Tectonic implications of new Appalachian Ultradeep Core Hole (ADCOH) seismic reflection data from the crystalline southern Appalachians

Summary. Some 180 km of new VIBROSEIS profiles have been acquired in the southern Appalachian Inner Piedmont, Brevard fault zone and eastern Blue Ridge as part of the ADCOH Project site investigation. These data are of the highest quality yet obtained in a crystalline terrane in the US, perhaps in the world, and reveal several conclusions that should have a direct bearing upon the world-wide nature of composite crystalline thrust sheets and their modes of interaction with the platform rocks beneath. Strong reflections previously interpreted as the base of the crystalline sheet are clearly part of the platform sedimentary (clastic rocks) sequence resting upon the autochthonous basement and early Palaeozoic rift basins. This reflection package and related transparent zones are clearly repeated beneath the crystalline sheet indicating a complex of thrusts repeating units within the platform succession. Reflectors (granitoid-amplibolite contacts) in the crystalline sheet in the Inner Piedmont represent recumbent folds of similar wavelengths and amplitudes to folds mappable on the surface. Duplexing of platform rocks beneath the crystalline sheet appears to have resulted in doming of the crystalline sheet. Similarly, duplex formation in the platform was probably controlled by both the thickness of the crystalline sheet and the rheological properties of the platform succession.     

Aftershock tectonics of the 1978 Tabas-e-Golshan (Iran) earthquake sequence: a documented active 'thin-and thick-skinned tectonic' case

Summary. In this study a locally recorded aftershock sequence of the 1978 Tabas-e-Golshan earthquake ( M_s = 7.4) was accurately located. Out of 1560 located events, 329 best-located aftershocks passed a strict quality criterion. These well-located aftershocks, which have uncertainties in epicentre and in focal depth of about 1 and 2 km respectively, together with the well-constrained focal mechanisms, provided a detailed picture of active continental deformation during an aftershock sequence.
Almost all aftershocks follow very closely the pattern of the earthquake faults at the surface and lie in the hanging-wall block of the active fault. The hypocentres occurred mainly at depths less than 23 km with a high concentration of seismic activity between 8–14 km depth. The aftershocks clearly demonstrate an active imbricate listric thrust system with fault planes flattening into a basement decollement zone, and the reactivation of different basement reverse faults in response to a considerable amount of shortening of the top sedimentary cover. The sense of motion was almost universally thrusting and the aftershocks shared the same tectonic causes as the main shock.
The study indicates that the development of the young fold-thrust mountain belts necessarily involves basement shortening (thin-and thick-skinned tectonics) and that the 'frontal reverse faults' in young active fold-thrust mountain belts are the most seismically active faults. Geological and seismic data propose that the active frontal reverse fault systems are possibly reactivated old normal faults and may add support to the contention of reversal of fault motion during re thickening of continental crust. The active 'thin-and thick-skinned tectonics' documented in this study may prevail in other young and active fold-thrust mountain belts which are characterized by a thick sequence of telescoped top sedimentary cover over a decollement detachment zone.     

Detailed S-wave structure in the Dublin Basin and its northern margin

Summary. The seismic structure has been measured to a depth of about 3 km along a 30 km seismic profile in east central Ireland. This profile is unusual in that it is the S -wave velocity—depth structure that has been measured to a degree of precision more normally associated with P -wave results. One reason for this is that the sources used were quarry blasts which generated strong S -waves and short-period surface waves but rather weak P -waves.
The results show a layer of Carboniferous limestone with shear velocity 2.65 km⁻¹ s overlying a layer with a velocity of 3.06 km s⁻¹. This second layer was interpreted as Lower Palaeozoic strata (Silurian/Ordovician) since this velocity was evident in an inlier seen at the surface at the northern end of the line. A third refraction horizon, shear velocity 3.45 km s⁻¹ and displaying a basinal structure, was also recognized. This may be Cambrian or Precambrian basement.     

