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Subduction zone initiation reconstructions

Subduction zone initiation (SZI) reconstructions for selected events since around 100 Ma. The reconstructed events are based on the whole Earth Sciences community point-of-view of the SZI database.

Subduction zone initiation (SZI) reconstructions for selected events since around 100 Ma. The reconstructed events are based on the whole Earth Sciences community point-of-view of the SZI database (www.SZIdatabase.org). Represented are SZI events of the Pacific subduction realm (Ryukyu at around 6 Ma, Philippine at around 9 Ma, New Hebrides-New Britain at around 10 Ma, Halmahera at around 16 Ma, Tonga-Kermadec at around 48 Ma, and Izu-Bonin-Mariana at around 52 Ma) and remaining SZI events (South-Sandwich at around 40 Ma, Cascadia at around 48 Ma, Lesser Antilles at around 49 Ma, Sunda-Java at around 50 Ma, Aleutian at around 53 Ma, and the two SZI events, Anatolia and Oman, at around 104 Ma). Shown are the new subduction zones (pink lines), other active (solid purple lines) and inactive (dashed purple lines) subduction zones, spreading ridges (solid red lines) and transform faults (red dashed lines).

  • Creator: Valentina Magni
  • This version: 15.11.2022
  • License: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
  • Specific citation: This graphic by Valentina Magni from Crameri et al. (2020) is available via the open-access s-Ink repository.
  • Related reference: Crameri, F., V. Magni, M. Domeier, G.E. Shephard, K. Chotalia, G. Cooper, C. Eakin, A.G. Grima, D. Gürer, A. Király, E. Mulyukova, K. Peters, B. Robert, and M. Thielmann (2020), A transdisciplinary and community-driven database to unravel subduction zone initiation, Nature Communications, 11, 3750. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-17522-9
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Anatolia subduction zone initiation

The Anatolia subduction zone (or ‘Anatolian Neotethys’) started at around 104 Ma as a consequence of fracture zone inversion.

Schematic tectonic reconstruction of the Anatolia subduction zone initiation event (modified from van Hinsbergen et al., 2019a,b). Shown are the new subduction zone (pink line), other active subduction zones (solid purple lines), and transform faults (red dashed lines).

The Anatolia subduction zone (also referred to as ‘Anatolian Neotethys’ or ‘southern strand of the Neotethys’) started at around 104 Ma. It initiated within the oceanic lithosphere of the Neotethys and, together with the Oman SZI event, represents the western Neotethyan subduction system. SZI has been proposed to be the consequence of fracture zone inversion (van Hinsbergen et al., 2019a, Maffione et al., 2017), though this remains a matter of debate (Agard et al., 2007; van Hinsbergen et al., 2019a).

At the time of SZI, both downgoing and overriding plates were oceanic lithosphere of the Neotethys, the overriding oceanic lithosphere has also been termed ‘Anadolu plate’ (Gürer et al., 2016). The final stages of subduction of the downgoing plate saw the arrival and accretion of continental lithosphere (the Africa-Arabia plate), including several microcontinents of ‘Greater Adria’ (Gaina et al., 2015; van Hinsbergen et al., 2019b).

For more details on the geologic record, corresponding plate reconstruction, and seismic tomography, see the SZI Database.

  • Creators: Fabio Crameri, Valentina Magni, Matthew Domeier, Ágnes Király, Grace Shephard
  • This version: 17.06.2025
  • License: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
  • Specific citation: These graphics from Crameri et al. (2020) are available via the open-access s-ink.org repository.
  • Related reference: Crameri, F., V. Magni, M. Domeier, G.E. Shephard, K. Chotalia, G. Cooper, C. Eakin, A.G. Grima, D. Gürer, A. Király, E. Mulyukova, K. Peters, B. Robert, and M. Thielmann (2020), A transdisciplinary and community-driven database to unravel subduction zone initiation, Nature Communications, 11, 3750. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-17522-9
  • Seismic tomography VoteMap included
  • Perceptually-uniform colour map
  • Colour-vision deficiency friendly
  • Readable in black&white

Faulty or missing link? – Please report them via a reply below!

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