Thermal structure, coupling and metamorphism in the Mexican subduction zone beneath Guerrero

Details Thermal structure, coupling and metamorphism in the Mexican subduction zone beneath Guerrero Thermal structure, coupling and metamorphism in the Mexican subduction zone beneath Guerrero

Aug 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004geoji.158..775m&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Journal International, Volume 158, Issue 15, pp. 775-784.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

16

Coupling, Flat Subduction, Mexican Subduction Zone, Thermal Models

Scientific paper

Temperature is one of the most important factors that controls the extent and location of the seismogenic coupled and transition, partially coupled segments of the subduction interplate fault. The width of the coupled fault inferred from the continuous GPS observations for the steady interseismic period and the transient width of the last slow aseismic slip event (Mw~ 7.5) that occurred in the Guerrero subduction zone in 2001-2002 extends up to 180-220 km from the trench. Previous thermal models do not consider this extremely wide coupled interface in Guerrero subduction zone that is characterized by shallow subhorizontal plate contact. In this study, a finite element model is applied to examine the temperature constraints on the width of the coupled area. The numerical scheme solves a system of 2-D Stokes equation and 2-D steady-state heat transfer equations.
The updip limit of the coupling zone is taken between 100 and 150 °C, while the downdip limit is accepted at 450 °C as the transition from partial coupling to stable sliding. From the entire coupled zone, the seismogenic zone extends only up to ~82 km from the trench (inferred from the rupture width of large subduction thrust earthquakes), corresponding to the 250 °C isotherm. Only a small amount of frictional heating is needed to fit the intersection of the 450 °C isotherm and the subducting plate surface at 180-205 km from the trench.
The calculated geotherms in the subducting slab and the phase diagram for MORB are used to estimate the metamorphic sequences within the oceanic subducting crust. A certain correlation exists between the metamorphic sequences and the variation of the coupling along the interplate fault.

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