More seismic evidence on the location of Grenville basement beneath the Appalachians of Quebec-Maine

Summary. High-quality multichannel seismic (=133 fold) and refraction/wide- angle reflection (1 to 3 km receiver spacing and 30 to 60 km shot spacing) data have been collected across the northern Appalachians in Quebec, and Maine. An integrated interpretation of the seismic data from the southeastern Quebec-western Maine region provides strong evidence that the rocks of the predominantly oceanic "Dunnage" zone are allochthonous having been thrust westwards over Precambrian Grenville basement during and subsequent to the closing of the Iapetus Ocean.     

A seismic study of deep geological structure in the Bristol Channel area, SW Britain

Summary. Results from eight seismic refraction lines, 35–90 km long, in the Bristol Channel area are presented. The data, mostly land recordings of marine shots, have been interpreted mainly by ray-tracing and time-term modelling. Upper layer velocities through Palaeozoic rocks usually fall within the range 4.8–5.2 km s⁻¹. Below the Carboniferous Limestone with a normal velocity of 5.1–5.2 kms⁻¹, the Old Red Sandstone with a velocity of 4.7–4.8 kms⁻¹ acts as a low velocity layer, as do parts of the underlying Lower Palaeozoic succession. In the central South Wales/Bristol Channel area and the Mendips, a 5.4–5.5 km s⁻¹ refractor is correlated with a horizon at or near the top of the Lower Palaeozoic succession. Under the whole area, except for north Devon, a 6.0–6.2 km s⁻¹ basal refractor has been located and is correlated with Precambrian crystalline basement rocks. In general, this refractor deepens southwards from a series of basement highs, which existed before the major movements of the Variscan orogeny in South Wales, resulting in a southerly thickening of the pre Upper Carboniferous supra-basement sequence. In north Devon, a 6.2 km s⁻¹ refractor at shallow depth, interpreted as a horizon in the Devonian or Lower Palaeozoic succession, overlies a deep reflector that may represent the Precambrian crystalline basement.     

Expanding spread profile at the northern Jan Mayen Ridge

An expanding spread seismic profile at the central northern Jan Mayen Ridge, ESP-5, has yielded a crustal seismic velocity distribution which is similar to observations from the thinned continental crust at the Norwegian continental margin. The profile reveals a post-early Eocene sedimentary sequence, about 1. 5 km thick, overlying 1 km of volcanic extrusives and interbedded sediments. Below, there are about 3 km of pre-opening sediments above the seismic basement. The results indicate that the main ridge block is underlain by a thinned crust, possibly only 13.5 km thick. The results are compatible with a continental nature for the main ridge complex.     

A deep seismic profile of 800 km length recorded in southern Queensland, Australia

Summary. In 1984, the Australian Bureau of Mineral Resources and the Geological Survey of Queensland recorded a regional seismic reflection profile of over 800 km length from the eastern part of the Eromanga Basin to the Beenleigh Block east of the Clarence Moreton Basin. A relatively transparent upper crustal basement with an underlying, more reflective lower crust is characteristic of much of the region. Prominent westerly dipping reflectors occur well below the sediments of the eastern margin of the Clarence Moreton Basin and the adjacent Beenleigh Block, and provide some of the most interesting features of the entire survey. A wide angle reflection/refraction survey of 192 km length and an expanding reflection spread of 25 km length were recorded across the Nebine Ridge. The only clear deep reflectors are interpreted as P-to-SV or SV-to-P converted reflections from a mid-crustal boundary at a depth of about 17 km. The combined Nebine Ridge data provide well-constrained P and S wave velocity models of the upper crust, and suggest a crustal structure quite different from that beneath the adjacent Mesozoic basins.     

