Episodic back-arc spreading centre jumps controlled by transform fault to overriding plate strength ratio

Schliffke, Nicholas; van Hunen, Jeroen; Allen, Mark B.; Magni, Valentina; Gueydan, Frédéric

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-28228-5

Episodic back-arc spreading centre jumps controlled by transform fault to overriding plate strength ratio

Schliffke, Nicholas; van Hunen, Jeroen; Allen, Mark B.; Magni, Valentina; Gueydan, Frédéric

Authors

Nicholas Schliffke

Professor Jeroen Van Hunen jeroen.van-hunen@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Professor Mark Allen m.b.allen@durham.ac.uk
Head of Department

Valentina Magni

Frédéric Gueydan

Abstract

Spreading centre jumps are a common feature of oceanic back-arc basins. Jumps are conventionally suggested to be triggered by plate velocity changes, pre-existing weaknesses, or punctuated events such as the opening of slab windows. Here, we present 3D numerical models of back-arc spreading centre jumps evolving naturally in a homogeneous subduction system surrounded by continents without a trigger event. Spreading centres jump towards their subduction zone if the distance from trench to spreading centre becomes too long. In particular, jumps to a new spreading centre occur when the resistance on the boundary transform faults enabling relative motion of back-arc and neighbouring plates is larger than the resistance to break the overriding plate closer to trench. Time and distance of spreading centres jumps are, thus, controlled by the ratio between the transform fault and overriding plate strengths. Despite being less complex than natural systems, our models explain why narrow subducting plates (e.g. Calabrian slab), have more frequent and closely-spaced spreading jumps than wider subduction zones (e.g. Scotia). It also explains why wide back-arc basins undergo no spreading centre jumps in their life cycle.

Citation

Schliffke, N., van Hunen, J., Allen, M. B., Magni, V., & Gueydan, F. (2022). Episodic back-arc spreading centre jumps controlled by transform fault to overriding plate strength ratio. Nature Communications, 13(1), Article 582. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28228-5

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Dec 10, 2022
Online Publication Date	Jan 31, 2022
Publication Date	2022
Deposit Date	Feb 3, 2022
Publicly Available Date	May 19, 2022
Journal	Nature Communications
Publisher	Nature Research
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	13
Issue	1
Article Number	582
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28228-5

Files

Published Journal Article (2.3 Mb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.