SEISMOLOGY AND GEOLOGY ›› 2003, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (2): 220-226.

• Brief Report • Previous Articles     Next Articles

GEOMETRICAL FEATURES OF SUBDUCTION BOUNDARIES

YAO Hua-jian, XU Guo-ming, XIAO Xiang, CHEN Min   

  1. Department of Earth and Space Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
  • Received:2001-08-16 Revised:2002-04-04 Online:2003-06-04 Published:2009-10-26

俯冲带几何特征的研究

姚华建, 徐果明, 肖翔, 陈敏   

  1. 中国科学技术大学地球和空间科学系, 合肥, 230026
  • 作者简介:姚华建,男,1979年生,2001年毕业于中国科学技术大学地球与空间科学系地球物理专业,现为硕士研究生,主要研究方向为面波反演及三维层析成像、地震信号处理及图像分析技术,电话:0551-3601399,E-mail:yaohuajian@263.net.
  • 基金资助:
    国家自然科学基金(49974008)资助.

Abstract: At the convergent boundaries of plates, when one plate subducts into the another, the form of the subduction boundaries (trench, mountain belt) bears a close relation with the properties of the subducting and subducted plates. In this paper, we mainly use plate subduction model to calculate and simulate some major subduction boundaries all over the world, and discuss the problem of the dip angle. Here we consider the subducting plate as a plane plate and the subducted plate as a part of the spherical surface of the Earth. And we suppose that the dip angle calculated from the model is the initial dip angle of the plate. From the simulation we find that many large subducting plates can be approximately regarded as plane plates. Plate subdution model, however, is not fit for some reversed-arc subduction boundaries such as Izu trench, which is fit for spherical subduction model. From the simulation we get the positions of six large subduction boundaries, in good accordant with the positions of the present subduction boundaries. Besides, we calculate also the initial dip angle of the subducting plate. The recent studies show that the lithosphere exhibits universal westward drift. From our calculation, it is shown that in the east part of the Pacific the initial dip angle of the subducting plate is less than the recent dip angle of the Benioff zone, but it is not true for the west part of the Pacific where the initial dip angle is larger than the recent dip angle of the Benioff zone. This result directly tallies with the westward drift of the lithosphere, and with the eastward flow of the mantle relative to the lithosphere. Because the westward motion of the subducting plate in the Pacific is opposite to the eastward movement of the mantle, it will lead to an additive resistant force on the subducting plate, which makes the dip angle becomes larger and larger. In east pacific, however, the subduction direction of the subducting plate is the same as that of the flow of the mantle, so the current dip angle of the Benioff zone will be larger than the initial dip angle.

Key words: subduction zone, plate subduction, dip angle, westward drift of lithospere, eastward flow of mantle

摘要: 在板块的汇聚边界上,若一板块向另一板块俯冲下插,所形成的俯冲边界(海沟,造山带)的形态与俯冲板块、被俯冲板块的性质有很大关系。文中主要通过平板俯冲模型来计算模拟全球范围内一些大的俯冲边界,并对俯冲角等问题作了一些讨论。近来的研究表明,岩石圈板块存在普遍的西向漂移。由文中计算得到的太平洋东岸的板块初始俯冲角小于目前观测到的贝尼奥夫带倾角;而太平洋西岸的情况则恰好相反,初始俯冲角大于目前观测到的贝尼奥夫带倾角。这直接反映了岩石圈板块的西向漂移;对地幔而言,则是地幔相对于地壳的东向流动。

关键词: 俯冲带, 平板俯冲, 俯冲角, 岩石圈板块西向漂移, 地幔东向流动

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