Tertiary structures in the platform cover strata of Nordenskiold Land, Svalbard

Air photo interpretation along with limited field work is the basis of a compilation map of Tertiary structures in the Upper Paleozoic through Mesozoic platform cover strata of Nordenskiold Land. Permian Kapp Starostin Formation strata form a continuous marker horizon delineating both a large NE-verging fold complex, which involves the basement (Hecla Hoek sequence) through basal Tertiary strata, and somewhat smaller scale folds, some of which may have formed in association with detachments and thrusts within the platform cover sequence. The map pattern is both a function of local structural plunge and changes in fold geometry along strike. Regional considerations suggest that subsurface basement-involved thrusts exist. In S Nordenskiold Land, to the E of folded Kapp Starostin Formation strata, a 3.5 km wide zone of folding and thrusting in Triassic and Jurassic strata above a subhorizontal decollement is inferred to occur. Further E is the W limb of the central Tertiary basin syncline.     

The structure of the Berzeliustinden area: Evidence for thrust wedge tectonics in the Tertiary fold-and-thrust belt of Spitsbergen

The Berzeliustinden area forms part of the Tertiary fold-and-thrust belt of western Spitsbergen. The relations of a basement-involved thrust fault, decollement structures, and a fault repeating part of the stratigraphy are investigated. The deforming mechanism is thought to be'wedging'of a basement-involved thrust block into bituminous shaly beds of the overlying strata. The thrust fault thus does not continuously cut through to the surface, but lifts the overlying strata, forming a backward directed bedding-parallel thrust fault on top of the wedge. The presence of two bituminous shale formations, both potential splitting mediums for the wedge, complicates the structures. Many structural observations from adjacent areas of the fold-and-thrust belt also fit with this model. It is suggested that thrust wedges are common tectonic elements in the belt and might also be present further east beneath the relatively undeformed Tertiary strata of central Spitsbergen.     

Detrital record of Mesozoic shortening in the Yanshan belt, NE China: testing structural interpretations with basin analysis

The Yanshan fold‐thrust belt is an exposed portion of a major Mesozoic orogenic system that lies north of Beijing in northeast China. Structures and strata within the Yanshan record a complex history of thrust faulting characterized by multiple deformational events. Initially, Triassic thrusting led to the erosion of a thick sequence of Proterozoic and Palaeozoic sedimentary strata from northern reaches of the thrust belt; Triassic–Lower Jurassic strata that record this episode are deposited in a thin belt south of this zone of erosion. This was followed by postulated Late Jurassic emplacement of a major allochthon (the Chengde thrust plate), which is thought to have overridden structures and strata associated with the Triassic event and is cut by two younger thrusts (the Gubeikou and Chengde County thrusts). The Chengde allochthon is now expressed as a major east–west trending, thrust‐bounded synform (the Chengde synform), which has been interpreted as a folded klippe 20 km wide underlain by a single, north‐vergent thrust fault. Two sedimentary basins, defined on the basis of provenance, geochronology and palaeodispersal trends, developed within the Yanshan belt during Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous time and are closely associated with the Chengde thrust and allied structures. Shouwangfen basin developed in the footwall of the Gubeikou thrust and records syntectonic unroofing of the hanging wall of that fault. Chengde basin developed in part atop Proterozoic strata interpreted as the upper plate of the Chengde allochthon and records unroofing of the adjacent Chengde County thrust. Both the Chengde County thrust and the Gubeikou thrust are younger than emplacement of the postulated Chengde allochthon, and structurally underlie it, yet neither Shouwangfen basin nor Chengde basin contain a detrital record of the erosion of this overlying structure. In addition, facies, palaeodispersal patterns and geochronology of Upper Jurassic strata that are cut by the Chengde thrust suggest only limited (ca. 5 km) displacement along this fault. We suggest that the units forming the Chengde synform are autochthonous, and that the synform is bounded by two limited‐displacement faults of opposing north and south vergence, rather than a single large north‐directed thrust. This conclusion implies that the Yanshan belt experienced far less Late Jurassic shortening than was previously thought, and has major implications for the Mesozoic evolution of the region. Specifically, we argue that the bulk of shortening and uplift in the Yanshan belt was accomplished during Triassic–Early Jurassic time, and that Late Jurassic structures modified and locally ponded sediments from a well‐developed southward drainage system developed atop this older orogen. Although Upper Jurassic strata are widespread throughout the Yanshan belt, it is clear that these strata developed within several discrete intermontane basins that are not correlable across the belt as a single entity. Thus, the Yanshan has no obvious associated foreland basin, and determining where the Mesozoic erosional products of this orogen ultimately lie is one of the more intriguing unresolved questions surrounding the palaeogeography of North China.     

