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Northern Lau Basin: Backarc extension at the leading edge of the Indo-Australian Plate

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Abstract

GLORIA imagery of the Lau Basin north of 17°S shows several morphotectonic terrains: a basement ridge and sedimented inter-ridge area in the SE; a nascent triple junction in the NE; a deeply sedimented basinal terrain in the central area; a linear neovolcanic zone striking NNESSW in the NW; and the northern flank of a leaky transform, the Peggy Ridge. Extension is now being accommodated at two main areas of spreading, but as no site of persistent long-term backarc crustal accretion is evident in this 250-km-wide portion of the basin, we conclude that past extension was largely by formation of pull-apart basins and local magmatism.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Oceanographic Sciences Deacon Laboratory, Brook Road, Wormley, Surrey, UK

    L. M. Parson

  2. South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission, Suva, Fiji

    D. L. Tiffin

Authors
  1. L. M. Parson
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  2. D. L. Tiffin
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Parson, L.M., Tiffin, D.L. Northern Lau Basin: Backarc extension at the leading edge of the Indo-Australian Plate. Geo-Marine Letters 13, 107–115 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01204552

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01204552

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