Regional setting and structure of the western Solomon Sea

Abstract

The western Solomon Sea is bounded by the Paleogene collision complex of the Papuan Peninsula to the south, and land masses constructed by Cainozoic volcanism to the north and cast. Oblique collision of two trenches in the western Solomon Sea, and concomitant collision of upper plates, have produced structural complexities that may include the local doubling of crustal thickness, coincident with a strong negative gravity anomaly west of 149°E. Lateral flexing of the subducted plate in the New Britain Trench may have caused flexure of the upper plate; this flexure is expressed in the gravity field, faults, dip-slopes, exposure of basement, and alignment of volcanoes.