Subduction erosion
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Through Plate tectonics and Fault (geology)
Before the Neoproterozoic, subduction erosion rates were probably higher than at present due to higher convergence rates. A scarcity of blueschists from this time seems to support this view. However, this assertion is arguably wrong because the earliest oceanic crust would have contained more magnesium than today's crust and, therefore, would have formed greenschist-like rocks at blueschist facies.
The following features and processes have been associated with subduction erosion:
- Extensional tectonics: Tectonic erosion is believed be a widespread phenomenon in northern Chile with the normal faulting around Mejillones Peninsula attributed to an extensional domino effect caused by the consumption of a lithospheric block.
- Regional subsidence and transgression: The Miocene transgression of southern Chile has been suggested to have been caused by basal tectonic erosion. Subduction erosion does not explain the Miocene transgression further inland in Patagonia.
- Magmatic belt migration: Concurrent with the Andean orogeny the eastward migration of the magmatic belts in Chile from the Late Cretaceous onward is thought to be caused by subduction erosion.