Tectonic Framework of the Kuril Arc Since Its Initiation

Tectonic regime of the southern Kurile Trench as revealed by multichannel seismic lines

“…1), bounding the Kurile island to the south (Gnibidenko et al, 1983) and observed along its western part on Hokkaido (Kimura, 1981(Kimura, , 1986Kimura et al, 1983). The right lateral strike-slip along the Kurile volcanic front started in the Late Miocene (Kimura and Tamaki, 1985). The proximity of the Hokkaido bend probably introduces contraction in a compressional zone, perpendicular to the trench axis, at the southern end of the Kurile subduction zone (Tada and Kimura, 1987).…”

“…144"E 145"E 146°E Kimura et al (1983), Kimura and Tamaki (1985) and Kimura (1986). Mesozoic magnetic anomaly lineations and fracture zones are after Nakanishi et al (1989).…”

“…Kurile subduction is believed to have begun in the Early (Jolivet, 1986) or Late (Kimura and Tamaki, 1985) Cretaceous, after the accretion of the Okhotsk terrane to the continent of Siberia. Both the Nemuro Peninsula and the is-northern Honshu and most of the Hokkaido islands belong to the North American plate, while southern Hokkaido and the southwestern Kurile forearc belong to the south Kurile sliver microplate (Fig.…”

Evolution of collision-related basins in the eastern end of the Kurile Basin, Okhotsk Sea, Northwestern Pacific

“…The Kurile Basin may have begun to open in the Early Oligocene (32 Ma; Kimura and Tamaki, 1985;Kharakhinov, 1996), and stopped as late as the Late Miocene (9-7 Ma; Takeuchi et al, 1999;Ikeda et al, 2000). Although the Kurile Basin is considered to be inactive today (Kimura and Tamaki, 1986;Baranov et al, 2002b), Karp et al (2006) suggested that the basin is in an extinctive stage, i.e., in transition from basin formation to basin destruction.…”

“…Using heat flow data, basement depth, and seismology, the Kurile Basin was postulated to have formed in the Early Oligocene to Middle Miocene (32-15 Ma; Kimura and Tamaki, 1985;Kharakhinov, 1996). Maeda (1990) suggested that the 16-15 Ma K-Araged plutonic rocks in central Hokkaido were formed by the southward migration of the Kurile Arc.…”