Abstract: This particular phenomenon of flat-slab subduction mainly occurs in South American, which is closely related to the structural geological phenomena such as earthquakes and volcanoes in this area. However, mechanics of flat-slab subduction is not yet
well understood. By numerical modeling, we investigate influences of subducting plate dynamic properties to the geometry of flat-slab subduction. The model results show that subducting plate thickness and density contrast between slab and mantle have great impacts to flat-slab formation. The appropriate slab thickness (around 70 km) facilitate slab flattening, while thicker slab is difficult to bend and hesitates to flatten. The smaller the density anomaly of subducting plate, the easier slab flattens and the longer flab-slab length. When density anomaly is very large, no flat-slab is predicted. In addition, strong plate promotes flat-slab formation. Flat-slab length increases with plate viscosity increasing. We also find that trench rollback velocity decreases during the slab flattening episode. Our reference model REF_MODEL has comparable flat-slab geometry with central Chile subduction, which provides the insight of flat subduction formation in this area.

Key words: flat-slab subduction, subducting plate, trench rollback, numerical simulation