An initial continental margin plutonism — Cretaceous Older Ryoke granitoids, southwest Japan

Abstract

AbstractThe emplacement of the Older Ryoke granitoids took place in the Mid-Cretaceous Period in the outermost side of the Inner Zone of southwest Japan, which was located at the eastern margin of the Eurasian Continent before the opening of the Japan Sea. The Ryoke Belt constitutes a long segment of the Cretaceous to Palaeogene felsic magmatic belt of Pacific Asia. The Older Ryoke granitoids represent its initial magmatism, related to the subduction of an oceanic plate underneath the Eurasian plate in that time. Their magmas were generated in the lower to middle crust beneath the Ryoke Belt in the subduction regime. They were emplaced during the Ryoke regional metamorphism and converted to orthogneisses.