Abstract
More than twenty seismic lines were analysed across the intersection of the Taiwan orogen and the Ryukyu arc-forearc system. The main results of this study concern the recognition of two superposed sedimentary basins that were previously unknown. We have named the recent one the Hoping Basin and the older, tectonized one the Suao Basin. The Suao Basin, containing sediments more than 3 km thick, records subsidence of about 3 km on its southwestern portion after being shortened in the direction of plate convergence. On the basis of seismicity, gravity, present-day plate kinematics as well as seismic reflection data, we relate the dramatic subsidence of the Suao Basin to the initiation of a WNW-trending tear fault within the Philippine Sea plate. This tear fault decouples the subducting Philippine Sea plate to the northeast and the apparent overthrusting Philippine Sea plate in the Coastal Range to the southwest. Back-arc rifting may thus occur in the westernmost section of the Okinawa trough above the sinking Philippine Sea slab while lithospheric shortening prevails south of Hualien. As a consequence, the triangular area located southwest of the tear fault between the Taiwan coastline and the toe of the Yaeyama ridge, no longer belongs to the Ryukyu forearc. It is now passively transported with the non-subducting portion of the Philippine Sea plate. We propose an evolutionary model for the relative chronology of tectono-sedimentary events in this region over the last 5 m.y.