Sanbagawa Subduction: What Went in, How Deep, and How Hot did it Get?

The Sanbagawa and Ryoke belts were formed in a convergent plate boundary along the eastern margin of Eurasia. Thermal modeling using the geological records of these belts as constraints allows quantitative estimates of both shear heating along the Wadati-Benioff zone and magma fluxes beneath the volcanic arc. In contrast to real-time observations of crustal movement and heat flow, rocks record changes in pressures and temperatures that occur over periods of several million years and can be used to examine conditions from the surface to the mantle. Thermal modeling combined with such geological records helps to bridge the gap in our knowledge between real-time observations of ongoing geological processes and the development of orogenies in convergent plate margins over geological time.

Thermal Modeling of the Sanbagawa and Ryoke Belts

Miyazaki,

Wallis,

Ishii

et al. 2024

Paired Metamorphism of SW Japan and Implications for Tectonics of Convergent Margins

Wallis,

Okudaira,

Miyazaki

2024

The Sanbagawa-Ryoke pair of geological units in southwest Japan is the classic example of paired metamorphism originally identified by Akiho Miyashiro. Together these belts represent an important study area for developing and testing ideas about how convergent margins behave over geological time based on studies of the rock record including petrology, geochemistry, deformation, and geochronology. The two sides of the pair represent ancient examples of a subduction zone in the Sanbagawa belt and an associated volcanic arc in the Ryoke belt. This issue of Elements brings together the results of a wide range of different approaches summarizing the current state of knowledge about the Sanbagawa-Ryoke pair and how this informs our understanding of convergent margins in general.

Geochronology of the Sanbagawa Belt: Younger and Faster than Before

Knittel,

Tokiwa,

Tsutsumi

et al. 2024

Recent advances in geochronological studies have helped establish the Sanbagawa belt as an important site for studying metamorphism related to subduction. Application of several dating methods yield the following important results. 1) Metamorphism and deformation related to subduction started ~120 Ma and were complete by ~50 Ma. 2) Subduction to eclogite facies, followed by return to the surface, was rapid and occurred within a few million years or less (at ~89 Ma), indicating exhumation rates of at least 1–2 cm·y−1. 3) The age of the slab during the peak eclogite facies metamorphism was ~60 My. These results help redefine the geological history of SW Japan and provide important constraints for mechanical and thermal models of subduction zones in general.