Abstract.The cause and geodynamic impact of fiat subduction are investigated. First, the 1500 km long Peru fiat slab segment is examined. Earthquake hypocenter data image two morphologic highs in the subducting Nazca Plate which correlate with the positions of subducted oceanic plateaus. Travel time tomographic images confirm the three-dimensional slab geometry and suggest a lithospheric tear may bound the NW edge of the fiat slab segment, with possible slab detachment occurring down dip as well. Other fiat slab regions worldwide are discussed: central Chile, Ecuador, NW Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, southern Alaska, SW Japan, and western New Guinea. Flat subduction is shown to be a widespread phenomenon, occuring in 10% of modern convergent margins. in nearly all these cases, as a spatial and temporal correlation is observed between subducting oceanic plateaus and fiat subduction, we conclude that fiat subduction is caused primarily by (1) the buoyancy of thickened oceanic crust of moderate to young age and (2) a delay in the basalt to eclogite transition due to the cool thermal structure of two overlapping lithospheres. A statistical analysis of seismicity along the entire length of the Andes demonstrates that seismic energy release in the upper plate at a distance of 250-800 km from the trench is on average 3-5 times greater above fiat slab segments than for adjacent steep slab segments. We propose this is due to higher interplate coupling and the cold, strong rheology of the overriding lithosphere which thus enables stress and deformation to be transmitted hundreds of kilometers into the heart of the upper plate.

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Slab melting has been suggested as a likely source of adakitic arc magmas (i.e., andesitic and dacitic magmas strongly depleted in Y and heavy rare earth elements). Existing numerical and petrologic models, however, restrict partial melting to very young (15 Ma) oceanic crust (typically at 60-SO km depth). Paradoxically, most of the known Pliocene-Quaternary adakite occurrences are related to subduction of 10-45 M a lithosphere, which should not be able to melt under normal subduction-zone thermal gradients. We propose an unusual mode of subduction known as flat subduction, occurring in-10% of the world's convergent margins, that can produce the temperature and pressure conditions necessary for fusion of moderately old oceanic crust. Of the 10 known flat subduction regions worldwide, eight are linked to present or recent (e6 Ma) occurrences of adakitic magmas. Observations from Chile, Ecuador, and Costa Rica suggest a three-stage evolution: (1) steep subduction produces a narrow calc-alkaline arc, typically-300 km from the trench, above the asthenospheric wedge; (2) once flat subduction begins, the lower plate travels several hundred kilometers at nearly the same depth, thus remaining in a pressure-temperature window allowing slab melting over this broad distance; and (3) once flat subduction continues for several million years, the asthenospheric wedge disappears, and a volcanic gap results, as in modern-day central Chile or Peru. The proposed hypothesis, which reconciles thermal models with geochemical observations, has broad implications for the study of arc magmatism and for the thermal evolution of convergent margins,