Abstract
The Central Volcanic Region is an area of Quaternary volcanism and tensional tectonics within the North Island of New Zealand that appears to be a direct continuation of a young oceanic back-arc basin — the Havre Trough—into the continental structure of New Zealand. Volcanism is predominantly rhyolitic, yet the region possesses many of the geophysical characteristics often associated with oceanic back-arc basins. Upper mantle seismic velocities are low (Pn and Sn velocities of 7.4 and 3.95 km/s respectively), the crust is anomalously thin for its continental setting, and the heat flow, almost all of which is expressed in the discharge of hot water through geothermal systems, is about 700 mW/m2 (i.e. some twelve times greater than normal continental heat flow). In order to account for such a high heat flow a large scale mass transfer of heat is required. It is proposed, therefore, that the Central Volcanic Region represents a site of active back-arc spreading within a continental lithosphere.
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