Late Permian/early Triassic orogeny in Japan: piling up of nappes, transverse lineation and continental subduction of the Honshu block

Field surveys in the Oga-Atetsu and Yamaguchi areas of Southwest Japan have been conducted in order to precise the structure of the Permian orogen. A stack of nappes is recognized comprising from top to bottom: (1) the Oga nappe which is considered to be a seamount complex, (2) HP Sangun metamorphics, (3) the Permian Yakuno ophiolite, and (4) the Permian detrital Maizuru group which is interpreted as the sedimentary cover of a continental block, called here the Honshu block, outcropping as the Older Granite. This stack of nappes is overthrust by the Paleozoic Hida basement consisting of HT gneisses, granites and late Carboniferous shallow-water sediments. Microtectonic analysis of the Sangun schists shows that the subhorizontal schistosity bearing a submeridian lineation was formed during the synmetamorphic phase. Asymmetric pressure shadows, shear bands and sigmoidal minerals show that the synmetamorphic deformation corresponds to a ductile shear from north to south. The Permian/early Triassic orogeny is interpreted as the result of a collision between the Hida gneiss (or South China block) and the Honshu block, the intervening oceanic area gave rise to southward directed nappes. The Permian orogenic belt extends at least from Taiwan to central Japan.