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Ar-Ar age constraints on the timing of Havre Trough opening and magmatism

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The age and style of opening of the Havre Trough back-arc system is uncertain due to a lack of geochronologic constraints for the region. 40Ar/39Ar dating of 19 volcanic rocks from across the southern Havre Trough and Kermadec Arc was conducted in three laboratories to provide age constraints on the system. The results are integrated and interpreted as suggesting that this subduction system is young (<2 Ma) and coeval with opening of the continental Taupo Volcanic Zone of New Zealand. Arc magmatism was broadly concurrent across the breadth of the Havre Trough.
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New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics
ISSN: 0028-8306 (Print) 1175-8791 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tnzg20
Ar-Ar age constraints on the timing of Havre
Trough opening and magmatism
Richard Wysoczanski, Graham Leonard, James Gill, Ian Wright, Andrew
Calvert, William McIntosh, Brian Jicha, John Gamble, Christian Timm, Monica
Handler, Elizabeth Drewes-Todd & Alex Zohrab
To cite this article: Richard Wysoczanski, Graham Leonard, James Gill, Ian Wright, Andrew
Calvert, William McIntosh, Brian Jicha, John Gamble, Christian Timm, Monica Handler,
Elizabeth Drewes-Todd & Alex Zohrab (2019): Ar-Ar age constraints on the timing of Havre
Trough opening and magmatism, New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, DOI:
10.1080/00288306.2019.1602059
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00288306.2019.1602059
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Ar-Ar age constraints on the timing of Havre Trough opening and magmatism
Richard Wysoczanski
a
, Graham Leonard
b
, James Gill
c
, Ian Wright
d
, Andrew Calvert
e
, William McIntosh
f
,
Brian Jicha
g
, John Gamble
h,i
, Christian Timm
b,j
, Monica Handler
h
, Elizabeth Drewes-Todd
k
and
Alex Zohrab
h
a
National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, Wellington, New Zealand;
b
GNS Science, Lower Hutt, New Zealand;
c
Department of
Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA;
d
Vice ChancellorsOce, University of Canterbury, Christchurch,
New Zealand;
e
U.S. Geological Survey, Volcano Science Center, Menlo Park, CA, USA;
f
New Mexico Geochronology Research Laboratory, New
Mexico Tech, Socorro, NM, USA;
g
Department of Geoscience, University of WisconsinMadison, Madison, WI, USA;
h
School of Geography,
Environment & Earth Science, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand;
i
School of Biological, Earth & Environmental
Sciences, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland;
j
GEOMAR, Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany;
k
Alaska Science Center, U.S.
Geological Survey, Anchorage, AK, USA
ABSTRACT
The age and style of opening of the Havre Trough back-arc system is uncertain due to a lack of
geochronologic constraints for the region.
40
Ar/
39
Ar dating of 19 volcanic rocks from across the
southern Havre Trough and Kermadec Arc was conducted in three laboratories to provide age
constraints on the system. The results are integrated and interpreted as suggesting that this
subduction system is young (<2 Ma) and coeval with opening of the continental Taupo
Volcanic Zone of New Zealand. Arc magmatism was broadly concurrent across the breadth
of the Havre Trough.
ARTICLE HISTORY
Received 11 February 2019
Accepted 29 March 2019
HANDLING EDITOR
Phaedra Upton
KEYWORDS
Havre Trough; Kermadec Arc;
Ar-Ar; magmatism; back-arc
basin; rifting
Introduction
The present-day Kermadec Arc and associated Havre
Trough back-arc basin is the youngest in a series of
Cenozoic volcanic arcs that have developed along the
northern New Zealand margin in response to conver-
gence of the Pacic and Australian Plates (Mortimer
et al., 2010; Herzer et al., 2011; Bassett et al., 2016).
The Kermadec ArcHavre Trough (KAHT) subduc-
tion system is the central portion of a contiguous arc
system, with the Tonga ArcLau Basin back-arc system
to the north, and the Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ) of
continental New Zealand to the south (Figure 1)
(Smith and Price, 2006). The predecessor to the Kerma-
dec Arc, the Miocene-Pliocene Colville Arc (Skinner,
1986; Ballance et al., 1999), rifted apart in response to
rollback of the Pacic Plate (Sdrolias and Muller,
2006; Wallace et al., 2009), forming the Havre Trough
and resulting in the establishment of the modern Ker-
madec Arc front. The Colville Ridge and Kermadec
Ridge are the remnants of the Colville Arc (Figure 1).
The age of opening of the Havre Trough and estab-
lishment of the Kermadec Arc is not clear owing to a
paucity of age data. In part, this is due to the inherent
diculty in obtaining reliable radioisotopic ages on
young, glassy, and vesicular submarine volcanic rocks
with low potassium content, and in part due to tectonic
complexity, and until recently, limited seaoor
sampling in the region. Here, we present
40
Ar/
39
Ar
ages on seaoor volcanic samples from across the
southern KAHT subduction system that have impor-
tant implications for both the age and style of opening
of the Havre Trough.
Models for opening of the Havre Trough
Several models have been proposed to explain the tec-
tono-magmatic evolution of the Havre Trough and
Kermadec Arc, but the process and timing of opening
remains contentious. Malahoet al. (1982), based on
airborne magnetic studies and seismic lines over the
southern and central portions of the KAHT, tentatively
interpreted the Havre Trough to be undergoing spread-
ing, centred on an axial ridge. They interpreted residual
magnetic anomalies to indicate a ca. 1.8 Ma age of
opening of the basin. Wright (1993), however, inter-
preted swath mapping data as showing that at least
the southern Havre Trough lacked a medial spreading
ridge, and hence interpreted back-arc rifting rather
than spreading as the mode of extension. Further,
Wright (1993), suggested that initiation of rifting
occurred at ca. 5 Ma, although this age was constrained
by extrapolation of geodetic data on continental New
Zealand rather than on direct age data from within
the Havre Trough.