Crustal structure across the Grand Banks–Newfoundland Basin Continental Margin – II. Results from a seismic reflection profile

New multichannel seismic reflection data were collected over a 565 km transect covering the non-volcanic rifted margin of the central eastern Grand Banks and the Newfoundland Basin in the northwestern Atlantic. Three major crustal zones are interpreted from west to east over the seaward 350 km of the profile: (1) continental crust; (2) transitional basement and (3) oceanic crust. Continental crust thins over a wide zone (∼160 km) by forming a large rift basin (Carson Basin) and seaward fault block, together with a series of smaller fault blocks eastwards beneath the Salar and Newfoundland basins. Analysis of selected previous reflection profiles (Lithoprobe 85-4, 85-2 and Conrad NB-1) indicates that prominent landward-dipping reflections observed under the continental slope are a regional phenomenon. They define the landward edge of a deep serpentinized mantle layer, which underlies both extended continental crust and transitional basement. The 80-km-wide transitional basement is defined landwards by a basement high that may consist of serpentinized peridotite and seawards by a pair of basement highs of unknown crustal origin. Flat and unreflective transitional basement most likely is exhumed, serpentinized mantle, although our results do not exclude the possibility of anomalously thinned oceanic crust. A Moho reflection below interpreted oceanic crust is first observed landwards of magnetic anomaly M4, 230 km from the shelf break. Extrapolation of ages from chron M0 to the edge of interpreted oceanic crust suggests that the onset of seafloor spreading was ∼138 Ma (Valanginian) in the south (southern Newfoundland Basin) to ∼125 Ma (Barremian–Aptian boundary) in the north (Flemish Cap), comparable to those proposed for the conjugate margins.     

A seismic study of deep structure in South Wales using quarry blasts

Summary. Results are presented from five long seismic profiles in South Wales based on recordings of quarry blasts. Interpretation by means of planar layer modelling, time term analysis and ray tracing provides information on depths to an assumed Precambrian igneous/metamorphic basement and on the thickness of overlying concealed Lower Palaeozoic (? and Upper Proterozoic) sequences. Basement culminations are identified under the western part of the South Wales coalfield and in the Carmarthen Bay area; under parts of the coalfield the Lower Palaeozoic must be thin or absent. The basement is at a depth of 5 km or more under Cower and the Vale of Glamorgan and in adjacent parts of the Bristol Channel, and thick Lower Palaeozoic sequences must be present in these areas. The basement velocity of 6.0–6.3 km s⁻¹ compares well with the low upper crustal velocities encountered along adjacent parts of the lithospheric seismic profile across Britain (LISPB 1974).     

Crustal structure of the Faeroe–Shetiand Channel

Summary. The deep structure of the Faeroe–Shetland Channel has been investigated as part of the North Atlantic Seismic Project. Shot lines were fired along and across the axis of the Channel, with recording stations both at sea and on adjacent land areas. At 61°N, 1.7 km of Tertiary sediments overlies a 3.9–4.5 km s^-1 basement interpreted as the top of early Tertiary volcanics. A main 6.0–6.6 km s^-1 crustal refractor interpreted as old oceanic crust occurs at about 9 km depth. The Moho (8.0 ° 0.2 km s^-1) is at about 15–17 km depth. There is evidence that P _n may be anisotropic beneath the Faeroe–Shetland Channel. Arrivals recorded at land stations show characteristics best explained by scattering at an intervening boundary which may be the continent–ocean crustal contact or the edge of the volcanics.
The Moho delay times at the shot points, determined by time-term analysis, show considerable variation along the axis of the Channel. They correlate with the basement topography, and the greatest delays occur over the buried extension of the Faeroe Ridge at about 60° 15'N, where they are nearly 1 s more than the delays at 61°N after correction for the sediments. The large delays are attributed to thickening of the early Tertiary volcanic layer with isostatic downsagging of the underlying crust and uppermost mantle in response to the load, rather than to thickening of the main crustal ayer.
The new evidence is consistent with deeply buried oceanic crust beneath the Faeroe–Shetland Channel, forming a northern extension of Rockall Trough. The seabed morphology has been grossly modified by the thick and laterally variable pile of early Tertiary volcanic rocks which swamped the region, accounting for the anomalous shallow bathymetry, the transverse ridges and the present narrowness of the Channel.     

