ABSTRACT Discrimination between gravity slides and tectonic fold-and-thrust belts in the geologic record has long been a challenge, as both have similar layer shortening structures resulting from single bed duplication by thrust faults of outcrop to map scales. Outcrops on uplifted benches within the Miocene to Pliocene Misaki accretionary unit of Miura-Boso accretionary prism, Miura Peninsula, central Japan, preserve good examples of various types of bedding duplication and duplex structures with multiple styles of folds. These provide a foundation for discussion of the processes, mechanisms, and tectonic implications of structure formation in shallow parts of accretionary prisms. Careful observation of 2-D or 3-D and time dimensions of attitudes allows discrimination between formative processes. The structures of gravitational slide origin develop under semi-lithified conditions existing before the sediments are incorporated into the prism at the shallow surfaces of the outward, or on the inward slopes of the trench. They are constrained within the intraformational horizons above bedding-parallel detachment faults and are unconformably covered with the superjacent beds, or are intruded by diapiric, sedimentary sill or dike intrusions associated with liquefaction or fluidization under ductile conditions. The directions of vergence are variable. On the other hand, layer shortening structure formed by tectonic deformation within the accretionary prism are characterized by more constant styles and attitudes, and by strong shear features with cataclastic textures. In these structures, the fault surfaces are oblique to the bedding, and the beds are systematically duplicated (i.e., lacking random styles of slump folds), and they are commonly associated with fault-propagation folds. Gravitational slide bodies may be further deformed at deeper levels in the prism by tectonism. Such deformed rocks with both processes constitute the whole accretionary prism at depth, and later may be deformed, exhumed to shallow levels, and exposed at the surface of the trench slope, where they may experience further deformation. These observations are not only applicable in time and space to large-scale thrust-and-fold belts of accretionary prism orogens, but to small-scale examples. If we know the total 3-D geometry of geologic bodies, including the time and scale of deformational stages, we can discriminate between gravitational slide and tectonic formation of each fold-and-thrust belt at the various scales of occurrence.

Thin, planar, dark, lamination-like bands are found in host siltstones in the Miocene-Pliocene metamorphosed Miura-Boso accretionary prism, southern Boso Peninsula, Japan. We classified the bands into four types on the basis of distribution, crosscutting relations, and internal textures. Type 1-1 dark bands are developed parallel to the bedding plane and do not include crushed or deformed grains within the band. Type 1-2 bands are also developed parallel to the bedding plane, but grain alignment within the band cuts obliquely across that in the host rock. Type 2 bands include ductilely deformed grains similar to an S-C′ structure, whereas type 3 bands have cataclastic grains. All the dark bands except type 1-1 (being an open fracture with little displacement) are shear bands or slip planes formed from sedimentation to accretion, although the formation mechanisms between the four types are different. These deformation bands are affected by the state of consolidation and magnitude of stress during formation, reflecting the deformation processes. Type 1-1 bands show evidence of independent particulate flow from excess pore-fluid-pressure generation, which occurs just after sedimentation. Type 1-2 bands are flexural-slip faults formed during formation of folds; type 2 bands are sliding planes formed from submarine landslides, whereas type 3 bands are thrust faults formed during accretion.

The NW corner of the Pacific Ocean is a place of unique Tertiary tectonism, which provides one of the clearest examples of arc-arc collision. Voluminous Cretaceous rhyolitic-granitic magmatism along the continental margin continues into the Paleogene. In contrast, Miocene island arc volcanism follows Eocene boninitic magmatism in the Izu-Mariana Arc, in association with the opening of backarc basins, including those in the Philippine and Japan Seas. The triple junction between the Eurasian, Philippine Sea, and Pacific plates arrived in the area south of Tokyo during the Miocene, just as the Japan Sea was opening. After the beginning of Philippine Sea plate subduction to the north, the Izu Island Arc began to collide obliquely with the Honshu Arc. As a result, this unique tectonic setting in the NW Pacific has produced a miniature Alpine-type orogenic belt (Tanzawa) in the collisional center, whereas in the eastern part of the Izu Arc sediment has been actively accreting in that forearc. Such settings have resulted in systematic accretionary prism formation from the early Miocene in the Boso-Miura peninsular area to the present in the Sagami Trough area. We modeled the tectonics by a simple sandbox experiment. Systematic fault and fracture patterns of the oblique subduction type are predicted to occur during arc-arc collision.

ABSTRACT Deformation in a subduction zone and the related transition from smectite to illite within the aseismic-seismic transition zone (2–4 km below the seafloor) were analyzed by studying an onland accretionary complex that was previously buried to a depth of just 2–4 km. The early to middle Miocene Hota accretionary complex of central Japan is an excellent example of an accretionary complex that records shallow underthrusting at the updip end of the seismogenic zone. Two types of subduction-related deformation are preserved in the complex: phacoidal deformation (D1) characterized by rhombus-shaped fragments of mudstone with a random fabric and a thin rim of clay minerals with a preferred orientation, similar to the deformation features of the primary décollement zone at the toe of modern accretionary prisms (as revealed by ocean drilling); and block-in-matrix deformation (D2) characterized by an asymmetric S-C foliation with shear bands and an intense shape-preferred orientation of clay minerals, similar to the deformation features of tectonic mélange in ancient, mature décollement zones. D2 is marked by a large reduction in the amount of smectite and a corresponding increase in illite. During D2, the shear zone increased in strength due to the disappearance of weak smectite, which has a low friction coefficient, and due to an increase in the cohesion of sediments associated with a reduction in porosity and the development of a preferred orientation of clay minerals. Such strain hardening represents a fundamental mechanical/chemical change in the properties of sediments immediately before entering the seismogenic zone.

Abstract The northernmost coast of Sagami Bay, central Japan, is situated in the eastern part of the Izu island arc collision–subduction zone where the Philippine Sea Plate has been subducted beneath the Eurasian Plate or North American Plate since the middle Miocene. It is an area at high risk of geological disaster because it is a developed suburban area located just 50–80 km SW of the megalopolis of Tokyo. We have used our own onshore and offshore neotectonic field data to create a summary of the geological and topographical information related to geohazards over various spatial and temporal ranges, and we provide additional information from archaeological and historical disaster records. The geological hazards and disasters are reviewed on a logarithmic timescale from 10 Ma to modern times. We examine this information with respect to the Great Kanto earthquakes that have repeatedly affected the present area, as they provide a typical example of hazard history on a collision–subduction zone that is useful not only for assessing the local risk but also for providing generic risk. The results can assist in preparedness for various geological hazards, particularly earthquakes, tsunamis, and crustal movements such as uplift and subsidence, as well as active faults and folds.