Subsequent models for Havre Trough opening
agreed that the system was rifting but have varied in
the process and style of rifting being proposed. Wright
et al. (1996) suggested that Havre Trough opening and
© 2019 The Royal Society of New Zealand
CONTACT Richard Wysoczanski richard.wysoczanski@niwa.co.nz
NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS
https://doi.org/10.1080/00288306.2019.1602059
magmatism progressed eastward with time. Parson and
Wright (1996) further argued that there was a latitudi-
nal progression from full oceanic spreading in the Lau
Basin to the north, to basin rifting in the TVZ to the
south. The southern Havre Trough was considered to
be in an intermediate phase of rifting that was concen-
trated along the axial zone of the trough. Ruellan et al.
(2003), on the basis of multibeam bathymetry and seis-
mic reection data, concluded that the southward
propagation of spreading was oversimplied, and that
southward migration of subduction of the Louisville
Seamount Chain had eectively locked the KAHT.
They proposed that opening of the Havre Trough
was initially fast and pervasive, and then relatively
quiescent as the system became locked. Wysoczanski
et al. (2010), on the basis of morphological similarities,
suggested that the Havre Trough was in a similar state
of rifting to the Valu Fa Ridge and Western Lau Basin,
and that it also was in a state of disorganised spread-
ing(Martinez and Taylor, 2006) whereby diuse
patches of extension localised in deep rifts precedes
longitudinally traceable axial ridges characteristic of
true ocean spreading systems. This model reconciled
the oceanic spreading model of Malahoet al. (1982)
with models of rifting, and is similar to the Parson
and Wright (1996)nal stage of rifting (their Phase
4) preceding full spreading.
Analytical methods and results
A total of 19 volcanic rocks of variable composition
dredged from across the KAHT (Table 1) have been
dated by Ar-Ar step heating. The sample set is diverse,
including samples from ve arc front volcanoes, two
volcanoes in the central Havre Trough (Gill and Rapu-
hia), a deep central Havre Trough basin (Ngatoro Rift)
with a short axial ridge in its southern extent, and a
cross-arc seamount chain (Rumble V Ridge) that
spans the breadth of the Havre Trough, from Rumble
V to the Colville Ridge (Figure 2). Geochemical data
for all the samples have previously been reported,
and the source of those data, together with new Ar-
Ar ages presented here, are shown in Table 1. With
the exception of one andesite and one dacite from
the volcanic arc front, all samples are basalts or basaltic
andesites (Figure 3).
Ar-Ar analyses were performed in three laboratories
(USGS, Menlo Park; New Mexico Institute of Mining
and Technology (NMIMT), Socorro; and University
of Wisconsin-Madison), initially as four smaller and
separate studies. The datasets are combined here as
one larger study to place constraints on the age of the
KAHT (Table 1,Figure 2). All ages presented in
Table 1 include 2σuncertainties and full details of
the analytical techniques are given in the Supplemen-
tary File.
The majority of ages for the arc front volcanoes are
<0.06 Ma, although two samples, from Clark (C/1) and
Rumble III (X333) have slightly older mean ages of 0.11
Ma and 0.12 Ma respectively. Uncertainties on arc
front samples however are large, and most ages are
zero within analytical uncertainty.
Three samples from Rumble V Ridge have ages of
<0.11 Ma, overlapping those of the arc front volcanoes
within uncertainty. The Ngatoro Rift samples have
older ages between 0.20 Ma and 0.68 Ma.
To the north, two samples from Rapuhia Ridge, a
volcanic ridge extending southwest from Rapuhia vol-
cano in the centre of the Havre Trough, yielded ages of
0.05 ± 0.05 Ma and 0.11 ± 0.03 Ma. These ages are mar-
ginally older than, but within error of, ages derived
from the active volcanic arc front. They are on average
younger than the samples from Rumble V Ridge [see
above], and notably younger than most of the Ngatoro
Rift samples. Three samples analysed from Gill vol-
cano, a back-arc volcano in the Havre Trough that
lies between Rapuhia Ridge and the Colville Ridge
(Figure 1), have ages signicantly older than all other
samples, at 0.88 ± 0.05 Ma, 0.97 ± 0.03 Ma and 1.19
± 0.04 Ma.
Figure 1. Tectonic setting of New Zealand and the SW Pacic
highlighting the Kermadec ArcHavre Trough (KAHT), the
Tonga-Lau subduction system, and the Taupo Volcanic Zone
(TVZ) of continental New Zealand (red outline).
Notes: Black arrow is the relative motion of the Pacic Plate to a xed Aus-
tralian Plate for the southern KAHT region (DeMets et al., 2010). HP = Hikur-
angi Plateau, Louisville SC = Louisville Seamount Chain, NP = Northland
Plateau, VFR = Valu Fa Ridge. Red triangles denote oceanic volcanoes of
the Kermadec Arc and Havre Trough, and the oshore TVZ (southernmost
volcano, Whakatane). Highlighted area is that of Figure 2.
2R. WYSOCZANSKI ET AL.
Table 1. Details of samples analysed in this study.
Station Location Latitude south Longitude east Depth (m) Lab Lab no. IGSN Ref. SiO
2
(wt.%) MgO (wt.%) K
2
O (wt.%) Age (Ma)
C/1 Clark 36.416 177.848 2040 NMIMT Clark #45, 6696 1 50.75 9.46 1.57 0.11 ± 0.05 P
X299 Rumble III 35.749 178.498 717 NMIMT Rumble III #1, 6692 2 52.61 4.44 0.58 0.04 ± 0.06 P
X333 Rumble III 35.715 178.528 565 NMIMT Rumble III #8, 6695 2 52.14 6.72 0.48 0.12 ± 0.08 P
X351 Rumble IV 36.131 178.024 1258 NMIMT Rumble IV #9, 6703 2 66.19 1.47 1.11 0.03 ± 0.02 P
X379 Rumble V 36.153 178.161 1619 NMIMT Rumble V#23, 6694 JBG000010 2 54.00 3.51 0.60 <0.03 P
X407 Rumble V 36.133 178.202 750 NMIMT Rumble V #26, 6704 2 53.95 3.52 0.61 0.01 ± 0.06 P
X427/A Tangaroa 36.311 178.004 1781 NMIMT Tangaroa #39, 6691 2 59.26 2.63 0.67 0.06 ± 0.07 P
X153/1 Ngatoro Rift 36.260 177.300 2640 NMIMT 11574 Ngatoro Rift, 6702 JBG00001C 3 51.01 8.22 0.41 0.20 ± 0.14 P
X158/1 Ngatoro Rift 36.154 177.428 2300 NMIMT 11580 Ngatoro Rift, 6701 3 52.04 7.05 0.52 0.60 ± 0.24 P
X185/1 Ngatoro Rift 36.660 177.150 2810 NMIMT 11616 S. Ngatoro Rift, 6693 JBG000016 3 52.41 4.86 0.55 0.35 ± 0.22 P
X168/1A Ngatoro Rift 36.258 177.573 2960 Menlo Park 10Z0107 JBG000017 3 52.84 7.38 0.60 0.68 ± 0.16 R
X690A Cross arc 35.960 177.942 1805 Menlo Park 10Z0105 JBG000001 4 47.23 14.9 0.32 <0.11 I
X682 Cross arc 35.968 178.023 1480 Menlo Park 10Z0106 JBG000007 4 51.13 8.17 0.42 <0.03 I
X696A Cross arc 35.886 177.843 1680 Menlo Park 10Z0104 JBG00000J 4 48.94 8.46 0.28 <0.07 I
015-04 Rapuhia Ridge 34.794 178.445 1910 Menlo Park 15Z0332 5 51.04 9.65 0.75 0.11 ± 0.03 P
016-01 Rapuhia Ridge 34.798 178.442 1800 Menlo Park 15Z0334 5 49.60 9.99 0.49 0.05 ± 0.05 P
012-01 Gill 34.623 178.379 1146 Menlo Park 15Z0319 5 47.91 9.30 0.46 1.19 ± 0.04 P
011-04 Gill 34.607 178.389 1700 Menlo Park 15Z0318 5 51.22 8.07 0.75 0.97 ± 0.03 P
011-A Gill 34.607 178.389 1700 Wisconsin UW93C37 JBG00001K 6 53.64 6.59 0.77 0.88 ± 0.05 P
Notes: Ages are: P = plateau ages, I = Isochron ages, R = Recoil age (see Supplementary File for details). Supplementary File contains plateau and isochron ages and plots, experimental data including K/Ca ratio, MSWDs, number of steps, and
total gas age; along with an explanation of experimental methods and machine data for individual heating steps within each experiment. Results have been recalculated to a consistent uence monitor age equivalent to Fish Canyon sanidine
at 28.198 Ma (Menlo Park) and at 28.201 Ma (NMIMT). All errors are 2σ. For the four samples X379, X690, X682, and X696 the mean age is negative, so the positive fraction of the age is reported as a maximum value (i.e. <xx Ma), calculated as
the mean of the 2σerror. IGSN numbers are given for those samples that have been assigned numbers. Reference for geochemical analyses: 1, Gamble et al., 1997; 2, Wright & Gamble unpublished data; 3, Gamble et al., 1993; 4, Todd et al.,
2010; 5, Zohrab, 2017; 6, Todd et al., 2011. All geochemical data is reported as anhydrous, with Fe as FeOtotal (not reported here).
NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS 3
Discussion
The presented Ar-Ar ages are from samples that span
almost the entire width of the southern Havre Trough
and thus provide important constraints on the manner
and timing of its opening.
Arst order observation is that the oldest ages
reported here, from a back-arc stratovolcano (Gill vol-
cano: Wysoczanski et al., 2010) in the western part of
the Havre Trough, are 0.91.2 Ma (Table 1,Figure
2). However, because Gill volcano sits on a rifted
basin oor, the implied age of rifting must be older.
This age is similar to a preferred Ar-Ar age of 1.1 ±
0.4 Ma reported for a basalt from the western Havre
Trough (Mortimer et al., 2007) sampled 450 km to
the north of, and along strike from, Gill volcano, and
to a 1.25 ± 0.06 Ma U-Pb zircon age from a tonalite
xenolith from Raoul Island (Mortimer et al., 2010).
