Force-Balance Analysis of Stress Changes During the Subduction-Collision Transition and Implications for the Rise of Mountain Belts

Mountain height at convergent plate margins is limited by the megathrust shear force, but it remains unclear how this constraint affects the topographic evolution and mountain building at the transition from subduction to collision. Generally, mountain height increases during the subduction-collision transition in response to crustal thickening or processes like mantle delamination and slab breakoff, but the main parameters controlling how much mountain height increases remain poorly understood. Here we show, based on analytical and finite-element force-balance models, that the increase in mountain height depends on the magnitude of the megathrust shear force and the reduction of submarine margin relief. During the subduction stage, the shear force is balanced by the gravitational effect of the margin relief and the deviatoric stresses in the upper plate are low. When the submarine margin relief is reduced during the closure of the ocean basin, the effect of the gravitational force decreases and the upper plate experiences enhanced deviatoric compression, which allows the mountain height to increase until a near-neutral stress state beneath the high mountains is restored. If the increase in mountain height cannot keep pace with the submarine relief reduction, the compression of the upper plate increases by a few tens of MPa, which promotes tectonic shortening and mountain building. Our analysis implies that mountain height can increase by hundreds of meters to a few kilometers during collision, depending primarily on the trench depth during the subduction stage and possible syncollisional changes of the megathrust shear force.