The Origin of Arcs

Invited Papers Presented at the International Conference "The Origin of Arcs", Held at the University of Urbino, Urbino, Italy, September 22nd-25th, 1986

1st Edition, Volume 21 - September 1, 1986
Editor: F.-C. Wezel
Language: English
eBook ISBN:
9 7 8 - 1 - 4 8 3 2 - 8 9 9 6 - 0

This volume contains a collection of papers presented as distinguished guest lectures at the International Conference on ``The Origin of Arcs'' held at the University of Urbino in… Read more

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This volume contains a collection of papers presented as distinguished guest lectures at the International Conference on ``The Origin of Arcs'' held at the University of Urbino in September 1986, under the joint sponsorship of the European Union of Geosciences and the Italian Geological Society.

The workshop on island and mountain arcs has been organized with the aim of increasing our understanding of the intrinsic nature of orogenic and post-orogenic processes, on the basis of empiric factual data, rather than particular theoretic models. Quite often a trivial piece of field data appears to bear much more weight than many fascinating hypotheses put forward by the human mind. This seems to be much more valid in geology, where a special method is necessitated by the particular nature of the geological phenomena and the time concept. Every general law deduced should be rooted in the study of the earth's development in geological time. It is the editor's opinion that there must first be an inductive picture by means of geological methods and then it must be interpreted by geophysicists in the light of physical laws. The geological method must serve, besides, to test the historical credibility of geophysical theories. It is clear that these two methods, the geological-historical one and the geophysical one, must be complementary and the one must not substitute the other.

Since the problem of the structure and origin of arcs is open to several solutions, different factors being still unexplained, all correctly deduced opinions are considered by the editor. The contributors to this pre-conference volume have been asked to present essential geological results, as concrete as possible, on some basic problems, such as:
Are the island and mountain arcs primary or induced features?
How have these orogenic festoons developed into their similar regular shapes?
What are the relationships between "primary" active arcs and "secondary" mountain arcs?
What is the dominant deformational factor in the bulging of the arc?
What is the real nature and tectonic significance of the Benioff zone?

These papers have been grouped into five more or less natural sections, of which three are defined on the basis of geography. But of course several range broadly and the classification serves only to channel the discussion in a practical way.

I. Geotectonic Concepts. 1. Diapiric krikogenesis (S.W. Carey). 2. Arcuate crustal structures (V.V. Beloussov). 3. Regularities in the pattern of major fault zones of the earth and the origin of arcs (N. Pavoni). 4. Global neotectonics, arcs and geoid configuration (N.-A. Mörner). II. Geophysics and Geochemistry. 1. Evidence of a deep-reaching lithospheric root under the Alpine Arc (S. Mueller, G.F. Panza). 2. On the dynamics of convergent plate boundaries and stress in the lithosphere (M.J.R. Wortel, S.A.P.L. Cloetingh). 3. Paleomagnetism in arcuate mountain belts (W. Lowrie, A.M. Hirt). 4. Geochemical and isotopic systematics of Eastern Sunda Arc volcanics: Implications for mantle sources and mantle mixing processes (R. Varne, J.D. Foden). III. The Alpine-Mediterranean Region. 1. Mechanism of formation of fold belts: The Alpine-Carpathian region (E.V. Artyushkov, M.A. Baer). 2. The western Alpine arc: New data and hypothesis (J. Debelmas). 3. Southalpine versus Po Plain Apenninic arcs (A. Castellarin, G.B. Vai). 4. Betic-Rifian and Tyrrhenian arcs: Distinctive features, genesis and development stages (J.-P. Bouillin et al.). 5. Neotectonics of the Calabrian arc and Apennines (Italy): An example of Plio-Quaternary evolution from island arcs to collisional stages (J.C. Bousquet, H. Philip). 6. Event stratigraphy, basin evolution and tectonics of the Hellenic and Calabro-Sicilian arcs (J.E. Meulenkamp, F.J. Hilgen). 7. Tyrrhenian volcanic arcs: Volcano-tectonics, petrogenesis and economic aspects (E. Locardi). IV. The Caribbean. 1. Growth of accretionary prisms tectonic processes from Caribbean examples (A. Mascle et al.). 2. Northern and southern Caribbean festoons (Panama, Colombia-Venezuela and Hispaniola-Puerto Rico), interpreted as pseudosubductions induced by the east-west shortening of the Pericaribbean continental frame (J.F. Stephan et al.). V. The Pacific. 1. The origin of the Pacific on an expanding earth (A.R. Crawford). 2. Facts, ideas and open problems on trench arc- backarc systems (S. Uyeda). 3. Subduction in the Japan trench: The Kaiko results (J.P. Cadet et al.). 4. Geochemistry of volcanic rocks from the Mariana, Yap and Palau trenches bearing on the tectono-magmatic evolution of the Mariana trench-arc-backarc system (L. Beccaluva et al.). 5. Structural behaviour of a continental volcanic arc: The Mexican volcanic belt (G. Pasquare et al.). 6. The Pacific island arcs: Produced by post-orogenic vertical tectonics? (F.-C. Wezel).