In addition, Mortimer et al. (2007) reported an Ar-Ar
age of 1.2 Ma ± 0.8 for a basalt from the Northland Pla-
teau (Figure 1), which they considered to be related to
westernmost Colville Ridge volcanism. Together, these
ages show no evidence for magmatic activity in the
Havre Trough before c. 1.2 Ma, and as noted by
Mortimer et al. (2010) suggest that magmatism was
active across the full width of the KAHT and west of
the Colville Ridge at this time (Figure 2). Furthermore,
one of our plateau ages from Gill volcano is 875 ± 50
ka, and thus it is conceivable that the age of magmatism
for the Havre Trough is younger than 1.2 Ma, and
possibly <1 Ma.
Using the 19 new Ar-Ar ages presented in this study
and two previously reported by Mortimer et al. (2007;
2010), we now have sucient geochronologic data to
interpret the age of the Havre Trough. In addition, Bal-
lance et al. (1999) reported eight K-Ar ages of c. 2 Ma
or younger for the Kermadec Ridge and three K-Ar
ages from the eastern Havre Trough, which were
near zero age (the oldest at 0.15 ± 0.12 Ma). These
ages for the Havre Trough are all signicantly younger
than the c. 5 Ma age of rifting proposed by Wright
(1993). However, we note that all current age data
are from surcial seaoor volcanics, and future
sampling (especially from sub-seaoor drilling) may
yield older ages that would require a reinterpretation
of the results presented here.
Figure 2. Bathymetric map of the southern KAHT system,
bounded by the Colville Ridge to the west and the Kermadec
Ridge to the east. Depths on the bathymetry scale are metres
below sea level, with depths <1500 m shown as 1500 m and
depths >3500 m shown as 3500 m.
Notes: Orange triangles are volcanoes: C = Clark, G = Gill, R = Rapuhia,
RIII = Rumble III, RIV = Rumble IV, RV = Rumble V, T = Tangaroa. Numbers
in boxes denote new Ar-Ar ages (Table 1).
Figure 3. Silica content of samples analysed in this study with distance from the crest of the Kermadec Ridge.
4R. WYSOCZANSKI ET AL.
The young age of magmatism, if correct, provides
three important implications for the tectonic develop-
ment of the Havre Trough.
Firstly, magmatism and translocation of the modern
Kermadec Arc front did not occur in a monotonic east-
ward progression. Notably, there is near-zero age arc
magmatism in the central portion of the Havre Trough
at Rapuhia Ridge, and magmatism related to Rumble V
Ridge does not young to the east (Figure 4). The Rum-
ble V Ridge dates are younger in age than the Ngatoro
Rift, indicating that the ridge may have been con-
structed over the Ngatoro Rift (and if this is correct,
also the Rumble Rift), rather than being cut by rifting
as previously suggested (Wright et al., 1996).
Second, reported age data for the Havre Trough are
<1.2 Ma, and possibly <1 Ma. This is younger than, but
broadly consistent with, the 1.8 Ma age of rifting
suggested by Malahoet al. (1982), although that
model assumed a full spreading centre, whereas more
recent tectonic models based on seaoor morphology
suggest that the Havre Trough is comprised of a num-
ber of rifts and basal plateaus (e.g. Wright, 1993;
Wysoczanski et al., 2010; Wysoczanski and Clark,
2012). These ages imply a c. 2.5-4 x faster extension
rate for the Havre Trough than the 1520 mm yr
1
rate suggested by Wright (1993). An age of 2 Ma
would give an average rate of c. 4050 mm yr
1
. Whilst
reasonably fast, this rate is not unusual for extension
rates in other intra-oceanic back-arc rifts, and is still
signicantly slower than the full ocean spreading
rates of >100 mm yr-
1
occurring in the Lau Basin
and Manus Basin (e.g. Taylor and Martinez, 2003;
Heuret and Lallemand, 2005; Wallace et al., 2005).
Notably this is similar to the extension rate of c. 40
60 mm yr
1
seen at the southern portion of the Lau
Basin (Parson and Wright, 1996; Martinez and Taylor,
2001).
Third, opening of the Havre Trough is coeval with
initiation of TVZ magmatism and rifting at c. 2 Ma
(Wilson et al., 1995) and the TVZ rift and Havre
Trough are the continental and oceanic expression of
the same rift system (e.g. Parson and Wright, 1996).
It is unclear if rifting was occurring prior to c. 2 Ma
onshore in New Zealand: 1.83.9 Ma volcanism
occurred along the Maungatautari-Kaimai-Tauranga
alignment parallel to but northwest of the TVZ, as
eruptions migrated southeast from the Coromandel
area (Briggs et al., 2005). Given our ages for the
Havre Trough, and that the youngest reported age of
volcanism from the Colville Ridge is 2.6 Ma (Timm
et al., in press), this magmatism is more likely to be
related to Colville Arc magmatism rather than Havre
Trough magmatism.
The western portion of the TVZ is the oldest part of
that system (the old TVZof Wilson et al., 1995, and
Wilson and Rowland, 2016), and rifting is now
focussed more to the east and along a central rift, var-
iously dened as the young TVZand modern TVZ
(Wilson et al., 1995; Wilson and Rowland, 2016),
Ruaumoko Rift (Rowland and Sibson, 2001) and the
Taupo Rift (Villamor and Berryman, 2006). Whilst
young arc magmatism is broadly occurring across the
Havre Trough (Figure 4) we have insucient data to
identify any age progression of rift-related magmatism
across the Havre Trough. It remains uncertain if east-
ern Havre Trough rift magmatism is younger than
Figure 4. Ar-Ar ages of Havre Trough samples (Table 1) with distance from the Kermadec Ridge crest.
