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Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxx xxx

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A Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic reconstruction of the

Southwest Pacific region: Tectonics controlled by subduction and
slab rollback processes
W.P. Schellart a,b,, G.S. Lister a , V.G. Toy a,c
a
Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
b
School of Geosciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
c
Department of Geology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Received 21 July 2005; accepted 18 January 2006

Abstract

A Cenozoic tectonic reconstruction is presented for the Southwest Pacific region located east of Australia. The reconstruction is
constrained by large geological and geophysical datasets and recalculated rotation parameters for PacificAustralia and Lord Howe
RisePacific relative plate motion. The reconstruction is based on a conceptual tectonic model in which the large-scale structures of
the region are manifestations of slab rollback and backarc extension processes. The current paradigm proclaims that the
southwestern Pacific plate boundary was a west-dipping subduction boundary only since the middle Eocene. The new
reconstruction provides kinematic evidence that this configuration was already established in the Late Cretaceous and Early
Paleogene. From 82 to 52Ma, subduction was primarily accomplished by east and northeast-directed rollback of the Pacific
slab, accommodating opening of the New Caledonia, South Loyalty, Coral Sea and Pocklington backarc basins and partly
accommodating spreading in the Tasman Sea. The total amount of east-directed rollback of the Pacific slab that took place from
82 Ma to 52 Ma is estimated to be at least 1200km. A large percentage of this rollback accommodated opening of the South
Loyalty Basin, a northsouth trending backarc basin. It is estimated from kinematic and geological constraints that the eastwest
width of the basin was at least 750km. The South Loyalty and Pocklington backarc basins were subducted in the Eocene to
earliest Miocene along the newly formed New Caledonia and Pocklington subduction zones. This culminated in southwestward
and southward obduction of ophiolites in New Caledonia, Northland and New Guinea in the latest Eocene to earliest Miocene. It is
suggested that the formation of these new subduction zones was triggered by a change in PacificAustralia relative motion at
50 Ma. Two additional phases of eastward rollback of the Pacific slab followed, one during opening of the South Fiji Basin and
Norfolk Basin in the Oligocene to early Miocene (up to 650 km of rollback), and one during opening of the Lau Basin in the
latest Miocene to Present (up to 400km of rollback). Two new subduction zones formed in the Miocene, the south-dipping
Trobriand subduction zone along which the Solomon Sea backarc Basin subducted and the north-dipping New BritainSan
CristobalNew Hebrides subduction zone, along which the Solomon Sea backarc Basin subducted in the west and the North
LoyaltySouth Fiji backarc Basin and remnants of the South LoyaltySanta Cruz backarc Basin subducted in the east. Clockwise
rollback of the New Hebrides section resulted in formation of the North Fiji Basin. The reconstruction provides explanations for the

Corresponding author. Research School of Earth Sciences, Mills Road, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
Tel.: +61 2 6125 9959; fax: +61 2 6257 2737.
E-mail address: wouter.schellart@anu.edu.au (W.P. Schellart).

