In this slide, we see the locations of the arc-related plutons. They trace across the entire western edge of the plate margin, suggesting that Andean-stule subduction was active throughout.---------------------An over-riding theme in this story of the Arc environment is HEAT. This is the driving factor for most of the structures that we observe. In the subduction zone environment, the crustal isotherms have kinks where cold rocks of the subducting plate are juxtaposed against the hot intrusive Arc environment. Moving further in-board from the arc, the rocks progressively cool to within the fold and thrust belt, finally returning to normal temperatures in the undeformed basement.--------------------------This heat in the arc provides a possible mechanism for consuming the foot-wall of the fold and thrust belt, but this is hard to locate where this might be happening.
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