Notes: Error bars show 2 sigma uncertainties. Black diamonds are K/Ar ages of Ballance et al. (1999) from Kermadec Ridge and Havre Trough samples at least
300 km north of samples presented here. Grey square at 80 km is an Ar-Ar preferred age for a basalt from the Havre Trough (Mortimer et al., 2007). Grey
square at 0 km is a U-Pb age of zircon from a tonalite from Raoul volcano (Mortimer et al., 2010), 600 km to the north of the study area, where the modern arc
front sits on the Kermadec Ridge (Figure 1).
NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS 5
western Havre Trough rift magmatism, and so akin to
the old and young/modern TVZ regions, respectively.
The present state of extension/rifting of the Havre
Trough remains uncertain. In the case of the Ngatoro
Rift, the ages presented here indicate prolonged magma-
tism over at least 0.4 Ma, and that the rift is not presently
magmatically active at the seaoor. Importantly though,
there is extensive shallow seismic activity (<13 km deep)
within the Ngatoro Rift (de Ronde et al., 2007). Regional
moment tensor analysis for recent (20032012) shallow
(<33 km) earthquakes in the southern Havre Trough
show extension as well as strike slip movement (Ristau,
2014). At rst order the shallow extensional seismicity in
the Ngatoro Rift and elsewhere in the Havre Trough
indicates present-day extension/rifting of the trough.
Magmatic rift intrusives (e.g. dykes) may also be con-
temporaneous, however the absence of present day
surcial extrusives and lack of hydrothermal activity
suggests that seaoor, or near seaoor, rift magmatism
is not occurring at the present day.
Conclusions
New Ar-Ar ages presented here, coupled with other pub-
lished radioisotopic ages from the literature (Ballance
et al., 1999;Mortimeretal.,2007,2010), suggest that
opening of the Havre Trough initiated <c. 2 Ma, and per-
haps as recently as c. 1 Ma. The oldest ages occur on the
margins of the basin and signicant young arc magma-
tism occurred across the central Havre Trough. The tim-
ing of initiation of magmatism is coeval with that of the
TVZ. The caveat to our age constraints is that all samples
are surcial and there are no ages for samples within
c. 25 km of the Colville Ridge (Figure 4).
Our results show that there has been arc and rift-
related magmatism across the entire southern Havre
Trough within the last c. 1 Ma, both within rifts (e.g.
Ngatoro Rift) and constructing large stratovolcano
cones such as Gill and seamounts of Rumble V Ridge
(Wright et al., 1996; Todd et al., 2010). This, together
with the >4 km water depth in the deepest parts of
the basin, is more consistent with distributed rifting
across the basin than ocean spreading. Whether there
are dierences in age between rift-related magmas
erupted at dierent depths, or distance across the
basin, or distance northward from New Zealand, is
important for understanding the tectonic evolution of
the basin but remains to be discovered. Our experience
shows that
40
Ar/
39
Ar ages can be obtained for the chal-
lenging Havre Trough samples, but that sample selec-
tion and treatment are important considerations.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Erin Todd for his internal
review, and Roger Briggs and an anonymous reviewer for
their helpful reviews. USGS disclaimer: Any use of trade,
rm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only
and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Funding
RW was funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and
Employment (MBIE), Strategic Science Investment Fund
(SSIF) programme and Marine Geological Processes and
Resources (COPR1902). CT received funding from the Euro-
pean Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation pro-
gramme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant
agreement #79308.
ORCID
Richard Wysoczanski http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7941-
1608
Ian Wright http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6660-0493
Monica Handler http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7095-0835
Elizabeth Drewes-Todd http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0692-
3714
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NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS 7
... The Colville Ridge and Kermadec Ridge (CKR) are Miocene-Pliocene remnant arcs associated with the modern Kermadec oceanic arc system, separated by the Havre Trough (Gamble et al. 1995;Ballance et al. 1999;Timm et al. 2019;Wysoczanski et al. 2019). Dredge surveys of the Colville ridge show that it is volcanic in origin, and K-Ar and 40 Ar/ 39 Ar geochronology indicate ages of volcanism from 16.7 to 2.6 Ma (Adams et al. 1994;Mortimer et al. 2010;Timm et al. 2019;Wysoczanski et al. 2019). ...
... The Colville Ridge and Kermadec Ridge (CKR) are Miocene-Pliocene remnant arcs associated with the modern Kermadec oceanic arc system, separated by the Havre Trough (Gamble et al. 1995;Ballance et al. 1999;Timm et al. 2019;Wysoczanski et al. 2019). Dredge surveys of the Colville ridge show that it is volcanic in origin, and K-Ar and 40 Ar/ 39 Ar geochronology indicate ages of volcanism from 16.7 to 2.6 Ma (Adams et al. 1994;Mortimer et al. 2010;Timm et al. 2019;Wysoczanski et al. 2019). Volcanoes of the modern Kermadec arc have formed between ~29˚S and ~32˚S on top of the older Kermadec Ridge and within the rear-and back-arc region. ...
... Other data utilized in this study include data for the Colville and Kermadec Ridges (Timm et al. 2019;Hoernle et al. 2021), the modern Kermadec Arc and Havre Trough (Ewart and Hawkesworth 1987;Gamble et al. 1993a;Gamble et al. 1995;Gamble et al. 1996;Woodhead et al. 2001;Todd et al. 2011;GEOROC 2017;Wysoczanski et al. 2019), the Northland arc and post-arc suites (Huang et al. 2000;Booden et al. 2011), the modern Taupo Volcanic Zone, Tongariro area, and Mount Ruapehu (Graham et al. 1992;Gamble et al. 1993a;McCulloch et al. 1994;Price et al. 2012;Waight et al. 2017; Pure 2019), the Mount Taranaki/Egmont volcanic system (Price et al. 1990;Price et al. 2016), back-arc basin basalts from the South Fiji Basin (Todd et al. 2011), lavas from the Three Kings Ridge (Mortimer et al. 1998), the Waipapa basement terrane (McCulloch et al. 1994;Adams et al. 2009;Price et al. 2015), and subducting sediments along the modern Kermadec arc (Gamble et al. 1996;Todd et al. 2010). ...
