The consumption of oceanic plates beneath continental plates at subduction zones is a fundamental component of seafloor spreading. The subduction of active spreading ridges at these zones is thought to produce profound changes to the overriding plate in terms of magmatism, mineral deposits, structural deveopment, as well as sedimentation and development of the accretionary wedge that builds up at the edge of the subduction zone. This later phenomena is poorly understood but important because accretionary wedges contain some of the world's largest oil and gas deposits. This project will collect new field structural data and use theoretical analysis to construct 3-D models of the accretionary wedge. These new data will provide the sort of database needed to test recent evolutionary models.
