Subduction System Response to Ribbon Collision: Implications on the Intra-Plate Force Balance and the Style of Slab Deformation

DOI: DOI not verified.

Creators:
Andres Rodriguez‐Corcho Sara Polanco Daniel Sandiford Rebecca Farrington Louis Moresi

These 3D purely mechanical models of subduction were designed to investigate how ribbon collision perturbs the strain and stress field at the surface, the slab interior, and intraplate force balance. The models examined how the slab responded to ribbons colliding at different orientations. We determined two styles of intra-slab deformation triggered by non-orthogonal and orthogonal ribbon collision.

Evolution of ribbon collision with an angle of 0 degrees.

Research Tags

Associated Publication

Subduction System Response to Ribbon Collision: Implications on the Intra‐Plate Force Balance and the Style of Slab Deformation
Andres Rodriguez‐Corcho, Sara Polanco, Daniel Sandiford, Rebecca Farrington, Louis Moresi

DOI10.1029/2025gc012769

Abstract

Ribbon collision is a process that can rapidly disturb the symmetry of subduction zones. Previous studies have demonstrated how ribbon collision causes rotation at the surface and contortion in the slab, but have only focused on the surface kinematics. We use three-dimensional mechanical models to investigate how ribbon collision perturbs the strain and stress field at the surface, the slab interior, and intraplate force balance. In our numerical simulations, we vary the angle between the trench and the ribbon to explore the slab response to ribbons colliding at different orientations. Our numerical simulations show that ribbon collision causes significant heterogeneity of stress, strain rate and vorticity near the surface and the slab itself. Slab deformation shows compartmentalization into low and high strain rate regions around a high vorticity zone, with strain rate variations of up to an order of magnitude occurring in the along-strike and down-dip directions. In the context of our idealized oceanic-continental subduction system, the simulations show that intra-plate stresses are affected to a similar degree by buoyancy contrasts (i.e., gravitational potential energy variations), slab-pull and ribbon collisions. This partitioning allows for significant heterogeneity in the intra-plate stress regime. This work highlights how the rapid changes in strain rate within the slab, caused by ribbon collision, can explain the seismicity gaps observed in collisional margins, which are often interpreted as slab-tears.

Compute Tags

None specified.

Software

Software information not available.

Model Setup

a) Model setup of the 3D subduction numerical models. (b-f) Structure of the crustal and lithospheric domains considered in the numerical models. (g-k) Mechanical properties: viscosity, density and plasticity of the continental and subducting plates and colliding ribbon.

a) Model setup of the 3D subduction numerical models. (b-f) Structure of the crustal and lithospheric domains considered in the numerical models. (g-k) Mechanical properties: viscosity, density and plasticity of the continental and subducting plates and colliding ribbon.

Citation

[Rodriguez‐Corcho, Rodriguez Corcho], Andres., Polanco, S., Sandiford, D., Farrington, R., & Moresi, L. (2026). Subduction System Response to Ribbon Collision: Implications on the Intra-Plate Force Balance and the Style of Slab Deformation [Data set]. AuScope, National Computational Infrastructure. https://doi.org/tk35-h930

Licence

CC-BY-4.0

Funders

  • Ministerio de Ciencia
  • Colombian Association of Petroleum Geologists and Geophysicists (Asociación Colombiana de Geólogos y Geofísicos del Petróleo) fund (2019)
  • National Computational Infrastructure (NCI)
  • Nectar Research Cloud (projects q97
  • Auscope
  • National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS)
  • Open access publishing facilitated by The University of Sydney