Description: New biostratigraphical, geochemical, and magnetic evidence is synthesized with IODP Expedition 352 shipboard results to understand the sedimentary and tectono-magmatic development of the Izu–Bonin outer forearc region. The oceanic basement of the Izu–Bonin forearc was created by supra-subduction zone seafloor spreading during early Eocene (c. 50–51 Ma). Seafloor spreading created an irregular seafloor topography on which talus locally accumulated. Oxide-rich sediments accumulated above the igneous basement by mixing of hydrothermal and pelagic sediment. Basaltic volcanism was followed by a hiatus of up to 15 million years as a result of topographic isolation or sediment bypassing. Variably tuffaceous deep-sea sediments were deposited during Oligocene to early Miocene and from mid-Miocene to Pleistocene. The sediments ponded into extensional fault-controlled basins, whereas condensed sediments accumulated on a local basement high. Oligocene nannofossil ooze accumulated together with felsic tuff that was mainly derived from the nearby Izu–Bonin arc. Accumulation of radiolarian-bearing mud, silty clay, and hydrogenous metal oxides beneath the carbonate compensation depth (CCD) characterized the early Miocene, followed by middle Miocene–Pleistocene increased carbonate preservation, deepened CCD and tephra input from both the oceanic Izu–Bonin arc and the continental margin Honshu arc. The Izu–Bonin forearc basement formed in a near-equatorial setting, with late Mesozoic arc remnants to the west. Subduction-initiation magmatism is likely to have taken place near a pre-existing continent–oceanic crust boundary. The Izu–Bonin arc migrated northward and clockwise to collide with Honshu by early Miocene, strongly influencing regional sedimentation.

Description: Mesozoic deep water sedimentary rocks uplifted and exposed in basement complexes on the islands of Fuerteventura (Canary Islands) and Maio (Cape Verdes) help document the early Atlantic ocean and the volcanic history of these islands. On Fuerteventura ca. 1.5 km of terrigenous quartzose clastics, black shales, and subordinate redeposited limestones of early Cretaceous age are overlain first by Albian-Cenomanian marls and clastics, showing extensive soft sediment slumping, then after a hiatus by Senonian nannofossil chalks with chert nodules. After a further break alkalic submarine volcanic rocks, largely hyaloclastics, were erupted, then overlain by redeposited bioclastic limestones and volcaniclastics of Oligocene age. A dyke complex was intruded, then the basement complex was uplifted, peneplaned, and overlain by Neogene plateau lavas. On Maio the basement complex comprises mafic pillow lavas of midocean ridge character overlain by up to 4 00 m of deep water sedimentary rocks. Upper Jurassic to lower Cretaceous radiolarianrich pelagic limestones are succeeded by middle and upper Cretaceous sequences of mudstones, redeposited limestones, chalks, tuffs, and volcaniclastics which document the onset of volcanism. During a sedimentary hiatus plutonic rocks were intruded, uplifted, then eroded to produce conglomerates of late Miocene age. These are overlain by several series of gently dipping subaerial alkaline basalt flows. Comparisons with D.S.D.P. sites, oil wells and on land geology confirm that the lower Cretaceous Fuerteventura quartzose clastics formed part of a deep water fan complex located close to the Atlantic continent-ocean boundary. Comparable flysch is known in the Moroccan basin, in the Betic-Maghrebide system and the feeding Tan-Tan-Cape Bojador delta system. The inferred disconformity between Cenomanian and Senonian is part of a widespread depositional hiatus associated with slumping on the adjacent west African continental margin. On Maio pelagic limestones comparable with the Tethyan Maiolica facies were deposited on a subsiding? middle/late Jurassic ocean ridge before uplift related to onset of volcanism probably in the late Cretaceous.