A long-range, controlled source seismic profile in northern Australia

Summary. A two-ship refraction profile was fired on the Australian continental shelf during the Banda Sea geophysical programme carried out by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Geological Survey of Indonesia. Some of the 55-kg shots fired during this profile were observed at an array of stations in northern Australia to a distance of 1150 km.
The first arrival P travel times at the land stations had apparent velocities of 6.52, 8.24 and 8.48 km/s. The observed travel times correspond closely with those for other stable continental platform or shield regions. The travel times in these regions are of the order of 6 s less than those given in the Jeffreys—Bullen tables at distances of 700 to 1150 km.
The observations are interpreted as implying an upper-mantle velocity of 8.4 km/s at a depth of about 75 km.     

Structure and early evolution of the Arabian Sea and East Somali Basin

The Laxmi Ridge is a large-scale basement high buried beneath the sediments of the Indus Fan. The location of the ocean–continent transition (OCT) on this margin has previously been proposed at either the southern edge of the Laxmi Ridge or beyond it towards the India–Pakistan shelf. The former explains the margin-parallel Laxmi Basin as thinned continental crust, the latter as a failed rift of earlier seafloor spreading. To examine the structure of this margin, a reassessment of marine magnetic data has detailed seafloor-spreading magnetic anomalies prior to anomaly 24 in both the Arabian and East Somali basins. The previously identified anomaly 28 is not interpreted as a seafloor-spreading anomaly but as a magnetized basement feature adjacent to, and merging with, the ridge—the Laxmi Spur. New gravity models across the Laxmi Ridge and adjacent margin using ship and satellite data corroborate the existence of underplated crust beneath the Laxmi Ridge and Basin and the location of the OCT at the southern edge of the Ridge. The results are not compatible with the existence of a pre-anomaly 28 phase of seafloor spreading, although large-scale intrusions may be the origin of some of the basement features in the Laxmi Basin. The models also identify the Laxmi Spur as a low-density feature with a natural remanent magnetization (NRM) compatible with serpentinization. The Laxmi Ridge is mapped to the southeast, where it appears to terminate at a point coinciding with the appearance of E–W magnetic lineations and gravity anomalies at 15.5°N. Thereafter it becomes indistinct. This is interpreted as necessary in the reconstruction to the Mascarene Plateau to avoid continental overlap.     

Evolution of a Neoproterozoic to Palaeozoic intracratonic setting, Officer Basin, South Australia

The Neoproterozoic basins of central Australia share many features of architecture and sedimentary fill, suggesting common large-scale extrinsic causal mechanisms. In an attempt to improve understanding of these mechanisms we have gathered and analysed new deep seismic reflection data and re-evaluated existing seismic and well-log data from the eastern Officer Basin, the largest and most poorly known of Australia's intracratonic basins. The Officer Basin is asymmetric and has a steep thrust-controlled northern margin paralleled by sub-basins as much as 10 km in depth. Further south the basin shallows gradually onto a broad platform. The basin rests on a thick crust (≈42 km) that is pervaded by a complex of northward-dipping surfaces most of which terminate erosionally against the sediments of the Officer Basin and are interpreted as prebasinal features, possibly faults. Some appear to have been zones of crustal weakness which were reactivated as thrust complexes and played a major role in basin evolution. The sedimentary succession can be subdivided into six megasequences separated by major tectonically and erosionally enhanced sequence boundaries. The megasequences have distinctive sequence stacking patterns suggesting that they were deposited in response to episodic subsidence induced by a major extrinsic tectonic event. The basin initially formed as part of a giant sag basin which incorporated all the present-day intracratonic basins (Amadeus, Georgina, Ngalia, Officer and Savory Basins) in a single large ‘superbasin’ perhaps as a response to mantle processes. Subsidence then ceased for ≈100 Myr producing a regional erosion surface. Beginning in the Torrensian or Sturtian five more major events of varying regional significance influenced the basin's evolution. Four were compressional events, the first of which activated major thrust complexes along the present basin margins, forming deep foreland sub-basins with elevated intervening basement blocks. Once activated, the thrust complexes and sub-basins persisted throughout the life of the intracratonic basins. From this epoch the intracratonic basins of central Australia were decoupled from the giant sag basin and became interrelated but independent features. Available information suggests that the Officer, Amadeus, Georgina, Ngalia and Savory Basins are related and are perhaps products of major tectonic events associated with the assembly and ultimate dispersal of the Proterozoic supercontinent. The closing phases of these basins were strongly influenced by events occurring along the newly created active eastern margin of the Australian continent in the Palaeozoic.     

