Westward advance of the deformation front and evolution of submarine canyons offshore of southwestern Taiwan

This study analyzes both 2D and 3D seismic images around the Palm Ridge area offshore of southwestern Taiwan to understand how the deformation front shifted westward and how tectonic activities interact with submarine canyon paths in the transition area between the active and passive margins. Palm Ridge is a submarine ridge that developed on the passive China continental margin by down-dip erosion of several tributaries of Penghu Canyon; it extends eastward across the deformation front into the submarine Taiwan accretionary wedge. The presence of proto-thrusts that are located west of the frontal thrust implies that the compressional stress field has advanced westward due to the convergence of the Philippine Sea Plate and Eurasian Plate. Since the deformation front is defined as the location of the most frontal contractional structure, no significant contractional structure should appear west of it. We thus suggest moving the location of the previously mapped deformation front farther west to where the westernmost proto-thrust lies. High-resolution seismic and bathymetric data reveal that the directions of the paleo-submarine canyons run transverse to the present slope dip, while the present submarine canyons head down slope in the study area. We propose that this might be the result of the westward migration of the deformation front that changed the paleo-bathymetry and thus the canyon path directions. The interactions of down-slope processes and active tectonics control the canyon paths in our study area.