0012-8252/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2006.01.002

EARTH-01424; No of Pages 43
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2 W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
formation of new subduction zones and for the initiation and termination of opening of the marginal basins by either initiation of
subduction of buoyant lithosphere, a change in plate kinematics or slabmantle interaction.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: subduction; slab; rollback; hinge-retreat; backarc; extension; spreading; Southwest Pacific; tectonics; geodynamics; reconstruction;
Cretaceous; Cenozoic
1. Introduction
Most backarc basins have an extensional origin and
are characterized by their relatively short time-span of
backarc activity (1030Myr). Several backarc regions
experienced sequential opening of individual backarc
basins during distinct episodes. For example, in the
Western Mediterranean region, two backarc basins can
be identified, which developed during distinct epi-
sodes separated by a period of tectonic quiescence in
the overriding plate (Sranne, 1999). Backarc exten-
sion started with opening of the LiguroProvencal
Basin from 30 to 16Ma and resumed during
opening of the Tyrrhenian Basin from 10Ma to
Present. In the Western Pacific, two backarc basins
can be identified which formed during two separate
episodes. Opening of the PareceVela Basin from
30 to 15Ma (Sdrolias et al., 2004a) was followed
by a period of tectonic quiescence in the backarc
region, while backarc basin formation resumed during
opening of the Mariana Trough from 10Ma to
Present (Fryer, 1996).
Probably the most striking example of episodic basin
formation is located in the Southwest Pacific region east
of Australia (Fig. 1). Here, a sequence of five basins can
be recognized trending northsouth to northwest
southeast. From west to east, these basins include the
Tasman Sea Basin, the New Caledonia Basin, the
Norfolk Basin, the South Fiji Basin and the LauHavre
Basin. The easternmost basin is an active backarc basin
and is bordered to the east by an active volcanic arc, the
TongaKermadec arc, underneath which the Pacific
plate is subducting towards the west. The current rate of
opening in the LauHavre Basin increases from only
1.52.0 cm/yr in the south to 15.9cm/yr in the north
(Wright, 1993; Bevis et al., 1995).
The opening of the previously mentioned five basins
took place from the Late Cretaceous to Present, but the
reason for opening of these basins, in particular the Late
Cretaceous to Eocene ones, remains enigmatic. The
absolute motion of the Australian plate was northward
to eastward, subparallel to subperpendicular to its
eastern and northern boundaries (Gordon and Jurdy,
1986; Yan and Kroenke, 1993; Mller et al., 2000).
Thus, one can rule out that the absolute motion of the
Australian plate away from the eastern and northern
plate boundaries was the driving mechanism for
extension and spreading in the basins. Potentially, the
older basins formed as backarc basins, just as the Lau
Havre Basin, and would thus be genetically related to
the Pacific subduction zone. This would imply eastward
to northeastward rollback of the Pacific slab to