Lithoprobe southern Canadian Cordilleran transect: Rocky Mountain thrust belt to Valhalla gneiss complex

Summary. LITHOPROBE has acquired nearly 270 km of crustal seismic reflection data across the eastern portion of the southern Canadian Cordillera, These reflection profiles, obtained during the Fall of 1985, extend from the Rocky Mountain thrust and fold belt, across the Rocky Mountain Trench, Purcell anticlinorium, Kootenay Arc, Nelson batholith and Valhalla gneiss complex. North American basement and its overlying foreshortened miogeoclinal rocks can be traced westward to the Kootenay Arc. The Purcell anticlinorium is carried by a series of west dipping thrust faults which emerge east of the anticlinorium and converge downward and merge with a detachment surface above autochthonous North American basement. Proterozoic supracrustal rocks, thickened by folding and thrusting, occupy the core of the anticlinorium. Steeply dipping surface structures of the western Purcell anticlinorium and Kootenay Arc appear to be truncated at 3 - 4 s (9-12 km) by a gently east-dipping reflection that may delineate the upper boundary of an allochthonous wedge inserted between the near surface rocks and autochthonous basement below. Beneath the Kootenay Arc, at a travel time of 9–10 s (27–30 km), the North American basement seems to be truncated by the major east-dipping Slocan Lake fault zone, which can be traced from its surface exposure at the east edge of the Valhalla gneiss complex eastward to near the base of the crust. A high amplitude, west-dipping reflection underlies the Valhalla complex and may be related to a major compressional shear zone.     

Multiphase cooling and exhumation of the southern Adelaide Fold Belt: constraints from apatite fission track data

Data from apatite fission track analysis are presented for 20 outcrop samples collected in the southern Adelaide Fold Belt, South Australia. Interpretation of these data, with the aid of numerical models which allow inference of multiphase cooling histories, indicate three discrete cooling events that are likely to correlate with sedimentation events in surrounding depositional settings. An event beginning some time after 85 Ma (Late Cretaceous) was characterized by cooling throughout the study area from temperatures of roughly 50 to 70 °C. An event beginning at 300–270 Ma (Late Palaeozoic) was characterized by cooling from temperatures >120 °C in all areas except for the Mount Lofty Ranges and Murray Bridge region, where peak temperatures were only 95–115 °C prior to Palaeozoic cooling. Some samples from these subregions of relatively cool Late Palaeozoic temperatures also retain evidence for even earlier cooling from temperatures >120 °C, beginning prior to 350 Ma. We interpret the post 85-Ma event as the consequence of regional exhumation from a depth of 1.0–1.6 km. The Late Palaeozoic event (300–270 Ma) is interpreted as cooling associated with the termination of the Alice Springs Orogeny, while cooling prior to 350 Ma probably represents the final stages of Early Middle Palaeozoic unroofing of the southern Adelaide Fold Belt.
The results highlight the importance of regional, episodic postorogenic exhumation of Palaeozoic fold belts, where – in some cases – conventional methods have erroneously suggested relatively long-term stability.     

