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The probable N055°-oriented extinct spreading ridge of the East Sub-basin is cut across by the post-spreading volcanic ridge oriented approximately E–W in its western part and called the Zhenbei–Huangyan seamounts chain. A three-dimensional ocean bottom seismometer survey was conducted in 2011 and covered both the extinct spreading ridge and the Zhenbei–Huangyan seamounts chain in the East Sub-basin. The comprehensive seismic record sections of 39 ocean bottom seismometers underline the high-quality data with clear and reliable P-wave seismic first arrivals. The three-dimensional tomographic results show that the crust is oceanic on each side of the Zhenbei–Huangyan seamounts chain. The seafloor spreading lineaments and associated fracture zones pattern provide channels for magma migration and eruption. Based on the ratio of volcanic extrusive and intrusive materials and the shape of the upward convex 6.4 km/s iso-velocity curve beneath the Zhenbei and Huangyan seamounts, we conclude that the Zhenbei and Huangyan seamounts appear to be dominantly formed by intra-crustal intrusion. Combining previous geochemical studies of post-spreading volcanic ridge outcropping samples, the formation mechanism of the seamounts chain might be explained by a buoyancy-driven decompression melting mechanism occurring as separately evolving partial melting bodies beneath each seamount.

P>We present the results from processing and interpreting nine multichannel seismic reflection lines collected during the 1992 Erable experiment over the northeastern margin of Flemish Cap offshore Newfoundland. These lines, combined into five cross-sections, provide increased seismic coverage over this lightly probed section of the margin and reveal tectonically significant along-strike variations in the degree and compartmentalization of crustal thinning. Similar to the southeastern margins of Flemish Cap and the Grand Banks, a transitional zone of exhumed serpentinized mantle is interpreted between thinned continental and oceanic crust. The 25 km wide transitional zone bears similarities to the 120 km wide transitional zone interpreted as exhumed serpentinized mantle on the conjugate Irish Atlantic margin but the significant width difference is suggestive of an asymmetric conjugate pair. A 40-50 km wide zone of inferred strike-slip shearing is interpreted and observed to extend along most of the northeastern margin of Flemish Cap. Individual shear zones (SZs) may represent extensions of SZs and normal faults within the Orphan Basin providing further evidence for the rotation and displacement of Flemish Cap out of Orphan Basin. The asymmetry between the Flemish Cap and Irish conjugate pairs is likely due in large part to the rotation and displacement of Flemish Cap which resulted in the Flemish Cap margin displaying features of both a strike-slip margin and an extensional margin.

In July 2005, about 6 months after the 2004 great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, 20 ocean bottom seismometers were deployed in the northern Sumatra area. More than 1000 events were identified during the 12 day recording period. After relocation, the seismicity shows different patterns on each side of the Lower Splay Fault. East of this feature and beneath the Aceh basin and fore arc, the deep earthquakes outline the subduction megathrust fault. West of it, the aftershocks distribution is strongly influenced by the active N-S oceanic fracture zones of the subducted plate. Two N-S trending clusters of 10- to 50-km-deep earthquakes observed below the lower wedge are interpreted as reactivated oceanic fracture zones. The postseismic activity suggests a significant influence of the N-S active fracture zones of the oceanic plate on the toe of the wedge explaining the dextral wrenching of wedge thrusts in the morphology. The megathrust fault does not extend to the trench but outcrops east of these active oceanic fractures and seems to merge upward along the Lower Splay Fault where shallow earthquakes are observed.

Magmatism associated with subducting plate edges or slab tears has been suggested in the southern Okinawa Trough. The cross back-arc volcanic trail, which consists of a cluster of about 70 seamounts, is located above a Ryukyu slab tear lying along the 123.3°E meridian. In November 2003, more than 3300 earthquakes recorded in this area by 15 ocean bottom seismometers and surrounding land stations during a period of 12 days were used to determine the three-dimensional Vp and Vs velocity structures and Vp/Vs ratios. A mantle inflow characterized by low Vp and Vs and high Vp/Vs passing through the slab tear is imaged. The fluid and/or melt component is rising obliquely from the slab tear in the directions of the cross back-arc volcanic trail, the northern slope of the southern Okinawa Trough and to north of Iriomote Island. The asthenospheric intake is also imaged by an inclined chip-like high Vp/Vs and low Vp and Vs body dipping northerly, which might be linked to the slab retreat. West of the slab tear, most of the earthquakes are located around low Vp and Vs and high Vp/Vs bodies, which suggests that the seismicity is related to magmatic and/or fluid activities. East of it, earthquakes are concentrated in an area characterized by high Vp and Vs velocities and low Vp/Vs, suggesting that the magma chamber is absent beneath the axial part of the trough and that normal faulting is the main factor controlling the seismicity.

[1] Transitional zones located between Iberia and North America formed during continental rifting and mostly consist of exhumed mantle. In this study we show that ages of exhumed mantle at Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) sites 1068 and 1070 in the Iberia Abyssal Plain and site 1277 in the Newfoundland Basin are similar to ages determined from magnetic lineations created by serpentinization during mantle exhumation. On the basis of paleomagnetic and geological data and a comparison with a fossil ocean-continent transition in the Alps, we envisage a first episode of mantle serpentinization during which a strong component of magnetization was acquired followed by a second episode occurring at the contact with cold seawater, and which only affects the upper tens of meters of the exhumed mantle. The inversion of magnetic data ( Euler deconvolution) shows that magnetic sources are N-S trending horizontal cylindrical bodies located within the highly serpentinized upper crust. Therefore the serpentinization process is able to produce magnetic lineations formed in a similar way to those formed by seafloor spreading. Within transition zones, sequences of magnetic anomalies can provide information concerning the timing of the emplacement of crust, but not on its nature ( oceanic versus exhumed mantle). This discovery enables us to date the exhumation of mantle rocks in transition zones and allows kinematic reconstructions of the final stages of continental rifting. During rifting the deep distal continental margins and the adjacent transitional zones in the Newfoundland-Iberia rift system were formed by ultraslow extension from early Berriasian to late Valanginian - early Hauterivian and by slow extension from early Hauterivian to the late Aptian - early Albian boundary. Therefore transitional zones share many similarities with slow and ultraslow spreading midoceanic ridges.

Since the beginning of formation of Proto-Taiwan, the subducting Philippine (PH) Sea plate has moved continuously through time in the N307° direction with respect to Eurasia (EU), tearing the EU plate. The subducting EU plate includes a continental part in the north and an oceanic part in the south. The boundary B between these two domains corresponds to the eastern prolongation of the northeastern South China Sea ocean-continent transition zone. In the Huatung Basin (east of Taiwan), the Taitung Canyon is N065° oriented and is close and parallel to B. Seismic profiles show that the southern flank of the canyon corresponds to a fault with a normal component of a few tens of meters in the sediments and possible dextral shearing. Several crustal earthquakes of magnitude >%6 are located beneath the trend of the Taitung Canyon and focal mechanisms suggest that the motion is right-lateral. Thus, faulting within the sedimentary sequence beneath the Taitung Canyon is a consequence of underlying dextral strike-slip crustal motions. As the continental part of the EU slab located north of B has been recently detached, some subsequent dextral strike-slip motion might be expected within the EU slab, along the ocean-continent transition zone, which is a potential zone of weakness. We suggest that the dextral strike-slip motion along the ocean-continent boundary of the EU slab might trigger the observed dextral strike-slip motion within the overlying PH Sea crust and the associated faulting within the sediments of the Huatung Basin, beneath the Taitung Canyon.

[1] Behind the sedimentary Ryukyu arc lies the Okinawa Trough, whose termination is located at the tip of the Ilan plain ( northern Taiwan), just above the Ryukyu slab edge. The present-day active volcanic front is located 80 - 100 km above the Ryukyu slab and extends from Japan to Kueishantao Island, an islet situated 10 km offshore the Ilan plain. Between December 1990 and May 1999, 3370 earthquakes recorded in northern Taiwan by 65 seismic land stations were used to determine the three-dimensional V-p and V-s velocity structures and V-p/V-s ratios. A low V-s but high V-p/V-s sausage-like body, similar to 30 km in diameter, lies within the Eurasian mantle wedge, on top of the western Ryukyu slab extremity, at depths ranging between 20 and 100 km. We suggest that the H2O-rich component formed by dehydration processes from subducting sediments, oceanic crust, and serpentinized mantle above the Ryukyu slab and along the vertical portion of the slab edge might explain the presence of the sausage-like body. A low V-s but high V-p/V-s channel rises obliquely from the sausage-like body at a depth of 40 km in direction of the andesitic Kueishantao Island. We propose that the H2O-rich component and/or melt rise up from the sausage-like body and interfere with the Okinawa Trough back arc basin magmas formed in the upper mantle/lower crust. Then magmas propagate upward within the upper brittle crust through veins and/or narrow conduits.

The present-day active volcanic front associated with the Ryukyu subduction zone extends from Japan to the Ilan plain (northern Taiwan) and is located within the Okinawa Trough, 80-100 km above the Ryukyu slab. An abnormal amount of arc volcanism, which consists of basalt, andesite and rhyolite occurs within the southwestern Okinawa Trough, above a slab tear of the Ryukyu subduction zone (CBVT). The power spectrum analysis of magnetic data shows the occurrence of a thin crust above the slab tear and a thick crust beneath this volcanic area. We suggest that an excess of H2O-rich fluid might occur at the slab tear and might increase the melt flux. Both are conveyed obliquely to the uppermost mantle and lower crust CBVT magmas. After interactions, basaltic magmas would rise up, accounting for the contrast of magnetization between this volcanic body and the adjacent OT crust.

