Discovery of Early Cretaceous Rocks in New Caledonia: New Geochemical and U-Pb Zircon Age Constraints on the Transition from Subduction to Marginal Breakup in the Southwest Pacific

Cluzel, Dominique; Adams, Christopher; Meffre, Sébastien; Campbell, Hamish J.; Maurizot, Pierre

doi:10.1086/652779

Cited by 46 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…The results from this study relate to the Cenozoic part of this history, although the presence or absence of a Late Cretaceous arc remains relevant to the starting configuration. The presence of a Late Cretaceous arc has been postulated on the basis of both petrological and geochemical [Cluzel et al, 2010;Crawford et al, 2003;Whattam et al, 2008] and geophysical grounds [Schellart et al, 2006, Rey andMuller, 2010]. Detailed work on the sedimentary rocks in New Caledonia [Cluzel et al, 2011] Hall, 2002;Crawford et al, 2003;Cluzel et al, 2006] rather than those which show that the arc existed in the present orientation since the Cretaceous [e.g., Schellart et al, 2006;Whattam et al, 2008].…”

Section: Cenozoic Tectonic Evolution Of the Sw Pacificmentioning

confidence: 99%

Basalts erupted along the Tongan fore arc during subduction initiation: Evidence from geochronology of dredged rocks from the Tonga fore arc and trench

Meffre

Falloon

Crawford

et al. 2012

Geochem Geophys Geosyst

100

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[1] A wide variety of different rock types were dredged from the Tonga fore arc and trench between 8000 and 3000 m water depths by the 1996 Boomerang voyage. 40 Ar whole rock and U-Pb zircon dating suggest that these fore arc rocks were erupted episodically from the Cretaceous to the Pliocene (102 to 2 Ma). The geochemistry suggests that MOR-type basalts and dolerites were erupted in the Cretaceous, that island arc tholeiites were erupted in the Eocene and that back arc basin and island arc tholeiite and boninite were erupted episodically after this time. The ages generally become younger northward suggesting that fore arc crust was created in the south at around 48-52 Ma and was extended northward between 35 and 28 Ma, between 9 and 15 Ma and continuing to the present-day. The episodic formation of the fore arc crust suggested by this data is very different to existing models for fore arc formation based on the Bonin-Marianas arc. The Bonin-Marianas based models postulate that the basaltic fore arc rocks were created between 52 and 49 Ma at the beginning of subduction above a rapidly foundering west-dipping slab. Instead a model where the 52 Ma basalts that are presently in a fore arc position were created in the arc-back arc transition behind the 57-35 Ma Loyalty-Three Kings arc and placed into a fore arc setting after arc reversal following the start of collision with New Caledonia is proposed for the oldest rocks in Tonga. This is followed by growth of the fore arc northward with continued eruption of back arc and boninitic magmas after that time.

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Section: Cenozoic Tectonic Evolution Of the Sw Pacificmentioning

confidence: 99%

Basalts erupted along the Tongan fore arc during subduction initiation: Evidence from geochronology of dredged rocks from the Tonga fore arc and trench

Meffre

Falloon

Crawford

et al. 2012

Geochem Geophys Geosyst

100

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“…High-amplitude magnetic anomalies and a single dredge sample from the West Norfolk Ridge suggest that the southern New Caledonia Trough is underlain by a fossil arc of late Paleozoic and Mesozoic age that formed along the active margin of Gondwana (Mortimer et al, 1998;Sutherland, 1999). The geology of New Caledonia and northern New Zealand suggests that the Norfolk Ridge system is underlain by Mesozoic fore-arc accretionary rocks that formed at the convergent margin of Gondwana (Adams et al, 2009;Aitchison et al, 1998;Cluzel et al, 2010;Cluzel and Meffre, 2002;Mortimer, 2004b). Based on comparison with eastern New Zealand (Davy et al, 2008), a "fossil" Gondwana trench lay along the northeast side of the Norfolk Ridge system and the slab dipped southwest beneath the Lord Howe Rise.…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Igneous activity was widespread and of variable type and chemistry during the Cretaceous. Calc-alkaline and adakitic (high Sr/Y) activity with a subduction-related signature is characteristic of the early phase in New Zealand and New Caledonia, whereas an intraplate rift setting characterizes later activity after ~105-100 Ma and is also recorded on the Lord Howe Rise (Bryan et al, 1997;Cluzel et al, 2010;Higgins et al, 2011;Mortimer et al, 1999;Tulloch et al, 2009). Late Cretaceous rift basins contain coastal sandstone facies overlain by transgressive marine sandstones and mudstones in New Zealand, eastern Australia, and New Caledonia and are likely present in the Tasman Frontier region (Collot et al, 2009;Herzer et al, 1999;King and Thrasher, 1996;Uruski and Wood, 1991;Uruski, 2008).…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sutherland¹,

