The Taiwan orogenic belt, which straddles the plate boundary between the Eurasia and Philippine Sea plates, represents one of Earth’s only active arc-continent collisions; as such, it provides a unique natural laboratory for understanding orogenic processes. The 14 papers that constitute this volume are organized around five research themes, followed by a synthetic interpretation of the subduction-collision transition in southern Taiwan.

The five themes are: the role of extensional structures before and during thrusting in the fold and thrust; the relation between tectonically driven uplift, river terraces, fold-and-thrust development, and global positioning system data; deformation patterns and strain compatibility in the exposed, internal parts of the orogen; the geothermal structure and the role of synorogenic extension in the internal parts of the orogen; and the integration of geologic and geophysical data sets with finite element models to understand the three-dimensional evolution of the orogen, including the subduction-collision transition. A common theme of the papers is the authors’ desire to document the three-dimensional architecture of the orogen and to understand its spatial and temporal evolution using a variety of techniques. As a result, the papers provide new insights on the evolution of the orogenic belt and lay the groundwork for future studies.