Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Lin, J., Xu, Y., Sun, Z., & Zhou, Z. Mantle upwelling beneath the South China Sea and links to surrounding subduction systems. National Science Review, 6(5), (2019): 877-881, doi:10.1093/nsr/nwz123.
Description:
The evolution of the South China Sea (SCS) is directly linked to the complex subduction systems of the surrounding Pacific, Philippine Sea and Indo-Australian Plates (Fig. 1a). Major advances in the last several years are providing new insights into the SCS-mantle dynamics, through regional seismic imaging of the upper mantle [1,2], unprecedented IODP drilling expeditions (349/367/368/368X) [3–5] that obtained the oceanic basement basalt samples for the first time, geochemical analyses of the SCS-mantle source compositions [6–8] and geodynamic modeling [9,10]. Furthermore, new geological mapping, seismic imaging [11,12] and IODP drilling [13,14] have revealed evidence for significantly greater magma production at the northern SCS rifted margin, in comparison to the magma-poor end-member of the Atlantic rifted margins. This paper provides a new perspective of the SCS-mantle dynamics inspired by new observations and geodynamic modeling. We first highlight new geophysical evidence for a broad region of low-seismic-velocity anomalies in the upper mantle beneath the northern SCS, abundant magmatism during continental breakup and post-seafloor spreading, and geochemical evidence for recycled oceanic components beneath the SCS. We then present new models of layered flows in the mantle beneath the SCS, revealing two modes of plate- and subduction-driven mantle upwelling, including (i) narrow centers of mantle upwelling at shallow depths induced by divergent plate motion at seafloor-spreading centers and (ii) broad zones of mantle upwelling as a result of subduction-induced mantle-return flows at greater depths. These new observations and geodynamic studies suggest strong links between mantle upwelling beneath the SCS and surrounding subducting plates.
Description:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41890813, 91628301, U1606401, 41976066, 91858207 and 41706056), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Y4SL021001, QYZDY-SSW-DQC005 and 133244KYSB20180029), the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou, GML2019ZD0205), the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC0309800 and 2018YFC0310100), the State Oceanic Administration (GASI-GEOGE-02) and China Ocean Mineral Resources R&D Association (DY135-S2–1-04).
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
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