Interactions between a transform fault and arc volcanism in the Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea

[1] We present a new interpretation of the geological evolution of the western branch of the Bismarck Sea Seismic Lineation (BSSL) region, offshore the northwestern coast of Papua New Guinea, from mapping and interpretation of bathymetry and backscatter data acquired aboard R/V Kilo Moana in 2004. At present, the Schouten Islands parallel the Papua New Guinea coast, but this distribution results from the left-lateral displacement of some of these volcanic islands by the Bismarck Sea Seismic Lineation. The trend of the islands and seamounts was initially aligned N-S and then displaced by the BSSL. Wei Island lies on a large submarine edifice that may have formed as part of a leaky transform. Subsequent to forming, Wei Island was bisected, and its pieces were displaced 45 km. Using this distance together with the strike-slip rate for the Bismarck Sea Seismic Lineation (predicted from the North Bismarck Plate–South Bismarck Plate pole), the division occurred approximately 385,000 years ago.

[1]  D. Reed,et al.  Collision propagation in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Sea , 1990 .

[2]  M. Cloos,et al.  Cenozoic tectonics of New Guinea , 2005 .

[3]  K. Kastens,et al.  The Tamayo transform fault in the mouth of the Gulf of California , 1979 .

[4]  R. Johnson,et al.  Timescale for producing the geochemical signature of island arc magmas: U-Th-Po and Be-B systematics in recent Papua New Guinea lavas , 1993 .

[5]  Laura M. Wallace,et al.  GPS and seismological constraints on active tectonics and arc‐continent collision in Papua New Guinea: Implications for mechanics of microplate rotations in a plate boundary zone , 2004 .

[6]  Danny Hilman Natawidjaja,et al.  Neotectonics of the Sumatran fault, Indonesia , 2000 .

[7]  B. Taylor,et al.  Backarc spreading, rifting, and microplate rotation, between transform faults in the Manus Basin , 1996 .

[8]  F. Storti,et al.  Intraplate strike-slip deformation belts , 2003, Geological Society, London, Special Publications.

[9]  G. Abers,et al.  Deep structure of an arc-continent collision: Earthquake relocation and inversion for upper mantle P and S wave velocities beneath Papua New Guinea , 1991 .

[10]  P. Nunn.  Coastal processes and landforms of Fiji: their bearing on holocene sea-level changes in the South and West Pacific , 1990 .

[11]  E. Silver,et al.  Structural evolution of a modern arc‐continent collision in Papua New Guinea , 1994 .

[12]  P. Molnar,et al.  Focal mechanisms and plate tectonics of the southwest Pacific , 1972 .

[13]  B. Taylor.  Bismarck Sea: Evolution of a back-arc basin , 1979 .

[14]  J. Beavan,et al.  Rapid microplate rotations and backarc rifting at the transition between collision and subduction , 2005 .

[15]  Zvi Garfunkel,et al.  Active faulting in the dead sea rift , 1981 .

[16]  Richard G. Gordon,et al.  Effect of recent revisions to the geomagnetic reversal time scale on estimates of current plate motions , 1994 .

[17]  Y. Bock,et al.  GPS measurements of crustal deformation within the Pacific-Australia plate boundary zone in Irian Jaya, Indonesia , 1994 .

[18]  N. Woodcock,et al.  Continental strike-slip tectonics , 1994 .

[19]  Warren Hamilton.  Tectonics of the Indonesian region , 1979 .

[20]  J. Lock,et al.  The Trobriand Subduction System in the Western Solomon Sea , 1987 .

[21]  K. Crook,et al.  Extensional transform zones and oblique spreading centers , 1994 .

[22]  K. Lambeck,et al.  Estimation of current plate motions in Papua New Guinea from Global Positioning System observations , 1998 .

[23]  Walter H. F. Smith,et al.  New version of the generic mapping tools , 1995 .

[24]  John H. Woodhouse,et al.  Determination of earthquake source parameters from waveform data for studies of global and regional seismicity , 1981 .

[25]  Paul Tregoning,et al.  Plate kinematics in the western Pacific derived from geodetic observations , 2002 .

[26]  R. Johnson,et al.  Isotopic and trace-element profiles across the New Britain island arc, Papua New Guinea , 1993 .

[27]  M. Fisk,et al.  Emergence and petrology of the Mendocino Ridge , 1993 .

[28]  D. Denham.  Distribution of earthquakes in the New Guinea-Solomon Islands Region , 1969 .

[29]  B. Taylor,et al.  Seismotectonics of New Guinea: A model for arc reversal following arc-continent collision , 1987 .

[30]  J. W. Curtis.  Plate tectonics and the Papua—New Guinea—Solomon Islands region , 1973 .

[31]  P. Tregoning,et al.  Evidence for active subduction at the New Guinea Trench , 2004 .

[32]  Paul Tregoning,et al.  Motion of the South Bismarck Plate, Papua New Guinea , 1999 .

[33]  E. Engdahl,et al.  Global teleseismic earthquake relocation with improved travel times and procedures for depth determination , 1998, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

[34]  L. Parson,et al.  The Manokwari Trough and the western end of the New Guinea Trench , 1992 .

[35]  Xian‐Hua Li,et al.  Precise determination of Phanerozoic zircon Pb/Pb age by multicollector SIMS without external standardization , 2009 .

[36]  K. Lambeck,et al.  Present-day crustal motion in Papua New Guinea , 2000 .