Tectonic erosion in a Pacific-type orogen: Detrital zircon response to

Cretaceous tectonics in Japan

Kazumasa Aoki1*, Yukio Isozaki1,2, Shinji Yamamoto1, Kenshi Maki3, Takaomi Yokoyama3, and Takafumi Hirata3
1
Department of Earth Science and Astronomy, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan
2
Département des Sciences de la Terre, Université Lille 1 (UMR 8217 Géosystèmes CNRS–Lille 1), 59655 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France
3
Department of Geology and Mineralogy, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan

ABSTRACT the same rock types as the Sanbosan AC and was

U-Pb dating of detrital zircons from the Lower Cretaceous Sanbagawa and the recently rec- metamorphosed under conditions ranging from
ognized Upper Cretaceous Shimanto high-pressure (HP) metamorphic rocks in southwestern the pumpellyite-actinolite to eclogite facies.
Japan has revealed the presence of abundant Proterozoic (ca. 1500–2000 Ma) detrital grains. The Ryoseki-Monobegawa Group consists of
In contrast, coeval non- to weakly metamorphosed accretionary complex (AC) and forearc nonmetamorphosed sandstones/mudstones of
basin sediments in southwestern Japan lack these older signatures. The only possible source shallow marine to nonmarine facies. The Ryoke-
of the Proterozoic detrital grains is the Jurassic AC in southwestern Japan, which structurally Sanyo batholith is composed of Early Creta-
overlies the Cretaceous HP units. The Proterozoic grains were incorporated into the protoliths ceous granite with associated low-pressure/
of HP-ACs, without polluting coeval forearc basin to trench sediments, likely by tectonic ero- high-temperature metamorphosed older ACs.
sion in the forearc domain. Along the Cretaceous Wadati-Benioff plane, the tectonic erosion The Shimanto orogen consists of the North-
peeled off the sole part of the pre-existing forearc crust and mixed it with the subducting ern Shimanto AC, Shimanto HP-AC, Izumi
trench sediments prior to the peak HP metamorphism. In the Cretaceous subduction-related FAB sediments, and San-in batholith granites
margin around Japan, the tectonic erosion likely occurred twice. (Figs. 1B and 1D). The Northern Shimanto AC
is composed mainly of sandstone/mudstone with
INTRODUCTION that tectonic erosion occurred at least four times an extremely small amount of oceanic rocks. The
The Pacific-type orogeny has played a key role during the past 500 m.y. (Isozaki et al., 2010). Shimanto HP-AC is mainly composed of blue-
in forming juvenile continental crust through- This new aspect considerably revised the tec- schists formed in a progressive metamorphism
out Earth’s history, resulting in the oceanward tonic history of Japan; however, the major limi- of the pumpellyite-actinolite to epidote-amphib-
accretionary growth of arc crust that includes tation in documenting details of tectonic erosion olite facies. The Izumi Group is thick nonmeta-
the extensive exhumation of high-pressure (HP) is in the scarceness of age constraints to the tim- morphosed turbidites. The San-in batholith is
metamorphic belts (Matsuda and Ueda, 1971; ing because tectonic erosion is basically a pro- composed of Late Cretaceous granites.
Maruyama, 1997). By compiling geologic set- cess to erase preexisting geologic units rather
tings of more than 250 HP belts in the world, than to generate/archive new elements. SAMPLES, ANALYTICAL METHOD,
Maruyama et al. (1996) concluded that the peak In this study, in order to constrain the Cre- AND RESULTS
activity of the Pacific-type orogeny is marked taceous putative tectonic erosion in Japan, In order to separate detrital zircons, we col-
by the ridge (spreading center) subduction when we conducted high-resolution U-Pb dating of lected sandstones from the Sanbosan and North-
the orogenic core (i.e., HP belt) is tectonically detrital zircons of the Cretaceous sandstones ern Shimanto ACs, Ryoseki-Monobegawa and
exhumed. Furthermore, detailed geological stud- and metasandstones from southwestern Japan Izumi FAB sediments, and metasandstones in
ies in southwestern Japan have shown that one by laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma– the Sanbagawa and Shimanto HP-ACs in Shi-
cycle of the Pacific-type orogeny starts with a mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). This article koku and the Kii peninsula (Figs. 1C and 1D).
ridge subduction and ends with the next ridge- reports new age data and discusses the implica- Detrital zircons of igneous origin were selected
subduction event (e.g., Maruyama, 1997). In a tion of tectonic erosion in the Cretaceous tecton- for dating by visualizing microdomains with
Pacific-type orogenic cycle in an arc-trench sys- ics of the East Asian margin. oscillatory zoning structure (Corfu et al., 2003)
tem, the following major coeval orogenic com- with cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging. The
ponents generally formed an accretionary com- GEOLOGIC OUTLINE U-Pb isotope analyses of zircons were per-
plex (AC), HP metamorphic rocks (HP-AC), As to the Cretaceous orogeny in southwestern formed by LA-ICP-MS at Kyoto University,
forearc basin (FAB) sediments, and a tonalite- Japan, Aoki et al. (2011) recently discriminated Japan. Ablation was done using a pulsed 193
trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG) batholith suite. two independent orogenies, one in the Early nm Ar excimer laser with fluence of ~2.72 J/cm2
Phanerozoic basement rocks of Japan record Cretaceous and the other in the Late Cretaceous, and irradiance of ~0.54 GW/cm2 at a repetition
~500 m.y. of Pacific-type orogeny, i.e., ocean- i.e., “Sanbagawa orogeny” and “Shimanto orog- rate of 6 or 8 Hz and pit size of ~15 µm. See
ward growth of the arc crust since the Cambrian. eny” (Fig. 1) (Aoki et al., 2009, 2011; Isozaki Iizuka and Hirata (2004) for more detailed ana-
The tectonic history of Japan has been previously et al., 2010). lytical procedures.
explained in terms of intermittent but unidirec- The Sanbagawa orogen consists of four coeval The U-Pb ages of 505 analyzed zircon grains
tionally oceanward growth that formed the sub- components: the Early Cretaceous Sanbosan are summarized in Tables DR1–DR8 and Fig-
horizontal stacking of thick subduction-related AC, Sanbagawa HP-AC, Ryoseki-Monobegawa ures DR1 and DR2 in the GSA Data Repository1.
elements (i.e., ACs and HP-ACs) in a clear FAB sediments, and Ryoke-Sanyo batholith Figure 2 summarizes the 206Pb/238U age popula-
oceanward and tectonically downward younging granites (Figs. 1B and 1C). The Sanbosan AC is tion of the detrital zircons as probability age
trend (e.g., Isozaki, 1996; Maruyama, 1997). mainly composed of non- to weakly metamor-
1
Recently, systematic chronological analyses phosed sandstone and mudstone (trench-fill tur- GSA Data Repository item 2012315, Tables
of zircon from Paleozoic to Cenozoic sand- bidites) with a minor amount of paleoseamount DR1–DR8 (isotopic analytical data) and supplemen-
tal figures, is available online at www.geosociety
stones and metasandstones in Japan have shown basaltic greenstones, paleoatoll carbonate, and .org/pubs/ft2012.htm, or on request from editing@
deep-sea chert from the subducted oceanic plate. geosociety.org or Documents Secretary, GSA, P.O.
*E-mail: kazumasa@ea.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp. The Sanbagawa HP-AC is mainly composed of Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301, USA.

