Different Types of Island-Arcs in the Pacific

Fourteen years ago a simple interpretation of the form of island-arcs was put forward by Lake in the Geographical Journal.1 From a morphological analysis of the island-arcs bordering the Pacific side of the Asiatic con? tinent he suggested that the presence of a deep-reaching thrust plane at the base, dipping continent-ward from the Pacific, would account for the shape of the are. The trace of any large thrust plane cutting the earth's surface is necessarily arc-shaped on the sphere, and the degree of curvature of the are depends on the angle which the thrust plane makes with the earth's surface

Geography · Geology · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Oceanography · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies