Role of lateral mantle flow in the evolution of subduction systems: insights from laboratory experiments

We present 3-D laboratory experiments constructed to investigate the pattern of mantle flow around a subducting slab under different boundary conditions. In particular we present a set of experiments, characterized by different conditions imposed at the trailing edge of the subducting plate (that is, plate fixed in the far field, plate detached in the far field, imposed plate motion). Experiments have been performed using a silicone slab floating inside a honey tank to simulate a thin viscous lithosphere subducting in a viscous mantle. For each set, we show differences between models that do or do not include the possibility of out-of-plane lateral flow in the mantle by varying the lateral boundary conditions. Our results illustrate how a subducting slab vertically confined over a 660-km equivalent depth can be influenced in its geometry and in its kinematics by the presence or absence of possible lateral pathways. On the basis of these results we show implications for natural subduction systems and we highlight the importance of suitable simulations of lateral viscosity variations to obtain a realistic simulation of the history of subduction.