The evolution of the Pyrenees, a mountain range between Iberia and Eurasia, has remained the subject of many debates between geologists and geophysicists for a long time. By combining the identification of seafloor spreading anomalies A33o to M0 in the Bay of Biscay with those in the North Atlantic, we have derived a position of a mean pole of rotation for the entire opening of the Bay of Biscay. Four hundred kilometers of shortening took place between the Iberian and Eurasian plates in the Pyrenean domain during the opening of the Bay of Biscay, from chrons M0 to A33o time (118 to 80 Ma). The deep seismic Etude Continentale et Oceanique par Reflexion et refraction Sismique (ECORS) profile shot across the Pyrenees and teleseismic data show the presence of two distinct slabs, which dip to the north. The southern slab is linked to the subduction of the neo-Tethys Ocean, which was created from late Jurassic to early Aptian. Simultaneously, elongated back arc basins formed along the future Pyrenean domain. This slab was active from at least 118 Ma ( early Aptian) to 100 Ma (late Albian). The northern slab, active since 85 Ma, is linked to the subduction of the lower continental crust located south of the Pyrenean domain. In the upper crust, normal faults as well as the north Pyrenean fault became reverse faults, and former back arc basins were inverted, giving rise to the uplift of the Pyrenees as a double asymmetrical wedge.

International audience; Detailed seafloor mapping in the area east of Taiwan revealed trench-parallel stretching and folding of the Ryukyu forearc and lateral motion of the accretionary wedge under oblique convergence. East of 122ø40'E, a steep accretionary wedge is elongated in an E-W direction. A major transcurrent right-lateral strike-slip fault accommodates the strain partitioning caused by an oblique convergence of 40 ø. A spectacular out-of-sequence thrust may be related to the subduction of a structural high lying in the axis of the N-S trending Gagua Ridge. This asperity is likely responsible for the uplift of the accretionary wedge and forearc basement and may have augmented strain partitioning by increasing the coupling between the two plates. West of 122ø40'E, the low-taper accretionary wedge is sheared in a direction subparallel to the convergence vector with respect to the Ryukyu Arc. The bayonet shape of the southern Ryukyu Arc slope partly results from the recent (re)opening of the southern Okinawa Trough at a rate of about 2 to 4 cm/yr. Right-lateral shearing of the sedimentary forearc with respect to the nonlinear Ryukyu backstop generates trench-parallel extension in the forearc sediment sequence at dilational jogs and trench-parallel folding at compressive jogs. The Hoping Basin lies above a diffuse trench/trench/fault (TTF) or TFF unstable triple junction moving toward the south along a N-S transform zone which accommodates the southward drift of the Ryukyu Arc with respect to Eurasia.

A joint French-Taiwanese cruise in May and June 1996 on the French research vessel L'Atalante has provided detailed structural images of the sea floor east and southwest of Taiwan. High quality swath bathymetry (see Figure 1) and seismic reflection profiles collected in southeastern and southwestern offshore areas near Taiwan will increase our understanding of how the Luzon Arc is deformed by its collision with the Chinese passive margin and how the Manila Trench connects with the deformation front on Taiwan. The data collected off the eastern coast of Taiwan will elucidate the nature of the plate boundary between the Ryukyu subduction zone and the Taiwan mountain belt and reveal the mode of back arc opening in the Southern Okinawa Trough. The investigations will contribute to understanding the processes of accretion of an arc to a continent prior to the ultimate collision between continents.

Three cruises (POP 1, SEAPSO 3 and SEAPSO 4) carried out during the "Tour du Monde" of the R.V. Jean Charcot allow us to obtain new structural and geochemical data for the Okinawa, North Fiji and Lau basins. Taken together, the structural and geochemical data illustrate a difference in evolution stages of these sites. The less evolved stage is represented by the Okinawa basin, where accretion is evidenced only by volcanic intrusion into a thinned continental crust. The most evolved stage is illustrated in the North Fiji basin, where the present-day accretion can be directly compm·ed to the East Pacific Ridge. The Lau basin displays an intem1ediate stage with a complex system of accretionary ridges. This difference in the evolution stage is translated in the nature and geochemistry of the rocks : in the Okinawa trough they are basalts, andesites and dacites enriched in hydromagmaphile m1d rare earth elements. In the Lau basin they are typical N. Morb basalts in the central pmt of the basin and inteimediate composition between Morb and m1desites on Valu Fa ridge. Lastly, the North Fiji basin axis provides only typical Morb basalts.

Three cruises (POP 1, SEAPSO 3 and SEAPSO 4) carried out during the "Tour du Monde" of the R.V. Jean Charcot allow us to obtain new structural and geochemical data for the Okinawa, North Fiji and Lau basins. Taken together, the structural and geochemical data illustrate a difference in evolution stages of these sites. The less evolved stage is represented by the Okinawa basin, where accretion is evidence only by volcanic intrusion into a thinned continental crust. The most evolved stage is illustrated in the North Fiji basin, where the present-day accretion can be directly compared to the East Pacific Ridge. The Lau basin displays an intermediate stage with a complex system of accretionary ridges. This difference in the evolution stage is translated in the nature and geochemistry of the rocks.