The continent‐ocean transition on the northwestern South China Sea

Rifted margins are created as a result of stretching and breakup of continental lithosphere that eventually leads to oceanic spreading and formation of a new oceanic basin. A cornerstone for understanding what processes control the final transition to seafloor spreading is the nature of the continent‐ocean transition (COT). We reprocessed multichannel seismic profiles and use available gravity data to study the structure and variability of the COT along the Northwest subbasin (NWSB) of the South China Sea. We have interpreted the seismic images to discern continental from oceanic domains. The continental‐crust domain is characterized by tilted fault blocks generally overlain by thick syn‐rift sedimentary units, and underlain by fairly continuous Moho reflections typically at 8–10 s twtt. The thickness of the continental crust changes greatly across the basin, from ~20 to 25 km under the shelf and uppermost slope, to ~9–6 km under the lower slope. The oceanic‐crust domain is characterized by a highly reflective top of basement, little faulting, no syntectonic strata and fairly constant thickness (over tens to hundreds of km) of typically 6 km, but ranging from 4 to 8 km. The COT is imaged as a ~5–10 km wide zone where oceanic‐type features directly abut or lap on continental‐type structures. The South China margin continental crust is cut by abundant normal faults. Seismic profiles show an along‐strike variation in the tectonic structure of the continental margin. The NE‐most lines display ~20–40 km wide segments of intense faulting under the slope and associated continental‐crust thinning, giving way to a narrow COT and oceanic crust. Towards the SW, faulting and thinning of the continental crust occurs across a ~100–110 km wide segment with a narrow COT and abutting oceanic crust. We interpret this 3D structural variability and the narrow COT as a consequence of the abrupt termination of continental rifting tectonics by the NE to SW propagation of a spreading centre. We suggest that breakup occurred abruptly by spreading centre propagation rather than by thinning during continental rifting. We propose a kinematic evolution for the oceanic domain of the NWSB consisting of a southward spreading centre propagation followed by a first narrow ridge jump to the north, and then a younger larger jump to the SE, to abandon the NWSB and create the East subbasin of the South China Sea.     

Stratigraphic architecture of Solander Basin records Southern Ocean currents and subduction initiation beneath southwest New Zealand

Solander Basin is characterized by subduction initiation at the Pacific‐Australia plate boundary, where high biological productivity is found at the northern edge of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Sedimentary architecture results from tectonic influences on accommodation space, sediment supply and ocean currents (via physiography); and climate influence on ocean currents and biological productivity. We present the first seismic‐stratigraphic analysis of Solander Basin based on high‐fold seismic‐reflection data (voyage MGL1803, SISIE). Solander Trough physiography formed by Eocene rifting, but basinal strata are mostly younger than ca. 17 Ma, when we infer Puysegur Ridge formed and sheltered Solander Basin from bottom currents, and mountain growth onshore increased sediment supply. Initial inversion on the Tauru Fault started at ca. 15 Ma, but reverse faulting from 12 to ca. 8 Ma on both the Tauru and Parara Faults was likely associated with reorganization and formation of the subduction thrust. The new seabed topography forced sediment pathways to become channelized at low points or antecedent gorges. Since 5 Ma, southern Puysegur Ridge and Fiordland mountains spread out towards the east and Solander Anticline grew in response to ongoing subduction and growth of a slab. Solander Basin had high sedimentation rates because (1) it is sheltered from bottom currents by Puysegur Ridge; and (2) it has a mountainous land area that supplies sediment to its northern end. Sedimentary architecture is asymmetric due to the Subtropical Front, which moves pelagic and hemi‐pelagic sediment, including dilute parts of gravity flows, eastward and accretes contourites to the shelf south of Stewart Island. Levees, scours, drifts and ridges of folded sediment characterize western Solander Basin, whereas hemi‐pelagic drape and secondary gravity flows are found east of the meandering axial Solander Channel. The high‐resolution record of climate and tectonics that Solander Basin contains may yield excellent sites for future scientific ocean drilling.