Logo image
Plate boundary tectonics and oceanic island geomorphology
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Plate boundary tectonics and oceanic island geomorphology

Patrick Nunn
Zeitschrift fur Geomorphologie, Vol.69, pp.39-53
1988
url
http://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/6650View
Webpage

Abstract

Shoreline displacements along a remnant island arc in the southwest Pacific - the Lau-Colville ridge - show it has been uplifted during the late Cenozoic, not subsided as expected. This is possibly the result of the heating-up of a detached lithospheric slab beneath the ridge, or may testify to its collision with the Vanua Levu platform to the north. The potential for understanding the nature of lithospheric flexure close to ocean trenches is illustrated by analysis of the tectonic history of Christmas Island in the northeast Indian Ocean. Formation of rift-zones was probably caused by initial uplift, its later intermittent character - perhaps as it rose to the crest of the flexure - being signalled by a fossil reef series. Preliminary analysis of likely shoreline displacement on South Atlantic islands suggests that major uplift occurs after and as an indirect result of volcanic extinction, but more data are needed to test this hypothesis adequately. -from Author

Details

Metrics

433 Record Views
Logo image