accommodate the opening and extension of the basins
along the eastern margin of the Australian plate. The
process of slab rollback has been proposed previously
for numerous backarc basins on Earth and is thought to
be driven by the negative buoyancy of the slab with
respect to the surrounding mantle (Elsasser, 1971;
Molnar and Atwater, 1978; Garfunkel et al., 1986;
Hamilton, 1988; Lonergan and White, 1997; Wortel and
Spakman, 2000; Schellart et al., 2003; Funiciello et al.,
2003; Schellart and Lister, 2004; Schellart, 2004a,
2005). The negative buoyancy force induces backward
sinking of the slab at an angle oblique to the dip of the
slab causing retreat of the hinge at the surface, which
forces the overriding plate to extend as it collapses
towards the retreating hinge (Elsasser, 1971; Schellart
and Lister, 2004).
A problem with the rollback model for the
Southwest Pacific marginal basins is that it requires
west to southwestward subduction, but it is not clear
how long the current Southwest Pacific subduction
zone has been active. There is ample evidence for
west to southwest-dipping Pacific subduction since
45Ma, based on arc volcanics from the Solomon
Ridge, Fiji block and Tonga arc dating back to the
Eocene (Hathway, 1993; Hawkins, 1995; Bloomer et
al., 1995; Petterson et al., 1999; Crawford et al.,
2003). Thus, rollback of the Pacific slab could
potentially explain opening of the South Fiji and
Norfolk basins in the Oligocene to early Miocene, and
opening of the LauHavre Basin from the latest
Miocene to Present. However, the Tasman Sea Basin,
Coral Sea Basin and New Caledonia Basin, as well as
two former backarc basins (the South Loyalty Basin
and the Pocklington Basin) formed well before 45 Ma.
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Fig. 1. (a) Topography and bathymetry of the Southwest Pacific region (from Smith and Sandwell (1997)) and (b) regional tectonic setting of (a). Cfz,
Cook fracture zone; ChRfsz, Chatham Rise fossil subduction zone; d'ER, d'Entrecasteaux Ridge; EP, East Papua; ER, Efate Re-entrant; LPl, Louisiade
Plateau; LoR, Loyalty Ridge; LTr, Louisiade Trough; MaB, Manus Basin; MeR, Melish Rise; NB, New Britain; NBT, New Britain Trench; NCfsz,
New Caledonia fossil subduction zone; Nd'EB, North d'Entrecasteaux Basin; NHT, New Hebrides Trench; NLoB, North Loyalty Basin; NST, North
Solomon Trough; QT, Queensland Trough; ReB, Reinga Basin, ReR, Reinga Ridge; SCB, Santa Cruz Basin; SCT, San Cristobal Trench; SER, South
Efate Re-entrant; SLoB, South Loyalty Basin; SoS, Solomon Sea; SReT, South Rennell Trough; TaB, Taranaki Basin; TKR, Three Kings Ridge; ToT,
Townsville Trough; TrT, Trobriand Trough; VMfz, Vening Meinesz fracture zone; WoB, Woodlark Basin; WTP, West Torres Plateau. 1, normal fault;
2, strike-slip fault; 3, subduction zone; 4, spreading ridge (double line) and transform faults (single lines); 5, land; 68, sea, with 6, continental or arc
crust; 7, oceanic plateau; and 8, basin/ocean floor. Structures in light grey indicate that they are inactive. Thick continuous eastwest line at latitude 20
S in panel (a) shows location of cross-section plotted in Fig. 4h. Thick dashed line in panel (a) shows location of cross-section plotted in Fig. 5.