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... 10,18,28 ), which indicates a lack of recent neovolcanic activity in these areas. These basins are interrupted along strike by younger cross-arc massifs and seamounts characterized by an island arc basalt composition, which possibly records the migration from the proto-Colville-Kermadec arc to the present active volcanic front 17 or a younger volcanism along preexisting cross-arc structures 31,32 . ...
... 13,18 ) and Ar-Ar (refs. 27,32 ) ages from few volcanoes of the Kermadec arc front. The Bouguer gravity map of Fig. 2d supports a model of crustal thinning and a shallow upwelling of mantle material beneath western and eastern Havre Trough. ...
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Back-arc basins are found at convergent plate boundaries. Nevertheless, they are zones of significant crustal extension that show volcanic and hydrothermal processes somewhat similar to those of mid-ocean ridges. Accepted models imply the initial rifting and thinning of a pre-existing volcanic arc until seafloor spreading gradually develops over timescales of a few million years. The Havre Trough northeast of New Zealand is a unique place on Earth where the early stages of back-arc basin formation are well displayed in the recent geological record. Here we present evidence that, in this region, rifting of the original volcanic arc occurred in a very narrow area about 10–15 km wide, which could only accommodate minimal stretching for a very short time before mass balance required oceanic crustal accretion. An initial burst of seafloor spreading started around 5.5–5.0 million years ago and concluded abruptly about 3.0–2.5 million years ago, after which arc magmatism dominated the crustal accretion. The sudden transition between these different tectonomagmatic regimes is linked to trench rollback promoted by gradual sinking of the subducting lithosphere, which could have diverted the arc flux outside the region of seafloor spreading and induced the vertical realignment of surface volcanism with the source of arc melts at depth.
... Arc volcanism shifted from the remnant Lau Ridge to form the new Tofua Arc at 3.5 Ma (Tappin et al., 1994). In the southern part of the subduction zone, rifting of the Kermadec Arc at ca. <2 Ma produced the Havre Trough (Wysoczanski et al., 2019). ...
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... Averaged rates of arc migration thus represent a misleading impression of steadiness that is contradicted by the geological record. In addition, a recent compilation (Wysoczanski et al., 2019) of age data from the Havre Trough, several hundred kilometres offshore from the North Island and along strike from the TVZ, emphasises that the history of the Rotokawa area shares features in common with that area. The onset of large-scale rifting and spreading in the Havre Trough was interpreted to be young (b2 Myr) and was simultaneous across wide areas rather representing than a systematic eastwards younging. ...
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Preprint
The transition from subduction to transform motion along horizontal terminations of trenches is associated with tearing of the subducting slab and strike-slip tectonics in the overriding plate. One prominent example is the northern Tonga subduction zone, where abundant strike-slip faulting in the NE Lau back-arc basin is associated with transform motion along the northern plate boundary and asymmetric slab rollback. Here, we address the fundamental question: how does this subduction-transform motion influence the structural and magmatic evolution of the back-arc region? To answer this, we undertake the first comprehensive study of the geology and geodynamics of this region through analyses of morphotectonics (remote-predictive geologic mapping) and fault kinematics interpreted from ship-based multibeam bathymetry and Centroid-Moment Tensor data. Our results highlight two unique features of the NE Lau Basin: (1) the occurrence of widely distributed off-axis volcanism, in contrast to typical ridge-centered back-arc volcanism, and (2) fault kinematics dominated by shallow-crustal strike slip-faulting (rather than normal faulting) extending over ~120 km from the transform boundary. The orientations of these strike-slip faults are consistent with reactivation of earlier-formed normal faults in a sinistral megashear zone. Notably, two distinct sets of Riedel megashears are identified, indicating a recent counter-clockwise rotation of part of the stress field in the back-arc region closest to the arc. Importantly, these structures directly control the development of complex volcanic-compositional provinces, which are characterized by variably-oriented spreading centers, off-axis volcanic ridges, extensive lava flows, and point-source rear-arc volcanoes that sample a heterogenous mantle wedge, with sharp gradients and contrasts in composition and magmatic affinity. This study adds to our understanding of the geologic and structural evolution of modern backarc systems, including the association between subduction-transform motions and the siting and style of seafloor volcanism.