GEOLOGY, December 2012; v. 40; no. 12; p. 1087–1090; Data Repository item 2012315 | doi:10.1130/G33414.1 | Published online 18 September 2012
GEOLOGY
© | December
2012 Geological Society2012 | www.gsapubs.org
of America. For permission to copy, contact Copyright Permissions, GSA, or editing@geosociety.org. 1087
 A B C Sanbagawa orogen
Cretaceous Paleogene
C and D Early Late Paleo-
cene Eocene Biwa
Lake

136° E
146 130 120 110 85 70 50 (Ma)
38° N

Sanbagawa orogeny transition stage and

post-orogeny

Sanbosan AC
Sanbagawa exhumation and hydration
1
Sanbagawa orogen HP-AC 2
Ryoke-Sanyo belt Ryoseki-Monobegawa FAB 3
(batholith belt)
Ryoseki-Monobegawa FAB Ryoke-Sanyo
(forearc basin) batholith belt D Shimanto orogen
Sanbagawa HP-AC
(high-P metamorphic belt) 146 130 120 110 85 70 50 (Ma)
Biwa

Sanbosan AC transition stage

Lake

(accretionary complex) Shimanto orogeny and post-orogeny

Shimanto orogen Northern Shimanto AC
8 Osaka
exhumation
San-in belt (batholith belt) and hydration
Shimanto HP-AC
Izumi FAB (forearc basin) 4
Shimanto HP-AC Izumi FAB 5 Kii
(high-P metamorphic belt) Shikoku 6 7
Northern Shimanto AC San-in batholith belt 100 km
(accretionary complex)

