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Tectonic Significance of the Taitung Canyon, Huatung Basin, East of Taiwan

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An Erratum to this article was published on 01 March 2006

Abstract

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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ifremer Centre de Brest, B.P. 70, 29280, Cedex, Plouzané, France

    Jean-Claude Sibuet & Alain Normand

  2. Institute of Geophysics, National Central University, Chung-Li, 32054, Taiwan

    Shu-Kun Hsu

Authors
  1. Jean-Claude Sibuet
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  2. Shu-Kun Hsu
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  3. Alain Normand
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Correspondence to Jean-Claude Sibuet.

Additional information

An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11001-006-8182-3.

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Sibuet, JC., Hsu, SK. & Normand, A. Tectonic Significance of the Taitung Canyon, Huatung Basin, East of Taiwan. Mar Geophys Res 25, 95–107 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-005-0736-2

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