover with the sinking plate. The warming of the submerged crust is also
the reason for the widespread development of volcanism along the
active continental margin. The most famous is the Pacific Ring of Fire.
The large-scale absorption of the oceanic periphery of the Pacific Ocean
indicates the process of reducing (closure) of the oldest of the planet's
ocean basins. Similar processes took place and in the past. Thus, the
ancient ocean Tethys began to reduce from the Mesozoic and to the
present time ceased to exist with the formation of the remaining basins,
the famous now as the Mediterranean, Black, Azov, Caspian.
Spreading-subduction cycle of a substance

Global subduction map with subduction plates separated by

depth of immersion
• The most famous subduction zones are found in the Pacific Ocean: the
Japanese Islands, the Kuril Islands, Kamchatka, the Aleutian Islands, the
North American Coast, and the South American Coast. Also subduction
zones are the islands of Sumatra and Java in Indonesia, the Antilles in
the Caribbean, the South Sandwich Islands, New Zealand and others.
• There are 4 types of subduction zones by structural signs:
• Andian
• Sunda;
• Mariana;
• Japanese.
• The zone of subduction of the Andian
type - the zone that is formed there,
where the young oceanic lithosphere
with great speed and under the gentle
angle (about 35-40 ° to the horizon)
moves under the continent. Lateral
structural row from the ocean to the
continent includes in itself: marginal
swell- trench - Coast Mountains
(sometimes submarine ridge or
terrace) – fore-arc basin (longitudinal
valley) - main ridge (volcanic) –back-
arc basin (piedmont depression).
Characteristic for the eastern coast of
the Pacific Ocean.
 The zone of subduction of the Sunda type
• - the zone where the movement of the ancient oceanic lithosphere, going
deeper at a steeper angle under the thinning continental crust, the surface
of which is located mainly below the ocean level. Lateral structural row
includes in itself: marginal swell- trench - non-vulcanic (outer) island arc –
fore-arc basin (depression) - volcanic (inner) arc – back-arc basin (marginal).
The outer arc is either an accretion prism or a protrusion of the foundation
of the hanging wing of the subduction zone.
The zone of subduction of the Mariana type
• The zone of subduction of the Mariana type is a zone formed by the
movement of two sections of the oceanic lithosphere. Lateral
structural row includes in itself: marginal swell- trench (terrigenous
material is quite small) - Coast Mountain, non-vulcanic arch - the fore-
arc basin (as a frontal)- ensimatic vulcanic arch-back-arc basin
The Japanese-type subduction zone is the movement zone of the oceanic lithosphere under the ensimatic island arc.
Lateral structural row includes: marginal swell- trench - Coast Mountains (sometimes submarine ridge or terrace) – fore-
arc basin (longitudinal valley) - main ridge (volcanic) –back-arc basin (edge, marginal sea) with new forming oceanic or
suboceanic type crust .
• The listed types of subduction zones are often morphologically recognized in 2
groups:
• • East-Pacific Ocean- includes the zone of the Andian type. Characteristic
existing of the active continental margin.
• • West Pacific Ocean- include the rest types of subduction zones.
Characteristic development in the hanging edge of a volcanic island arc.
• In the West Pacific type subduction zone the following elements are
distinguished:
• 1. trench
• 2. fore-arc slope
• 3. volcanic arc
• 4. back-arc basin
• The subduction zones of the East-Pacific type are distinguished by the fact that
in their structure volcanic arcs and marginal basins are absent, and instead of
a fore-arc slope there is a continental slope.
 Trench
• The distance from the axis of the trench to the volcanic front is 100-150 km
(depending on the dip angle of the subduction zone, in active continental
regions the distance reaches 350 km). This distance corresponds to the
depth of immersion in the depth of 100-150 km, where the magma
formation begins. The width of the volcanic zone is about 50 km, and in
general the width of the whole zone of tectonic and magmatic activity is
200-250 km (in the active continental regions up to 400-500 km).
• The fore-arc slope includes 2 main elements:
• 1. Accretion prism
• 2. Fore-arc terrace
• Accretion prism - the lowest part of the fore-arc slope, having an
imbricate structure, the width of the first to 10, sometimes to 50 km. It
forms due to "scraping" of sediments from the ocean plate - "bulldozer
effect".
• Accretion prism or accretion wedge (from Latin accretio - attachment,
enlargement) - geological body formed during the immersion of the
oceanic crust in the mantle (subduction) in the frontal part of the
overlapping tectonic plate. The result of the stratification of sedimentary
rocks is both slabs and is characterized by strong deformation of the
material, which is destroyed by endless overthrust. The accretion prism
is located between the deep water trench and the fore-arc basin.
• Volcanic arc
• Under volcanic island arcs are understood
tectonic active belts, with strong
earthquakes, and consisting of arc-shaped
bent ridges of active stratovolcano. For
them, the typical explosive nature of the
eruptions. It is related with the increased
content of fluids in the island-arc magma.
• According to morphological signs are
distinguished: single, double, triple island
arcs, as well as active and passive (for
example, Commander Islands). A special
type refers to the spreading island arcs.
• There are island arcs formed on the oceanic
foundation - ensimatic, and on the
continental crust - ensialic.
• Marginal basins
• This is a semi-closed trench (series of trenches), formed between the
island arc and the continent. Most of them were formed at the
expense of the rupture of the continent due to the separation of the
large block from it (which became the basis for the ensialic island arc),
and in the deep depressions opened by the sea the new oceanic crust
is formed, which this process is called “back-arc spreading”.
• Obduction is a geological process whereby denser oceanic crust (and
even upper mantle) are scraped off a descending ocean plate at a
convergent plate boundary and thrust on top of an adjacent plate.
When oceanic and continental plates converge, normally the denser
oceanic crust sinks under the continental crust in the process of
subduction. Obduction, which is less common, normally occurs in plate
collisions at orogenic belts (where an oceanic plate that is subducting
scrapes some of its material onto the continental plate, making an
accretionary wedge) or back-arc basins (places where the edge of a
continent is pulled away from the rest of the continent due to the
stress of plate collision).
• Obduction of oceanic lithosphere produces a characteristic set of rock
types called an ophiolite. This assemblage consists of deep-marine
sedimentary rock (chert, limestone, clastic sediments), volcanic rocks
(pillow lavas, volcanic glass, volcanic ash, sheeted dykes and gabbros)
and peridotite (mantle rock). John McPhee describes ophiolite
formation by obduction as "where ocean crust slides into a trench and
goes under a continent, [and] a part of the crust - i.e., an ophiolite - is
shaved off the top and ends up on the lip of the continent."
• Obduction occurs where a fragment of continental crust is caught in a
subduction zone with resulting overthrusting of oceanic mafic and
ultramafic rocks from the mantle onto the continental crust.
Obduction often occurs where a small tectonic plate is caught
between two larger plates, with the crust (both island arc and
oceanic) welding onto an adjacent continent as a new terrane. When
two continental plates collide, obduction of the oceanic crust
between them is often a part of the resulting orogeny.