Oral Presentation Sub22 Conference

Since the origination of the concept of seamounts, the related tectonic evolution have been identified in the continental record at every stage in Earth history. Seamounts form at intra-oceanic and continental convergent plate boundaries and comprise the supra-subduction fore-arc and arc regions, as well as the microcontinental segments that are carried with the seamounts. The geological record contains abundant seamount orogens, such as the submarine Anximander mountains in eastern Mediterrean represent the joint between the western Anatolian and Aegean crustal segments and are bound with Isparta Angle,Turkey in north. In modern and ancient examples of long-lived seamount orogens, the overriding plate is subjected to episodes of crustal extension and back-arc basin development, often related to subduction rollback and transient episodes of orogenesis and crustal shortening, coincident with bending of trench convergent boundary. Here we present three-dimensional dynamic models that show how slab subduction with seamount orogens evolved from initial collison, during a period of plate margin instability, to re-establishment of a stable convergent margin at side. The model illustrate how significant curvature of the orogenic arc system develops, as well as the mechanisms for transformed fault and step tearing gap forming. We find geological and geophysical evidence for this process in Hellenic subduction zone in southern Aegean, and infer this as an recurrent and global phenomenon.