Evolutionary process of Beppu Bay in central Kyushu, Japan: A quantitative study of the basin-forming process controlled by plate convergence modes

Abstract

This integrated tectonic study reveals the basin-forming and deforming processes on an active margin. Southwest Japan (SWJ) is an island arc under the influence of oblique subduction of the Philippine Sea plate, which has provoked dextral slips on the arc-bisecting Median Tectonic Line (MTL). Plio-/Pleistocene sediments in Beppu Bay, a tectonic depression at the westernmost portion of the MTL, are categorized into lower (5 ~ 0.7 Ma), upper (0.7 ~ 0.3 Ma), and an auxiliary uppermost (0.3 Ma ~ present) unit in ascending order. Detailed seismic interpretation demonstrates that major structures in the deep interior of the basin are an older half-graben under a strong N-S extensional regime and a younger pull-apart sag that developed in a right-stepping part of the MTL as a result of late Quaternary-enhanced strike-slip rates on the fault. Sediments within the pull-apart have been deformed by later inversion events as a contraction phase arose. Conspicuous deformation of the hanging wall of the low-angle detachment of the basin was successfully reproduced by numerical modeling. Based on a discrete element method, this suggests that structural differences in the deformed sedimentary layers are caused by differences in the dip angles of the faults. Remarkable temporal changes in tectonic regimes around Beppu Bay and other areas of SWJ are probably related to transient modes of convergence, including the migration of the Euler pole, of the Philippine Sea plate since ca. 6 Ma.