title: Abrupt tectonics and rapid slab detachment with grain damage.
abstract: A simple model for necking and detachment of subducting slabs is developed to include the coupling between grain-sensitive rheology and grain-size evolution with damage. Necking is triggered by thickened buoyant crust entrained into a subduction zone, in which case grain damage accelerates necking and allows for relatively rapid slab detachment, i.e., within 1 My, depending on the size of the crustal plug. Thick continental crustal plugs can cause rapid necking while smaller plugs characteristic of ocean plateaux cause slower necking; oceanic lithosphere with normal or slightly thickened crust subducts without necking. The model potentially explains how large plateaux or continental crust drawn into subduction zones can cause slab loss and rapid changes in plate motion and/or induce abrupt continental rebound.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology & Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520; david.bercovici@yale.edu.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bercovici
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth, Planetary & Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095; and.
authors.forename: Gerald
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schubert
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Université de Lyon-1, CNRS, 69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France.
authors.forename: Yanick
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0998-4670
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ricard
keywords: continent rebound; plate tectonics; slab detachment; subduction zones