Materials Within An Accretionary Wedge
Accretionary wedges and accreted terranes are not equivalent to tectonic plates, but rather are associated with tectonic plates and accrete as a result of tectonic collision. Materials incorporated in accretionary wedges include:
- Ocean-floor basalts – typically seamounts scraped off the subducting plate
- Pelagic sediments – typically immediately overlying oceanic crust of the subducting plate
- Trench sediments – typically turbidites that may be derived from:
- Oceanic, volcanic island arc
- Continental volcanic arc and cordilleran orogen
- Adjacent continental masses located along strike (such as Barbados).
- Material transported into the trench by gravity sliding and debris flow from the forearc ridge *:olistostrome)
- Piggy-back basins, which are small basins located in surface depression on the accretionary prism.
- Material exposed in the forearc ridge may include fragments of oceanic crust or high pressure *:metamorphic rocks thrust from deeper in the subduction zone.
Elevated regions within the ocean basins such as linear island chains, ocean ridges, and small crustal fragments (such as Madagascar or Japan), known as terranes, are transported toward the subduction zone and accreted to the continental margin. Since the Late Devonian and Early Carboniferous periods, some 360 million years ago, subduction beneath the western margin of North America has resulted in several collisions with terranes, each producing a mountain-building event. The piecemeal addition of these accreted terranes has added an average of 600 km (370 mi) in width along the western margin of the North American continent.
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