Figure 1. A: Spatial distribution of Cretaceous orogens in southwestern Japan (modified from Aoki et al., 2011). B: Chronology of the San-
bagawa and the Shimanto orogenies. C and D: Distribution of major orogenic components of the Sanbagawa and Shimanto orogens. Circles
show sampling points. 1—BK11 (Sanbagawa HP-AC); 2—JC8 (Ryoseki-Monobegawa Group); 3—JC6 (Sanbosan AC); 4—09405-4 (Northern
Shimanto AC); 5, 6, and 7—BK12, BK7, and NK1 (Shimanto HP-AC); 8—IZ01 (Izumi Group). AC—accretionary complex; FAB—forearc basin;
HP-AC—high-pressure metamorphic rocks.

Sanbagawa orogen Shimanto orogen frequency curves, according to Isoplot/Ex 3.0

(Ludwig, 2003). In the Sanbagawa orogen, the
Sanbosan AC
(JC6: 97 grains)
A Northern Shimanto AC
(09405-4: 36 grains)
B youngest U-Pb age for each component is given
as follows: the Sanbosan AC (JC6) 158 ± 5 Ma,
Ryoseki-Monobegawa FAB sediments (JC8)
125 ± 2 Ma, and Sanbagawa HP-AC (BK11)
156 ± 7 Ma (this study; Nakama et al., 2010).
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
The deposition age of each unit is constrained
to the Early Cretaceous by the youngest age of
Rs-Mn FAB
(JC8: 112 grains)
C Izumi FAB
(IZ01: 44 grains)
D detrital zircon, conventional K-Ar mica ages,
and microfossil age (Isozaki and Itaya, 1990).
relative probability

All these units belong to the Early Cretaceous

Sanbagawa orogen (ca. 160–90 Ma; Aoki et al.,
2011). Concordia diagrams and age frequency
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
curves for the Sanbosan AC and the Ryoseki-
Monobegawa clastics also show an older age
Sanbagawa HP-AC
(BK11: 56 grains)
E Shimanto HP-AC
(BK12: 35 grains)
F cluster of 150–300 Ma. The Sanbagawa HP-AC,
Sanbosan AC, and Ryoseki-Monobegawa clas-
tics commonly have numerous detrital zircons
of ca. 150–300 Ma; however, there is a notable
difference between the first and the latter two;
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 the first has abundant Proterozoic (ca. 1500–
2000 Ma) detrital zircons that are absent in the
Shimanto HP-AC
(NK1: 76 grains)
G Shimanto HP-AC
(BK7: 49 grains)
H latter two.
In the Shimanto orogen, the age spectra of
detrital zircons, including the youngest grain,
are totally different from those of the San-
bagawa orogen, i.e., Northern Shimanto AC
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 (09405-4) 100 ± 3 Ma, Izumi FAB strata (IZ01)
age (Ma)
82 ± 3 Ma, Shimanto HP-AC (BK12, BK7, and
Figure 2. Probability age frequency curves of analyzed samples from the Sanbagawa (A, C, NK1) 85 ± 7, 91 ± 6, and 82 ± 14 Ma respec-
E) and Shimanto (B, D, F, G, H) orogens. Rs-Mn—Ryoseki-Monobegawa. tively (this study; Otoh et al., 2010). Their dep-