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The Mariana, east Scotia, Lau, and Manus back-arc basins (BABs) have spreading rates that vary from slow (<50 mm/yr) to fast (>100 mm/yr) and extension axes located from 10 to 400 km behind their island arcs. Axial lava compositions from these BABs indicate melting of mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB)-like sources in proportion to the amount added of previously depleted, water-rich, arc-like components. The arc-like end-members are characterized by low Na, Ti and Fe, and by high H 2O and Ba/La; the MORB-like end-members have the opposite traits. Comparisons between basins show that the least hydrous compositions follow global MORB systematics and an inverse correlation between Na8 and Fe8. This is interpreted as a positive correlation between the average degree and pressure of mantle melting that reflects regional variations in mantle potential temperatures (Lau/Manus hotter than Mariana/Scotia). This interpretation accords with numerical model predictions that faster subduction-induced advection will maintain a hotter mantle wedge. The primary compositional trends within each BAB (a positive correlation between Fe8, Na8 and Ti8, and their inverse correlation with H 2O(8) and Ba/La) are controlled by variations in water content, melt extraction, and enrichments imposed by slab and mantle wedge processes. Systematic axial depth (as a proxy for crustal production) variations with distance from the island arc indicate that compositional controls on melting dominate over spreading rate. Hydrous fluxing enhances decompression melting, allowing depleted mantle sources just behind the island arc to melt extensively, producing shallow spreading axes. Flow of enriched mantle components around the ends of slabs may augment this process in transform-bounded back-arcs such as the east Scotia Basin. The re-circulation (by mantle wedge corner flow) to the spreading axes of mantle previously depleted by both arc and spreading melt extraction can explain the greater depths and thinner crust of the East Lau Spreading Center, Manus Southern Rifts, and Mariana Trough and the very depleted lavas of east Scotia segments E8/E9. The crust becomes mid-ocean ridge (MOR)-like where the spreading axes, further away from the island arc and subducted slab, entrain dominantly fertile mantle.
Article
The intra-oceanic Kermadec arc system extends ~1300 km between New Zealand and Fiji and comprises at least 30 arc front volcanoes, the Havre Trough back-arc and the remnant Colville and Kermadec Ridges. To date, most research has focussed on the Kermadec arc front volcanoes leaving the Colville and Kermadec Ridges virtually unexplored. Here, we present seven ⁴⁰ Ar/ ³⁹ Ar ages together with a comprehensive major and trace element and Sr-, Nd-, and Pb-isotope dataset from the Colville and Kermadec Ridges to better understand the evolution, petrogenesis and splitting of the former proto-Kermadec (Vitiaz) Arc to form these two remnant arc ridges. Our ⁴⁰ Ar/ ³⁹ Ar ages range from ~7.5–2.6 Ma, which suggests that arc volcanism at the Colville Ridge occurred continuously and longer than previously thought. Recovered Colville and Kermadec Ridge lavas range from mafic picro-basalts (MgO = ~8 wt%) to dacites. The lavas have arc-type normalised incompatible element patterns and Sr and Pb isotopic compositions intermediate between Pacific MORB and subducted lithosphere (including sediments, altered oceanic crust and serpentinised uppermost mantle). Geochemically diverse lavas, including ocean island basalt-like and potassic lavas with high Ce/Yb, Th/Zr, intermediate ²⁰⁶ Pb/ ²⁰⁴ Pb and low ¹⁴³ Nd/ ¹⁴⁴ Nd ratios were recovered from the Oligocene South Fiji Basin (and Eocene Three Kings Ridge) located west of the Colville Ridge. If largely trench-perpendicular mantle flow was operating during the Miocene, this geochemical heterogeneity was likely preserved in the Colville and Kermadec sub arc mantle. Between 4.41 ± 0.35 and 3.40 ± 0.24 Ma some Kermadec Ridge lavas record a shift from Colville Ridge- to Kermadec arc front-like, suggesting the proto-Kermadec (Vitiaz-) arc split post 4.41 ± 0.35 Ma. The Colville and Kermadec Ridge data therefore place new constraints on the regional tectonic evolution and highlight the complex interplay between pre-existing mantle heterogeneities and material fluxes from the subducting Pacific Plate. The new data allow us to present a holistic (yet simplified) picture of the tectonic evolution of the late Vitiaz Arc and northern Zealandia since the Miocene and how this tectonism influences volcanic activity along the Kermadec arc at the present.
Article
The Kermadec Arc volcanic chain and associated Havre Trough back-arc is a type example of an oceanic arc, where the Pacific Plate is being subducted beneath the Australian Plate. The Kermadec Arc-Havre Trough (KAHT) system extends southward from 25° 36'S, where subduction of the Louisville Seamount Chain (LSC) marks the boundary between the northern Kermadec Arc and the Tonga Arc. The ocean current system in this region is dominated at depth (2,000 m) by the Deep Western Boundary Current, which flows northward around the Chatham Rise, along the northern margin of the Hikurangi Plateau and northward between the Kermadec Ridge and Kermadec Trench, with inflow into the KAHT. The geomorphology of the KAHT changes abruptly at ∼32°S. Here, the frontal arc converges with the Kermadec Ridge, which together with the Colville Ridge dramatically widens. The Havre Trough is also more sediment filled and has significantly shallower water depths of generally <3,000 mbsl. Benthic invertebrate assemblages are dominated by echinoderms, cnideria, and arthropods. Hydrothermal vents occur on many of the seamounts, and their communities consist of over 20 invertebrate species. Bathymodiolid mussels are the predominant species at many of the venting sites, with stalked barnacles often associated with black-smoker vents, and alvinocaridid shrimps common at diffuse venting sites. Stratovolcanoes in the south host large beds of an endemic bathymodiolid mussel Gigantidas gladius.
