@article{discovery10205337,
            year = {2025},
          number = {2},
           month = {February},
       publisher = {American Geophysical Union (AGU)},
         journal = {Tectonics},
          volume = {44},
           title = {A Newly Identified "Proto-Kenting M{\'e}lange (S. Taiwan)" Represents a Missing Link for a Continuous Early Cretaceous Paleo-Pacific Subduction-Accretion System},
            note = {This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.},
          author = {Zhao, Qi and Yan, Yi and Tonai, Satoshi and Dilek, Yildirim and Carter, Andrew and Clift, Peter D and Wu, Jonny and Sibuet, Jean-Claude and Zhang, Xinchang},
            issn = {0278-7407},
             url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2024tc008456},
        keywords = {paleo-Pacific plate subduction, continental margin of east Asia, OPS m{\'e}langes, illite age dating, micro-chemical analysis},
        abstract = {Most m{\'e}langes in exhumed subduction-accretion complexes are polygenetic, recording significant information about the nature of geological processes during their formation. Here, we apply micro-chemical analysis and illite K-Ar dating to constrain the deformation mechanism and timing of the pervasively sheared scaly matrix in the accretionary complex rocks presently known as "Kenting M{\'e}lange" in the Hengchun Peninsula (South Taiwan). Our results reveal that parts of the matrix were formed in Cretaceous (96.7�{$\pm$}�8.6�Ma and 108�{$\pm$}�18.4�Ma) due to pressure solution. These new, older matrix ages suggest that the Kenting M{\'e}lange, which was considered as Cenozoic and interpreted to have been associated with the subduction of the South China Sea, preserves different primary chaotic units (e.g., m{\'e}lange and/or olistostrome). Our findings imply the Kenting M{\'e}lange is actually polygenetic and allow part of Kenting M{\'e}lange that we named the "proto-Kenting M{\'e}lange" to be interpreted as a remnant of a primary m{\'e}lange, which was mixed and/or juxtaposed in the Cenozoic Kenting M{\'e}lange. The block-in-matrix fabric with a pervasively sheared scaly muddy matrix, along with the preservation of slightly older oceanic crust blocks, suggests that the proto-Kenting M{\'e}lange is most likely an ocean plate stratigraphy m{\'e}lange. This unit initially formed near a Paleo-Pacific subduction margin during the latest Early Cretaceous. Our results reveal a nearly 3000-km-long physical archive of latest Early Cretaceous subduction-accretion processes, which took place adjacent to the continental margin of East Asia during the consumption of Paleo-Pacific ocean floor during the latest Mesozoic.}
}