Linking metamorphism and plate boundaries over the past 2 billion years
Since the Jurassic, there has been a clear spatiotemporal correlation between different types of metamorphism and active convergent plate margins. However, the extent to which this relationship extends into the past is poorly understood. We compared paleogeographic reconstructions and inferred plate...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
GEOLOGICAL SOC AMER, INC
2022
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FL150100133 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90946 |
| _version_ | 1848765468635037696 |
|---|---|
| author | Liu, Yebo Mitchell, R.N. Brown, M. Johnson, Tim Pisarevsky, Sergei |
| author_facet | Liu, Yebo Mitchell, R.N. Brown, M. Johnson, Tim Pisarevsky, Sergei |
| author_sort | Liu, Yebo |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Since the Jurassic, there has been a clear spatiotemporal correlation between different types of metamorphism and active convergent plate margins. However, the extent to which this relationship extends into the past is poorly understood. We compared paleogeographic reconstructions and inferred plate kinematics with the age and thermobaric ratio (temperature/ pressure [T/P]) of metamorphism over the past 2 b.y. The null hypothesis—that there is no spatiotemporal link between inferred plate margins and metamorphism—can be rejected. Low-T/P metamorphism is almost exclusively located near plate margins, whereas intermediate and high-T/P metamorphism skews toward increasingly greater distances from these margins, consistent with three different tectonic settings: the subduction zone, the mountain belt, and the orogenic hinterland, respectively. However, paleogeographic reconstructions suggest that so-called “paired metamorphic belts” are rare and that high and low-T/P localities more commonly occur along strike from each other. The observation that bimodal metamorphism is largely a function of distance from the trench and that end-member T/P types rarely occur in the same place can be explained if the style of orogenesis has evolved from hotter to colder, consistent with the abrupt emergence of low-T/P metamorphism in the Cryogenian. The widespread development of high-T/P rocks in orogenic hinterlands in the Proterozoic was followed by the production and efficient exhumation of low-T/P rocks in subduction channels in the Phanerozoic. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:35:44Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-90946 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:35:44Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | GEOLOGICAL SOC AMER, INC |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-909462023-05-10T01:07:14Z Linking metamorphism and plate boundaries over the past 2 billion years Liu, Yebo Mitchell, R.N. Brown, M. Johnson, Tim Pisarevsky, Sergei Science & Technology Physical Sciences Geology EVOLUTION SUBDUCTION BELTS Since the Jurassic, there has been a clear spatiotemporal correlation between different types of metamorphism and active convergent plate margins. However, the extent to which this relationship extends into the past is poorly understood. We compared paleogeographic reconstructions and inferred plate kinematics with the age and thermobaric ratio (temperature/ pressure [T/P]) of metamorphism over the past 2 b.y. The null hypothesis—that there is no spatiotemporal link between inferred plate margins and metamorphism—can be rejected. Low-T/P metamorphism is almost exclusively located near plate margins, whereas intermediate and high-T/P metamorphism skews toward increasingly greater distances from these margins, consistent with three different tectonic settings: the subduction zone, the mountain belt, and the orogenic hinterland, respectively. However, paleogeographic reconstructions suggest that so-called “paired metamorphic belts” are rare and that high and low-T/P localities more commonly occur along strike from each other. The observation that bimodal metamorphism is largely a function of distance from the trench and that end-member T/P types rarely occur in the same place can be explained if the style of orogenesis has evolved from hotter to colder, consistent with the abrupt emergence of low-T/P metamorphism in the Cryogenian. The widespread development of high-T/P rocks in orogenic hinterlands in the Proterozoic was followed by the production and efficient exhumation of low-T/P rocks in subduction channels in the Phanerozoic. 2022 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90946 10.1130/G49637.1 English http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FL150100133 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ GEOLOGICAL SOC AMER, INC fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Science & Technology Physical Sciences Geology EVOLUTION SUBDUCTION BELTS Liu, Yebo Mitchell, R.N. Brown, M. Johnson, Tim Pisarevsky, Sergei Linking metamorphism and plate boundaries over the past 2 billion years |
| title | Linking metamorphism and plate boundaries over the past 2 billion years |
| title_full | Linking metamorphism and plate boundaries over the past 2 billion years |
| title_fullStr | Linking metamorphism and plate boundaries over the past 2 billion years |
| title_full_unstemmed | Linking metamorphism and plate boundaries over the past 2 billion years |
| title_short | Linking metamorphism and plate boundaries over the past 2 billion years |
| title_sort | linking metamorphism and plate boundaries over the past 2 billion years |
| topic | Science & Technology Physical Sciences Geology EVOLUTION SUBDUCTION BELTS |
| url | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FL150100133 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90946 |