Slab breakoff: A critical appraisal of a geological theory as applied in space and time

• Published in: Earth-science reviews Vol. 177; pp. 303 - 319
• Main Authors: Garzanti, Eduardo, Radeff, Giuditta, Malusà, Marco G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.02.2018
• Subjects: (U)HP rock exhumation; Archean eon; Continental subduction; Falsifiability of geological hypotheses; geophysics; Magmatic flare-ups; metamorphic rocks; mountains; Paleoproterozoic era; researchers; risk; scientists; sediments; Slab detachment; space and time; Surface uplift; tectonics; topography; Uncritical faith in theories and logical traps; (U)HP rock exhumation; Uncritical faith in theories and logical traps; Slab detachment; Falsifiability of geological hypotheses; Continental subduction; Surface uplift; Magmatic flare-ups

The idea that prominent geological phenomena observed in the crust and at the surface may be caused by the detachment of subducting dense lithosphere has been anticipated by tectonic models in the Sixties and Seventies, and imaged with improved geophysical techniques in the Eighties. In the mid-Nine...