1088 www.gsapubs.org | December 2012 | GEOLOGY

ositional ages are constrained by the young-
est U-Pb zircon age and fossil ages. All these
sediments were accumulated during the Late
Cretaceous Shimanto orogeny (ca. 90–70 Ma;
Aoki et al., 2011). Concordia diagrams and
probability density curves show that the North-
ern Shimanto AC and the Izumi FAB clastics
have U-Pb age clusters of ca. 100–300 and
80–110 Ma, respectively. In contrast, the Shi-
manto HP rocks BK7 and BK12 have a distinct
age spectrum with two prominent age clus-
ters, i.e., 90–250 Ma and ca. 1500–2000 Ma.
These results clearly show that the Late Cre-
taceous (ca. 90–85 Ma) FAB and trench sedi-
ments of southwestern Japan were depleted
in the Proterozoic zircons, whereas the nearly
coeval protoliths of the Shimanto HP-AC were
enriched in these older zircons.
DISCUSSION
Sandstones in the forearc usually contain
abundant surface-eroded material from the
exposed crusts of the active continental margin,
i.e., older continental basement and younger
arc crust. All contemporary sandstones in the
same forearc (i.e., FAB and trench sediments)
are generally expected to share an identical age
population of detrital zircons in front of the
same provenance. In the case of Cretaceous
Japan, this study indeed confirmed that the
Lower and Upper Cretaceous sandstones of
the Sanbagawa and Shimanto orogens contain
abundant detrital zircons of late Paleozoic to
mid-Mesozoic age, proving that the late Paleo-
zoic to mid-Mesozoic arc batholith belts were
exposed extensively in the Cretaceous arc-
trench system around Japan. In particular, the
dominance of the late Paleozoic–Mesozoic zir-
cons also indicates that the Mesozoic batholith
belts likely have built a large barrier (mountain
range) to suppress the terrigenous flux from the
older continental crust of China.
Nonetheless, we have identified the occur-
rence of Proterozoic zircons in the metasand-
stones of both the Sanbagawa and Shimanto
HP-ACs. This signal has never been detected in
the nonmetamorphosed sediments of the coeval
AC and FAB sediments; thus this highlights a
remarkable contrast to the protoliths of the HP-
ACs. Because the Japanese geology is essen-
tially characterized by the parallel arrangement
of most of the Phanerozoic orogenic elements
(Isozaki, 1996), along-arc difference in prov-
enance composition is unlikely to explain the
above phenomena. The conventional surface
transport of terrigenous clastics across the
forearc cannot explain this conundrum; thus
another possible supply mechanism is needed
for delivering the older detrital zircons into the
protoliths of HP-ACs.
In East Asia around Japan, Paleo-Meso-
proterozoic crust occurs solely in north China
(e.g., Maruyama et al., 1989). Most of Japan
GEOLOGY | December 2012 | www.gsapubs.org
was separated from north China until the
Middle Triassic because the Paleozoic evolu-
tion of Japan occurred mostly along the Pacific
margin of south China (Isozaki et al., 2010).
The Middle Triassic continental collision
between north and south China generated an
ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic belt along the
collisional suture. After the Late Triassic uplift
of the suture zone, likely forming a mountain
range, the Japan margin started to receive ter-
rigenous clastics from the uplifted domain, in
particular from the hanging wall of the suture,
i.e., north China. The Jurassic ACs of the
Mino-Tanba (Chichibu) belt in Japan contain
abundant Mesoproterozoic clasts, i.e., from
boulders of gneiss/granite to detrital grains
of zircon/monazite (e.g., Shibata and Adachi,
1974; Suzuki et al., 1991). During the Creta-
ceous, therefore, possible sources of the Paleo-
Mesoproterozoic zircons in Japan were either
the North China Craton in the interior of the
margin or the Jurassic AC in the forearc.
Sanbagawa Case
The extreme rareness of Proterozoic zir-
cons in the Lower Cretaceous forearc and
trench sandstones (Figs. 2A and 2C) indicates
that the Jurassic–Cretaceous batholith belts
likely have blocked the across-arc surface
transportation of Proterozoic zircons from
north China to the forearc. As to the Protero-
zoic zircons in the Sanbagawa HP-AC, the
one and only possible source in front of the
batholith belts was the Jurassic AC; however,
this unit was not yet exposed on surface then
to feed the FAB and trench.
Rs-Mn FAB sediments (with ca. 300–150 Ma zircons)
Sanbosan AC (with ca. 300–150 Ma zircons)
Jurassic AC (previously formed)
nt
lleme
Déco
tectonic erosion
(basal erosion)
Sanbagawa HP-AC
(with ca. 300–150 Ma + 1500–2000 Ma zircons)
Izumi FAB sediments (with ca. 100–80 Ma zircons)
Sanbagawa HP-AC (basal erosion)
AC
ssic
Jura
oceanic crust + sediments
Shimanto HP-AC
Shimanto HP-AC (deposition age: after ca. 80 Ma)
(deposition age: ca. 90–85 Ma)
In order to explain this apparent discrepancy,
we speculate that the Proterozoic zircons in the
Sanbagawa HP rocks were supplied from the
structurally overlying Jurassic AC within the
forearc crust through tectonic erosion, i.e., a
mechanical material transferring process beneath
the forearc along the Wadati-Benioff plane (e.g.,
von Huene and Scholl, 1991; Yamamoto et al.,
