Introduction to Special Section on the Role of Fluids in Sediment Accretion, Deformation, Diagenesis, and Metamorphism in Subduction Zones

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Abstract
Accretionary prisms, which develop from materials scraped from the subducting oceanic lithosphere, form within one of the most dynamic structural environments on Earth and constitute critical elements of mountain belts. In the marine setting these large accumulations of sediments grow in a water‐saturated environment; consequently, their tectonic, chemical, and thermal evolution is strongly influenced both by the seawater that is incorporated with the sediment as it is accreted and by water that is rendered from the clays and rocks of the prism as they are subjected to increasing pressure and temperatures (Figure 1). Although accretionary prisms are mechanically similar to subaerial fold‐and‐thrust belts, the latter may develop in consolidated, partially saturated sediments, with less pronounced hydrogeologic effects.