Twenty-three samples of Quaternary sands from Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Leg 87 Sites 582 (trench axis) and 583 (lowermost terrace of uplifted trench sediments in the accretionary prism) off Shikoku show a 70–80% volcanic component in the terrigenous grain population. This component comprises 30–40% neovolcanic grains, among which basic and intermediate types are present in roughly equal proportions, and 60–70% palaeovolcanic grains, which are predominantly of acidic composition. No volcanic terrane occurs, in the hinterland of the Shikoku portion of the Nankai Trough, and the first such rocks to the east (up the very slight depositional slope of the Nankai Trough axis) are not encountered for more than 500 km. These, occupying the Izu Peninsula and the majority of the Tokai drainage basin to the north, are Neogene and Recent volcanics which are of comparable variability to the volcanic grains in the sands off Shikoku.

The minor component of sedimentary, metamorphic and plutonic grains in the Leg 87 sand samples can be matched with the basinal clastic ophiolitic Shimanto and Chichibu terranes and the high-pressure metamorphic Sambagawa terrane which border the Nankai Trough fore-arc along southwest Japan. This detritus also most likely derives from the Tokai drainage basin, where the easternmost outcrops of the above-mentioned terranes occur, because most sediments deriving from Shikoku and the Kii regions are ponded in terraced fore-arc basins or in basins on the lower slope. Only three major submarine canyons debouch into the floor of the Nankai Trough. The easternmost of these, the Suruga Trough, taps the volcanic Izu/Tokai hinterland, and is therefore the conduit for most sand fed to the trench off Shikoku.