IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v454y2008i7205d10.1038_nature07138.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rapid change in drift of the Australian plate records collision with Ontong Java plateau

Author

Listed:
  • Kurt M. Knesel

    (Earth Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, 4072, Australia)

  • Benjamin E. Cohen

    (Earth Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, 4072, Australia)

  • Paulo M. Vasconcelos

    (Earth Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, 4072, Australia)

  • David S. Thiede

    (Earth Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, 4072, Australia)

Abstract

The advance of the Australian plate Earth's largest and thickest oceanic plateau, the Ontong Java plateau, is currently colliding with the Australian plate, but it has been difficult to date the start of this momentous event with much accuracy. Now a team from the University of Queensland presents strong evidence for a collision starting about 26 million years ago. The dating comes from geochronological data on hotspot volcanoes in the Tasman Sea, east of Australia, which reveal a link between collision of the plateau with the Melanesian arc and motion of the Australian plate. The timing and brevity of this collisional event correlate well with offsets in hotspot seamount tracks in the Pacific, including the archetypal Hawaiian chain, suggesting that immense oceanic plateaus, like Ontong Java, can contribute to initiating rapid change in plate boundaries and motions on a global scale.

Suggested Citation

  • Kurt M. Knesel & Benjamin E. Cohen & Paulo M. Vasconcelos & David S. Thiede, 2008. "Rapid change in drift of the Australian plate records collision with Ontong Java plateau," Nature, Nature, vol. 454(7205), pages 754-757, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:454:y:2008:i:7205:d:10.1038_nature07138
    DOI: 10.1038/nature07138
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature07138
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature07138?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:454:y:2008:i:7205:d:10.1038_nature07138. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.