2009; see also Stern, 2011, for a longer refer-
ence list). Tectonic erosion was classified by von
Huene and Lallemand (1990) and Vannucchi et
al. (2008) into two distinct processes, i.e., fron-
tal erosion and basal erosion. The former process
occurs adjacent to the trench to tectonically erode
pre-existing accretionary wedge/slope sediments.
On the other hand, the latter works at much deeper
levels of the Wadati-Benioff plane where mate-
rial from the hanging wall is tectonically peeled
off and mixed with subducted trench sediments
within the subduction channel (e.g., Clift and
Vannucchi, 2004; Clift et al., 2009). The basal
erosion appears more effective in mechanical
mixing of protoliths of HP-ACs, and in fact, this
is the only possible mechanism that can explain
the unique abundance of ca. 1500–2000 Ma
zircons solely in the Cretaceous HP metasand-
stones in Japan. The Proterozoic zircons were
likely reworked by basal erosion from the over-
lying Jurassic AC above the Cretaceous Wadati-
Benioff plane (Fig. 3A). The depositional age of
the trench sediments was estimated at ca. 150 Ma
on the basis of the youngest detrital zircon age
(this study) and microfossil ages (Isozaki and
Itaya, 1990). On the other hand, the peak San-
bagawa metamorphism occurred in 120–110 Ma
(mid to Early Cretaceous) (Itaya et al., 2011).
A
Figure 3. A: Schematic il-
lustration of the tectonic
erosion in the subduc-
tion zone at the time of
supply sediments the Sanbagawa orogeny.
Basal erosion likely oc-
curred by infiltration of
fluid from subducting ma-
terial (modified from von
oceanic crust
Huene et al., 2004) into
normal the previously formed Ju-
fault
rassic accretionary com-
plex. The fractured frag-
not to scale ments were then mixed
with subducted materials
on the incoming plate. B:
B Schematic illustration of
the tectonic erosion of
N. Shimanto AC the Shimanto orogeny.
Tectonic erosion likely
occurred by the subduc-
tion of the Izanagi-Kula
ridge. Transferred mate-
Sanbosan AC
rial was mixed with trench
(frontal erosion)
sediments.
not to scale
1089
Therefore, the timing of tectonic erosion and
material mixing was constrained to sometime in
the Early Cretaceous (150–120 Ma).
Shimanto Case
Among the three units of the Shimanto orogen,
the protolith of HP-AC alone is enriched with the
Proterozoic zircons. This likewise indicates that
the protoliths of the Shimanto HP rocks (90–
85 Ma) incorporated older zircons from pieces
of the Sanbagawa HP-AC and/or Lower Creta-
ceous Sanbosan AC through the tectonic erosion
of the hanging wall. On the basis of the above
discussion, we conclude that extensive tectonic
erosion has occurred at least twice in Cretaceous
Japan, and that the trench possibly retreated
toward the continental side significantly. The
latter speculation can be checked by the relative
position of coeval arc batholith belts. In gen-
eral, when a subduction-related orogen grows
oceanward, the positions of trench and volcanic
front naturally shift in parallel to the ocean side.
From this conventional viewpoint, the relative
position of the Late Cretaceous San-in batholith
was a long-term mystery in the Japanese geol-
ogy, because it occurs on the continent side of
the older mid to Late Cretaceous Ryoke-Sanyo
batholith (Fig. 1). This apparent contradiction in
the distribution of the Cretaceous batholith belts
is readily explained by the proposed tectonic
erosion in the forearc domain; i.e., the entire arc-
trench system likely retreated continentward in
the Late Cretaceous, forming the San-in belt on
the continent side of the older Ryoke-Sanyo belt.
At present, the trigger of the Cretaceous
tectonic erosion in Japan is still unknown. The
subduction of topographical features, such as
seamounts, oceanic plateaus, or ridges, might
induce pervasive erosion of the overriding plate
by the frictional mechanical coupling between
the two converging plates (e.g., Dominguez et
al., 2000). Maruyama and Seno (1986) once
suggested the northward passage of the Izanagi-
Kula ridge along the Cretaceous (ca. 90–85 Ma)
Japan margin. If this was the case, the putative
tectonic erosion during the Shimanto orogeny
might have been driven by the active ridge sub-
duction at ca. 90–85 Ma (Fig. 3B).
The comparison of zircon age spectra of
major units within the same Cretaceous orogen
in Japan has shown the utility of this approach
in identifying ancient tectonic erosion and offers
further application to other orogens of different
time-space framework.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
K. Collerson corrected the English language. T.
Sato and R.S. Hori helped in sample preparation. P.A.
Cowie, P. Vannucchi, and one anonymous reviewer
provided constructive review comments. This study
was financially supported by a Research Fellowship of
the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
1090
for Young Scientists (23-6135 to K.A.) and a Grant-in-
Aid of the JSPS (20224012 to Y.I.).
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Manuscript received 15 March 2012
Revised manuscript received 10 May 2012
Manuscript accepted 20 May 2012
Printed in USA
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