The Tertiary Arc Chain in the Western Pacific

Abstract

The arcs bordering the Pacific Plate on the Western and Southwestern Pacific rim are reconstructed since their initiation in the Eocene and Oligocene. They occur in a zone forming an arc chain from the Western Pacific tropics to the eastern margin of Australia. They are the Bonin, Mariana, Yap, Palau, Halmahera, North New Guinea-West Melanesia, Solomon, Vanuatu, and Tonga-Kermadec Arcs, designated here the Tertiary Arc Chain. They are associated with the formation and consumption of backarc basins. Reversals of arc polarity and episodic subduction has occurred in some of them. The Tertiary Arc Chain is characterized by four major stages in its evolution which can be seen characteristically in some of the arcs. The first stage is the occurrence of the arc chain from the middle Eocene to earliest Oligocene. The second stage is the formation of the backarc basins from the early to late Oligocene. The third stage is the occurrence of double arcs on the inner side of the arc chain in the early to middle Miocene and the fourth stage is the reversal of arc polarities due to collisions since the late Miocene. The backarc basins associated with the arcs of the Tertiary Arc Chain have fixed limits of duration in their evolution. The backarc basins initially form 15 million years after the initiation of the volcanic arc. Several to 10 million years after the initial opening, backarc spreading terminates. Approximately 20 million years after the cessation of the backarc spreading, a second phase of opening occurs in the backarc region. In the case of arc collision, reversal of the arc polarity occurs if there is oceanic crust on the backarc side, and opening of a backarc basin occurs within several million years. These occurrences and durations have a variation of ca. 3–5 million years.