Evidence for Changing Plate Motions in the Tertiary Shimanto Belt, Japan

古代变形增生棱镜通常保留多种微观结构模式，如解理世代、纤维生长和定向脉组。在变形事件期间，这些运动学指标对相对板块运动的反演是至关重要的，但由于缺乏对它们准确反映此类运动的假设的严格检验，因此非常具有推测性。该项目将研究日本西南部岛满带的叠印织物和运动学指标的模式，之所以选择这个例子，是因为该带在变形过程中汇聚方向发生了众所周知的重大变化，而且这个暴露良好的地区已经得到了相当多的地质研究。结果应该提供一个清晰的测试，这些特征可以被反转，以获得相关板块之间的相对收敛方向。成功评估这种反演导致精确板块运动的程度将广泛适用于其他起源。

9418344 Byrne Ancient deformed accretionary prisms commonly preserve patterns of multiple microstructure such as cleavage generations, fiberous overgrowths and oriented vein sets. Inversions of these kinematic indications to relative plate motions during the deformation event, which is of fundamental importance, is quite speculative due to lack of rigorous tests of the hypothesis that they accurately reflect such motions. This project will examine the pattern of overprinting fabrics and kinematic indicators from the Shimanto Belt of Southwest Japan, an example selected because of a well-known and significant change in convergence directions during the deformation of the Belt, and because this well exposed area has recieved considerable geologic study. Results should provide a clear test of the idea that such features can be inverted to obtain the relative convergence directions between the plates involved. Success in assessing the degree to which such inversion results in accurate plate motions will be widely applicable to other origins.