Geology and Tectonics of Subduction Zones: A Tribute to Gaku Kimura

Book excerpt: This volume highlights the career of Dr. Gaku Kimura, professor emeritus of geosciences at the University of Tokyo, by showing the spectrum of research required to understand these dynamic environments and the range of research he has inspired. The first three chapters provide context for the growth of accretionary prisms by examining the thermal structure of the ocean crust, and the sedimentary facies and potential fluid pathways in the Shikoku Basin. Next, two chapters look at the regional-scale structure of the plate boundary and the rheology and hysteresis of the hanging wall of the subduction zone in SW Japan. The following five chapters discuss the progressive deformation and thermal maturation of sediments along accretionary margins from Japan to New Zealand to western North America. The final two chapters look at the deformation processes near the subducting plate interface with the last chapter proposing a link between outcrop-scale observations and seismic slip.