Unpairing metamorphic belts: P-T paths and a tectonic model for the Ryoke belt, southwest Japan

Southwest Japan is divided into Outer and Inner Zones by the Median Tectonic Line (MTL), a major transcurrent fault. The Outer Zone is composed of the Sambagawa (high-pressure intermediate or high P/T type metamorphism), Chichibu and Shimanto Belts. In the Inner Zone, the Ryoke Belt (andalusite-sillimanite or low P/T type metamorphism) was developed mainly within a Jurassic accretionary complex. This spatial relationship between high P/T type and low P/T type metamorphic belts led Miyashiro to the idea that metamorphic belts were developed as 'paired' systems. Textural relationships and petrogenetically significant mineral assemblages in pelites from the Ryoke Belt imply peak P-T conditions of approximate to 5 kbar and up to 850 degrees C in migmatitic garnet-cordierite rocks from the highest-grade metamorphic zone. It is likely that the thermal anomaly responsible for metamorphism of the Ryoke Belt was related to a segment of the Farallon-Izanagi Ridge as it subducted under the eastern margin of the Asian continent during the Cretaceous. The sequence of mineral assemblages developed in pelites implies a metamorphic field gradient with shallow dP/dT slope, inferred to have been generated by a nested set of hairpin-like 'clockwise' P-T paths. These P-T paths are characterized by limited prograde thickening, minor decompression at peak-T, and near-isobaric cooling, features that may be typical of P-T paths in low P/T type metamorphic belts caused by ridge subduction. A ridge subduction model for the Ryoke Belt implies that juxtaposition of the high-P-T metamorphic rocks of the Sambagzwa Belt against it was a result of terrane amalgamation. Belt-parallel ductile stretching, recorded as syn-metamorphic, predominantly constrictional strain in both Ryoke and Sambagawa Belt rocks, and substantial sinistral displacement on the MTL are consistent with left-lateral oblique convergence. Diachroneity in fast cooling of the Ryoke Belt is implied by extant thermochronological data, and is inferred to relate to progressive SW to NE docking of the Sambagawa Belt. Thus, all alternative interpretation of 'paired' metamorphic belts in Japan is that they represent laterally contemporaneous terranes, rather than outboard and inboard components of a trench/arc 'paired' system. Amalgamation of laterally contemporaneous terranes during large translations of forearcs along continental margins may explain other examples of 'paired' metamorphic belts in the geological record.