Regional implications of U/Pb SHRIMP age constraints on the tectonic evolution of New Caledonia

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

“…1 on Fig. 1) (Aitchison et al, 1998;Adams et al, 2009) Cretaceous zircons in these samples was also mentioned by Aitchison et al (1998).…”

“…These dominantly volcanosedimentary terranes are overlain by unconformable Late Cretaceous terrigenous shallow marine sediments. The three terranes that form the central mountains of New Caledonia are as follows: i) Koh-Central Terrane: a disrupted, Early Permian (Aitchison et al, 1998) ophiolite suite that occurs locally along the centre of the island. It is comprised of gabbro, dolerite, rare plagiogranite, island-arc tholeiites (IAT) and boninite pillow lavas, and undated chert directly overlying the pillow basalts (the Koh Ophiolite of Meffre et al, 1996).…”

U–Pb zircon dating of post-obduction volcanic-arc granitoids and a granulite-facies xenolith from New Caledonia. Inference on Southwest Pacific geodynamic models

“…This may infer that zircons recording Palaeoproterozoic geological events are present in the lower part (possibly the lower crust) of the basement. However, the oldest rock ever found in New Caledonia is only 300 Ma old (Aitchison et al 1998) and there is no known evidence for an older continental basement. However, the continental crust of the Grande Terre is ca.…”

Detrital zircon records of Late Cretaceous syn-rift sedimentary sequences of New Caledonia: An Australian provenance questioned

“…The abundant Early Cretaceous and Precambrian zircon populations in sandstone led previous authors to conclude that some clastic material originated in Australia (Aronson and Tilton, 1971;Aitchison et al, 1998) because magmatic rocks of that age do not occur in New Caledonia. However, this conclusion has been recently questioned by the discovery of Early Cretaceous "greywackes" , which are a possible source for recycled zircons of this age.…”