The accretion of island arcs onto continental margins is an important mechanism for continental growth, and explains much of the complexity of terranes surrounding the Pacific Ocean. Drs. Lundberg, Reed and Shor will survey a collision in progress immediately south of Taiwan, where an arc system ofthe Phillipine Sea is colliding with the China main land. Cruise plans include 26 days of SeaMarcII swath mapping, digitalsingle-channel seismics, 3.5 KHz echo sounding, gravity and magnetic measurements, plus 3 days of piston coring. Immediate objectives are to map deep (seismic) and shallow (topographic) structural features, sediment lithofacies and sediment transport systems across the collision zone. Because of the oblique natureof the collisional front, along-strike comparisons provide"snapshot" views of the evolution of arc-continent collisions. Consequently, studies will include spatial and temporal comparisons of the effects of over burden and sediment distribution.
