Search results for "Slab pull"
showing 3 items of 3 documents
Trench-parallel spreading ridge subduction and its consequences for the geological evolution of the overriding plate: Insights from analogue models a…
2018
A series of 3-D asthenospheric-scale analogue models have been conducted in the laboratory in order to simulate the arrival of a spreading ridge at the trench and understand its effect on plate kinematics, slab geometry, and on the deformation of the overriding plate. These models are made of a two-layered linearly viscous system simulating the lithosphere and asthenosphere. We reproduce the progressive decrease in thickness of the oceanic lithosphere at the trench. We measure plate kinematics, slab geometry and upper plate deformation. Our experiments reveal that the subduction of a thinning plate beneath a freely moving overriding continent favors a decrease of the subduction velocity and…
Development of topography in 3-D continental-collision models
2015
Understanding the formation and evolution of high mountain belts, such as the Himalayas and the adjacent Tibetan Plateau, has been the focus of many tectonic and numerical models. Here we employ 3-D numerical simulations to investigate the role that subduction, collision, and indentation play on lithosphere dynamics at convergent margins, and to analyze the conditions under which large topographic plateaus can form in an integrated lithospheric and upper mantle-scale model. Distinct dynamics are obtained for the oceanic subduction side (trench retreat, slab rollback) and the continental-collision side (trench advance, slab detachment, topographic uplift, lateral extrusion). We show that sla…
Inversion of gravity anomalies over spreading oceanic ridges
2005
Abstract Models of spreading ocean ridges are derived by Bayesian gravity inversion with geophysical and geodynamic a priori information. The aim is to investigate the influence of spreading rate, plate dynamics and tectonic framework on crust and upper mantle structure by comparing the Mid Atlantic Ridge (MAR), the Indian Ocean Ridge (IND) and the East Pacific Rise (PAC). They differ in mean spreading rate, dynamic settings, as attached slabs, and plume interaction. Topography or bathymetry, gravity, isostasy, seismology and geology, etc. are averaged along the ridges and guide the construction of initial 2D models, including features as mean plumes, i.e. averaged along the ridge. This is …