The continent/island-arc collision in northern Papua New Guinea

Recent geological mapping in the north coast ranges of Papua New Guinea has recognised a Paleogene island arc. This arc is believed to have faced southward, and formed at the northeastern boundary of the Indo-Australian plate. The arc collided with continental crust of the Indo-Australian plate to the south; collision is thought to have occurred first in the west in the Early Miocene and to have progressed eastwards. Crustal shortening on collision resulted in foreland-type folding and thrusting at the continental margin, emplacement of ophiolite allochthons from the arc-trench gap at the collision zone, and uplift and fracturing of the accreted arc. Post-collision plate adjustments are thought to include extensive trans- current faulting about the former plate boundary, southward thrusting of part of the arc (Finisterre-Huon block), and extensive faulting in a complex linear zone extending from south of Manus Island through New Ireland and the Solomon Islands. Present-day interaction between the Indo-Australian and Pacific plates is spread over a wide zone in which at least two minor plates are involved. Despite previous claims, plots of the most accurately located earthquake foci define a northward-dipping seismic zone beneath the Late Cainozoic volcanoes at the southern margin of the Bismarck Sea. We find no evidence to substantiate a reversal of arc polarity at any time after the Mid-Tertiary collision. Mid to Late Cainozoic magmatism in central Papua New Guinea appears to have been triggered by uplift inducing partial melting of mantle modified by Cretaceous subduction. The present-day northward-dipping seismic zone is believed to be a vestige of the Early Tertiary subduction zone; the hanging slab is now slowly sinking and equilibrating with the mantle. If northern New Guinea can be considered to be the type example of a continent/island-arc collision then reversal of arc polarity may not be a necessary consequence of such collisions.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Publication)
1977-01-01T00:00:00
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/80936

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Publisher

Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics

 Canberra
Author

Jaques, A.L.

 1
Author

Robinson, G.P.

 2
Name

BMR Journal of Australian Geology and Geophysics

Issue identification

2:4:289-303

Point of contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Custodian

Corp
Owner

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Custodian

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information

Extent

N
S
E
W


Maintenance and update frequency
Unknown

Resource format

Title

Product data repository: Various Formats

Website

Data Store directory containing the digital product files

Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes

Keywords

  • GA Publication

  • Journal

Keywords

  • PNG

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

  • Earth Sciences

Keywords

  • Published_External

Resource constraints

Title

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title

CC-BY

Edition

4.0

Website

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Access constraints
License
Use constraints
License

Resource constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Distributor

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
OnLine resource

Journal article (pdf)

Journal article (pdf)

Distribution format

  • pdf

Resource lineage

Statement

Unknown

Hierarchy level
Non geographic dataset
Other

GA Publication

Description

Source data not available.

Metadata constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/fae9173a-6f85-71e4-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice

Type of resource

Resource scope
Document
Name

AGSO BMR Journal

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/80936

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/fae9173a-6f85-71e4-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Date info (Revision)
2018-04-20T06:08:40
Date info (Creation)
2014-06-03T00:00:00

Metadata standard

Title

AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3

Title

Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition

Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier
https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

 
 

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W



Provided by

Access to the portal

Associated resources

Not available