Article
The Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ) in the North Island of New Zealand is one of the world's most spectacular and productive areas of Quaternary silicic volcanism and geothermal manifestations. The TVZ is only the latest manifestation of NNE–SSW-orientated arcs that have migrated in step-wise fashion to the SSE over the past ca. 16 Ma. The TVZ began erupting around 2 Ma, with early andesitic volcanism being joined and rapidly swamped by voluminous rhyolitic volcanism. The zone shows a pronounced segmentation into northern and southern extremities with andesite composite cones, no calderas and only limited vent-hosted geothermal systems, and a 125 km long rhyolite-dominated central segment. About four times as much magma is trapped at depth below the central TVZ than is erupted, feeding heat, volatiles and chemicals into 23 geothermal systems with a total of ca. 4.2 GW thermal energy release. The modern (post-61 ka) TVZ is an actively rifting arc, widening at 7 mm/year at the south end to 15 mm/year at the Bay of Plenty coastline, with an associated zone of young to active faulting (Taupo Fault Belt: TFB, or the Taupo Rift), but the axes of the modern TFB and TVZ are offset by 15–20 km through much of the central TVZ. Although there is a dominant NNE–SSW tectonic grain within the central TVZ, there are also influences of deeper basement structures that sometimes extend outside the limits of the zone, such as NW–SE, arc-perpendicular accommodation zones linking local domains of extension as well as N–S orientated structures related to the Hauraki Rift that may control fluid flow into the roots of the geothermal systems. Models for the geothermal systems favour either a source in a relatively shallow localised magmatic intrusion (e.g., Kawerau, Ngatamariki) or treat the systems as reflecting large-scale fluid dynamical instabilities from an evenly heated ‘hot plate’ at ∼7 km depth. Where controls from dating of host lithologies are available, systems at Kawerau and Ngatamariki are seen to represent renewed activity superimposed on a fossil system fed by past intrusions, and it is unclear what is meant by the lifetime of any single geothermal system. TVZ geothermal systems appear in turn to react too sluggishly to respond to disruptive episodes of volcanism, and recover within geologically short periods of time, as seen at Waimangu and Taupo. In the central TVZ, there are complex inter-relationships between volcanism, magmatism, and tectonism. Magmatism and volcanism are obviously linked, but it is uncertain why intense magmatism at Taupo and Okataina should yield voluminous rhyolite volcanism, whereas more intense magmatism in the Taupo-Reporoa Basin has not yielded significant silicic volcanism but instead feeds multiple large geothermal systems. The central TVZ is unique for an arc segment in the intensity of its magmatic-volcanic-geothermal flux (matching the Yellowstone system), and the cause(s) of this uniqueness are not yet established. Any explanation needs to address the segmented nature of the zone, and why the thermal flux should be so geographically and temporally constrained.
Article
The Hauraki Volcanic Region (HVR) is the largest and longest lived area of andesite-dacite volcanism in New Zealand and includes rhyolitic and ignimbrite eruptions. A NNW trend of the HVR is a product of episodic Neogene arc volcanism over a horst-graben structure in the Mesozoic basement. Andesitic to dacitic eruptions range in age from earliest Miocene (approx 22-23 m.y.) to Pliocene (approx 2.5 m.y.) with early Miocene plutonic rocks intruding the earliest andesites. Rhyolitic eruptions associated with large caldera formation and ignimbrites began in the north at approx 9 m.y. and spread southwards with major episodes at about 7-8, 4.5-6, 2-3 and 1.5 m.y. Dacitic ignimbrites replaced the rhyolites in the south from 1.26 to 0.84 m.y. Rhyolitic eruptions in the north may have been as young as 0.5 m.y. Basaltic eruptions, closely associated with the rhyolites began at approx 6-8 m.y. The geochemistry of the HVR has been based on 258 analyses for major and minor elements, 133 Rb/Sr, 43 87Sr/86Sr, 12 Pb isotope determinations and 26 trace-element analyses. Most of the rocks are calc-alkaline but the basaltic rocks are a mixed tholeiitic-high alumina/calc-alkaline suite. Some rhyolites are distinctly alkaline and K2O-Rb enriched. Both the andesite-dacite sequence and the rhyolites exhibit dissimilar petrochemical trends between individual constituent volcanic formations, suggesting that each evolved independently from separate magma batches.-R.M.B.
Article
As island arc rifting evolves to mature back-arc spreading, the nature of melt generation and mode of crustal accretion may vary in response to the interplay of different subduction-related processes and conditions, including (1) changes in mantle dynamics from flux-melting and buoyancy-driven upwelling at the arc volcanic front to decompression melting driven by plate separation at back-arc spreading centers; (2) re-circulation of refractory material through arc and back-arc melting regimes by mantle wedge corner flow; (3) changes in the locus of magmatic centers relative to the arc volcanic front; (4) variable locus of initial rifting and breakup; (5) spatially varying rheology attributable to mantle wedge hydration gradients with distance from the slab; (6) slab subduction rate, dip, and length. We discuss the possible influence of these factors on crustal accretion processes in light of observations from intra-oceanic back-arc basins, with particular focus on new compilations of swath bathymetry and sidescan imagery from the Lau Basin. In the Lau Basin south of 18°S, the active spreading centers undergo large changes in morphology and crustal characteristics as they separate from the arc volcanic front. Ahead of the southern limit of organized seafloor spreading, a broad area of high acoustic backscatter indicates a wide, "distributed" form of crustal accretion. Parts of the western Lau Basin have been previously interpreted as remnants of a tectonically rifted preexisting arc. The swath mapping data show, however, that western basin morphology is similar to that formed by the sites of currently active magmatic crustal accretion to the east. These observations support a revised model of Lau Basin evolution in which essentially the entire back-arc basin is formed by magmatic crustal accretion, but crustal thickness and morphology reflect the changing locus of the magmatic centers with respect to a mantle wedge of varying chemical fertility and rheology. Compared to mid-ocean settings, the observations imply an expanded range of crustal accretion variables in arc-proximal magmatic centers in which seafloor morphology is more indicative of mantle wedge chemistry than spreading rate.