The obliquity of convergence between PA and the IBM arc system change markedly along the IBM arc system. Plate convergence inferred from earthquake slip vectors is nearly strike-slip in the northernmost Marianas, adjacent to and south of the northern terminus of the Mariana Trough, where the arc has been ‘bowed-out’ by back-arc basin opening, resulting in a trench which strikes approximately parallel to the convergence vectors. Convergence is strongly oblique for most of the Mariana Arc system but is more nearly orthogonal for the southernmost Marianas and most of the Izu–Bonin segments. noted that the arc-parallel slip rate in the forearc reaches a maximum of 30 mm/yr in the northern Marianas. According to McCaffrey, this is fast enough to have produced geologically significant effects, such as unroofing of high-grade metamorphic rocks, and provides one explanation for why the forearc in southern IBM is tectonically more active than that in northern IBM.
