Continental slivers in oceanic transform faults controlled by rift inheritance

Continental slivers in oceanic transform faults controlled by rift inheritance | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Physical Sciences - Article Continental slivers in oceanic transform faults controlled by rift inheritance Attila Balázs, Taras Gerya, Gabor Tari This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5918782/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 25 Sep, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Geoscience → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The theory of plate tectonics describes how continents are separated from each other by continental rifting and breakup followed by the birth of new oceans and divergent plate boundaries 1 , 2 . The lateral movement of plates is accommodated by transform faults connecting mid-ocean ridge sections and leaving scars of inactive fracture zones on the ocean floor 3 , 4 . The occurrence of continental crustal slivers at distances of hundreds to thousand kilometres from the ocean-continent boundary has been documented worldwide 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , which does not fit into the classical plate tectonic models and a physical mechanism for their origin and emplacement into oceanic plates has remained elusive. Here, we use 3D magmatic-thermomechanical numerical models to investigate the transition from continental rifting to the birth of oceanic transform fault zones and their relationship to mantle melting and crustal tectonics. Our numerical models are the first to show the formation and evolution of continental slivers entrapped within shear zones in the oceans inherited from the preceding continental rifting stage. We show three distinct stages of transform fault zone formation — continental rift linkage, proto-transform, oceanic transform — controlled by the progressive strain localization into a narrowing extension-parallel strike-slip shear zone. The continental sliver emplacement into the oceanic lithosphere is associated with specific pulses of subsidence and uplift linked to the changing stress field, thereby notably modifying the ocean floor morphology, mid-ocean ridge melting conditions and transform seismicity. The modelled emplacement of continental slivers into emerging and mature oceanic transform faults explains well the observed global distribution of oceanic and continental lithosphere. Earth and environmental sciences/Solid Earth sciences/Tectonics Earth and environmental sciences/Solid Earth sciences/Geophysics Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files Balazs2025SupplementaryInformation.docx Supplementary information file Sup1referencecomposition.gif Video S1 Sup2referencevisco.gif Video S2 Sup3modfhtcomposition.avi Video S3 Sup4modfhtvisco.gif Video S4 Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 25 Sep, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Geoscience → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5918782","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Physical Sciences - Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":411047106,"identity":"8279347e-6113-4732-80f7-99a6355260be","order_by":0,"name":"Attila 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Portfolio","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":false,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5918782/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5918782/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe theory of plate tectonics describes how continents are separated from each other by continental rifting and breakup followed by the birth of new oceans and divergent plate boundaries\u003csup\u003e\u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e,\u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e. The lateral movement of plates is accommodated by transform faults connecting mid-ocean ridge sections and leaving scars of inactive fracture zones on the ocean floor\u003csup\u003e\u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e,\u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e. The occurrence of continental crustal slivers at distances of hundreds to thousand kilometres from the ocean-continent boundary has been documented worldwide\u003csup\u003e\u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e,\u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003e,\u003cspan citationid=\"CR7\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e7\u003c/span\u003e,\u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e8\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e, which does not fit into the classical plate tectonic models and a physical mechanism for their origin and emplacement into oceanic plates has remained elusive. Here, we use 3D magmatic-thermomechanical numerical models to investigate the transition from continental rifting to the birth of oceanic transform fault zones and their relationship to mantle melting and crustal tectonics. Our numerical models are the first to show the formation and evolution of continental slivers entrapped within shear zones in the oceans inherited from the preceding continental rifting stage. We show three distinct stages of transform fault zone formation \u0026mdash; continental rift linkage, proto-transform, oceanic transform \u0026mdash; controlled by the progressive strain localization into a narrowing extension-parallel strike-slip shear zone. The continental sliver emplacement into the oceanic lithosphere is associated with specific pulses of subsidence and uplift linked to the changing stress field, thereby notably modifying the ocean floor morphology, mid-ocean ridge melting conditions and transform seismicity. The modelled emplacement of continental slivers into emerging and mature oceanic transform faults explains well the observed global distribution of oceanic and continental lithosphere.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Continental slivers in oceanic transform faults controlled by rift inheritance","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-03-18 11:07:45","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5918782/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-geoscience","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"ngeo","sideBox":"Learn more about [Nature Geoscience](http://www.nature.com/ngeo/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Geoscience","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"Nature Research","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"010b8c7d-89f7-4295-83ab-d8a3c1016597","owner":[],"postedDate":"March 18th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[{"id":43825554,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Solid Earth sciences/Tectonics"},{"id":43825555,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Solid Earth sciences/Geophysics"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-09-26T07:09:12+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-5918782","link":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01795-0","journal":{"identity":"nature-geoscience","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Nature Geoscience"},"publishedOn":"2025-09-25 04:00:00","publishedOnDateReadable":"September 25th, 2025"},"versionCreatedAt":"2025-03-18 11:07:45","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01795-0","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01795-0","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-5918782","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-5918782","identity":"rs-5918782","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}