Thermal Modeling of the Sanbagawa and Ryoke Belts

Abstract

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.