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Three-Dimensional Thermal Model of the Costa Rica-Nicaragua Subduction Zone

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Abstract

The thermal structure of a subduction zone controls many key processes, including subducting plate metamorphism and dehydration, the megathrust earthquake seismogenic zone and volcanic arc magmatism. Here, we present the first three-dimensional (3D), steady-state kinematic-dynamic thermal model for the Costa Rica-Nicaragua subduction zone. The model consists of the subducting Cocos plate, the overriding Caribbean Plate, and a viscous mantle wedge in which flow is driven by interactions with the downgoing slab. The Cocos plate geometry includes along-strike variations in slab dip, which induce along-strike flow in the mantle wedge. Along-strike flow occurs primarily below Costa Rica, with a maximum magnitude of 4 cm/year (~40 % of the convergence rate) for a mantle with a dislocation creep rheology; an isoviscous mantle has lower velocities. Along-margin flow causes temperatures variations of up to 80 °C in the subducting slab and mantle wedge at the volcanic arc and backarc. The 3D effects do not strongly alter the shallow (<35 km) thermal structure of the subduction zone. The models predict that the megathrust seismogenic zone width decreases from ~100 km below Costa Rica to just a few kilometers below Nicaragua; the narrow width in the north is due to hydrothermal cooling of the oceanic plate. These results are in good agreement with previous 2D models and with the rupture area of recent earthquakes. In the models, along-strike mantle flow is induced only by variations in slab dip, with flow directed toward the south where the dip angle is smallest. In contrast, geochemical and seismic observations suggest a northward flow of 6–19 cm/year. We do not observe this in our models, suggesting that northward flow may be driven by additional factors, such as slab rollback or proximity to a slab edge (slab window). Such high velocities may significantly affect the thermal structure, especially at the southern end of the subduction zone. In this area, 3D models that include slab rollback and a slab edge are needed to investigate the mantle structure and dynamics.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Christodoulos Kyriakopoulos for providing the updated geometry of the Cocos plate prior to publication, Felipe da Cruz Pimentel Moreira Santos for his technical support in creating the 2D meshes, Geoffrey Abers and Ellen Syracuse for providing earthquake locations shown in Figs. 4 and 11, and Robert Harris for discussions about hydrothermal circulation. We also thank Ikuko Wada and Vlad Manea for helpful and thoughtful reviews and William Bandy for his editorial handling of the manuscript. Research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the National Council for Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT).

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  1. Department of Physics, University of Alberta, 4-181 Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Science, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Juan Carlos Rosas & Claire A. Currie

  2. Pacific Geoscience Centre, Geological Survey of Canada, 9860 West Saanich Road, Sydney, BC, Canada

    Jiangheng He

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Rosas, J.C., Currie, C.A. & He, J. Three-Dimensional Thermal Model of the Costa Rica-Nicaragua Subduction Zone. Pure Appl. Geophys. 173, 3317–3339 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-015-1197-4

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