Reconstructing Ontong Java Nui: Implications for Pacific absolute plate motion, hotspot drift and true polar wander

Abstract

The Taylor (2006) hypothesis suggesting a common origin for the Ontong Java, Manihiki, and Hikurangi large igneous provinces provides an opportunity for a quantitative reconstruction and reassessment of the Ontong Java–Louisville hotspot connection. Our plate tectonic reconstructions of the three plateaus into Ontong Java Nui, or greater Ontong Java, combined with models for Pacific absolute plate motion (APM), allow an analysis of this connection. A new survey of the central Ellice Basin confirms easterly fracture zones, northerly abyssal hill fabric, as well as an area of sigmoidally-southeast-trending fracture zones associated with a late-stage spreading reorientation. From the fracture zone trends we derive new rotation poles for a two-stage model of Ellice Basin opening between the Ontong Java and Manihiki Plateaus. We use these and a single stage pole for separation of the Manihiki and Hikurangi Plateaus, together with three different Pacific APMs, to reconstruct the Ontong Java Nui super plateau back to 123Ma and compare its predicted location with paleolatitude data obtained from the Ontong Java and Manihiki plateaus. Discrepancies between our Ontong Java Nui reconstructions and Ontong Java and Manihiki paleolatitudes are largest for the fixed Pacific hotspot APM. Assuming a Louisville hotspot source for Ontong Java Nui, remaining disparity between Ontong Java Nui's paleo-location at 123Ma and published paleomagnetic latitudes for Ontong Java plateau imply that 8°–19° of Louisville hotspot drift or true polar wander may have occurred since the formation of Ontong Java Nui. However, the older portions of the Pacific APMs could easily be biased by a similar amount, making a firm identification of the dominant source of misfit difficult. Prior studies required a combined 26° of hotspot drift, octupole bias effects, and true polar wander just to link the Ontong Java Plateau to Louisville. Consequently, we suggest the super plateau hypothesis and our new reconstructions have considerably strengthened the case for a Louisville plume origin for Ontong Java Nui.