Dickens²,

Blum³

et al. 2018

International Ocean Discovery Program Preliminary Report

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International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 371 drilled six sites in the Tasman Sea of the southwest Pacific between 27 July and 26 September 2017. The primary goal was to understand Tonga-Kermadec subduction initiation through recovery of Paleogene sediment records. Secondary goals involved understanding regional oceanography and climate since the Paleogene. Six sites were drilled, recovering 2506 m of cored sediment and volcanic rock in 36.4 days of on-site drilling during a total expedition length of 58 days. Wireline logs were collected at two sites. Shipboard observations made using cores and logs represent a substantial gain in fundamental knowledge about northern Zealandia, because only Deep Sea Drilling Project Sites 206, 207, and 208 had penetrated beneath upper Eocene strata within the region.The cored intervals at five sites (U1506-U1510) sampled nannofossil and foraminiferal ooze or chalk that contained volcanic or volcaniclastic intervals with variable clay content. Paleocene and Cretaceous sections range from more clay rich to predominantly claystone. At the final site (U1511), a sequence of abyssal clay and diatomite was recovered with only minor amounts of carbonate. The ages of strata at the base of each site were middle Eocene to Late Cretaceous, and our new results provide the first firm basis for defining formal lithostratigraphic units that can be mapped across a substantial part of northern Zealandia and related to onshore regions of New Caledonia and New Zealand.The material and data recovered during Expedition 371 enable primary scientific goals to be accomplished. All six sites provided new stratigraphic and paleogeographic information that can be put into context through regional seismic-stratigraphic interpretation and hence provide strong constraints on geodynamic models of subduction zone initiation. Our new observations can be directly related to the timing of plate deformation, the magnitude and timing of vertical motions, and the timing and type of volcanism. Secondary paleoclimate objectives were not all completed as planned, but significant new records of southwest Pacific climate were obtained.

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“…From the Triassic to the Early Cretaceous, the eastern Gondwana margin was a subduction margin along which the downgoing Pacific-Phoenix plate was subducted to the west (Bradshaw, 1989;Cluzel et al, 2010;Davy et al, 2008;Mortimer, 2004b;Seton et al, 2012). The record of subduction is found in New Zealand (e.g., Bradshaw, 1989) where a Median Batholith extends offshore into northern Zealandia and indicates the existence of an extensive subduction system (Mortimer, 2004a;Mortimer et al, 2017).…”

Section: Tectonic Setting Of Northwestern Zealandiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Delayed Subsidence After Rifting and a Record of Breakup for Northwestern Zealandia

et al. 2019

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Continental rifting and breakup of eastern Gondwana during the Cretaceous separated northern Zealandia from eastern Australia, but the processes leading to this highly extended and largely submerged block of continental crust are unknown. We acquired and processed multichannel seismic reflection data across northern Zealandia and examine the stratigraphy of the Middleton Basin. We identified a two‐phase formation process for the basin, as evidenced by an unconformity separating two postrift units. After initial basin formation and slow deposition of the lower postrift unit, deposition rates within the Middleton Basin rapidly increased in response to the latest stage of subsidence and to create the modern basin. We propose a tectonic model wherein the Middleton Basin initiated through oceanic spreading and the subsequent postrift subsidence of the newly created oceanic lithosphere was delayed due to thermal buoyancy associated with nearby oceanic spreading in the Tasman Basin. Our results provide new constraints on rifting and breakup processes of wide, magma‐poor, and asymmetric margins and indicate that multiple regions of weak lithosphere may have influenced the breakup.

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Discovery of Early Cretaceous Rocks in New Caledonia: New Geochemical and U-Pb Zircon Age Constraints on the Transition from Subduction to Marginal Breakup in the Southwest Pacific

Cited by 46 publications

References 59 publications

Basalts erupted along the Tongan fore arc during subduction initiation: Evidence from geochronology of dredged rocks from the Tonga fore arc and trench

Basalts erupted along the Tongan fore arc during subduction initiation: Evidence from geochronology of dredged rocks from the Tonga fore arc and trench

Untitled

Delayed Subsidence After Rifting and a Record of Breakup for Northwestern Zealandia

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