The nature of the plate boundary east of the Lord
Howe Rise since the Late Cretaceous and prior to
45Ma remains uncertain and is currently a matter of
debate. Previous reconstructions have suggested it to
be an east-dipping subduction zone (Hall, 2002;
Sdrolias et al., 2003, 2004b), a west-dipping subduc-
tion zone (Veevers et al., 1991, Veevers, 2000a,
2000b), a west-dipping subduction zone before 55 Ma
(Crawford et al., 2003), a strike-slip boundary (Yan
and Kroenke, 1993; Mller et al., 2000), an undefined
boundary (Sutherland et al., 2001; Norvick et al.,
2001), or no boundary at all (e.g. the Lord Howe Rise
being part of the Pacific plate (Steinberger et al.,
2004)).
This paper presents a new reconstruction of the
Southwest Pacific region in part to address the above-
mentioned uncertainty regarding the nature of the Pacific
plate boundary. The reconstruction particularly focuses
on the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic periods and is
based on a large amount of geological data, geophysical
data, and recalculated rotation parameters for Pacific
Australia plate motion and Lord Howe RisePacific
plate motion. A detailed kinematic analysis shows that
the opening of the South Loyalty and New Caledonia
basins in the Late Cretaceous to earliest Eocene and part
of the opening of the Tasman Sea requires the
southwestern boundary of the Pacific plate to have
retreated eastward at least 1200km with respect to
Australia from 8252 Ma to accommodate this
opening. This implies that the boundary was a west-
dipping subduction zone that rolled back eastward.
Furthermore, the reconstruction presented here provides
geometric and kinematic evidence from which the
original size of the South Loyalty backarc Basin can be
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Table 1
Interpretation and age of basins and ophiolites in the Southwest Pacific
Basin name Interpretation and age
Coral Sea Basin Marginal basin, spreading from 6252Ma. DSDP site
287 drilled lower Eocene nanno chalk overlying basalt.
East Papua region Late CretaceousEarly Tertiary metamorphics and
intrusives, Late CretaceousTertiary sedimentary rocks,
EoceneOligocene extrusives, Late CretaceousPaleocene
backarc ophiolites.
Emerald Basin Ocean basin, spreading from 45Ma to 11Ma. DSDP site
278 drilled middle Oligocene (30 Ma) nanno chalk
overlying pillow basalt.
Havre Basin Backarc basin, extension from 7/6Ma to Present.
Lau Basin Backarc basin, extension at 7/6Ma, spreading at 5.4/5Ma
to Present.
Manus Basin Backarc basin, spreading from Pliocene to Present.
New Caledonia Basin Continental or oceanic crust with Cretaceous opening
(based on rifting in the Taranaki Basin) or Late
Cretaceousearliest Paleocene extension and Paleocene
spreading in Central NCB. DSDP site 206 drilled mid
Paleocene fossil oozes.
New Caledonia ophiolite Cretaceous oceanic crust with predominant sub-
horizontal NS mineral lineations due to spreading,
shallow NE-dipping foliation, potentially one NS or one
NWSE transform fault structure.
New Caledonia Poya and Late Cretaceous (Campanian) to earliest Eocene
Pouebo terranes unmetamorphosed and metamorphosed backarc oceanic
crust, volcanics and sediments, radiometric and fossil
ages from 85/80 to 55 Ma.
North d'Entrecasteaux Basin Backarc oceanic crust, 8066 Ma?
North Fiji Basin Backarc basin, spreading from 1211 MaPresent.
North Loyalty Basin Backarc basin with oceanic crust of middlelate
Eocene age ( 43.835.3). DSDP site 286 drilled
middle Eocene siltstone overlying basalt and intrusive
gabbro.
Northland allochthon Backarc oceanic crust, Late CretaceousPaleocene
ophiolites, Late CretaceousOligocene sediments. Also
contains late Oligocene ophiolites.
Reinga Basin Extended continental crust with Cretaceous extension,
potentially lasting until the Paleocene.
Resolution Basin Ocean basin, spreading from 45Ma to 11Ma.
Santa Cruz Basin Backarc oceanic crust, possibly Cretaceous in age.
Solomon Sea Basin Backarc basin, spreading during Oligocene and
potentially Eocene, ceased at 28Ma.
South Fiji Basin (north, Backarc basin, spreading in the Oligocene ( 3524Ma).
Minerva Abyssal Plain) Anomalies 7A-12 identified in centre of basin ( 33
26Ma or 30.925.2Ma). DSDP site 205 drilled middle
Oligocene nanno ooze overlying basaltic pillow lava.
DSDP site 285 drilled lower middle Miocene silt
overlying intrusive diabase.
South Fiji Basin (south, Kupe Backarc basin, spreading probably in the Oligocene to
Abyssal Plain) early/middle Miocene. Contrasting magnetic anomaly
interpretation of eastern half of 813 or predominantly
western half of 7No-12o.
South Loyalty Basin Initially backarc basin, oldest rocks date from
Cretaceous. Later in fore-arc position.
Tasman Sea Basin Marginal basin, spreading from 83/80 Ma52 Ma.
DSDP site 283 drilled Paleocene claystone overlying
highly altered basalt.
Woodlark Basin Backarc basin, spreading from 6Ma to Present.
Reference
Andrews et al., 1975b; Veevers et al., 1991;
Gaina et al., 1999
Pigram and Davies, 1987; Monnier et al., 1999,
2000
Kennett et al., 1975a; Sutherland, 1995
Parson and Hawkins, 1994
Parson and Hawkins, 1994
Martinez and Taylor, 1996
Burns et al., 1973a; Uruski and Wood, 1991;
Willcox et al., 2001; Lafoy et al., 2005
Prinzhofer et al., 1980; Prinzhofer and Nicolas,
1980; Leblanc, 1995; Auzende et al., 2000;
Cluzel et al., 2001
Aitchison et al., 1995; Cluzel et al., 2001;
Spandler et al., 2005
Lapouille, 1982; Maillet et al., 1983; this work
Pelletier et al., 1993; Schellart et al., 2002a
Andrews et al., 1975a; Maillet et al., 1983;
Sdrolias et al., 2003
Hayward et al., 1989; Thompson et al., 1997;
Whattam et al., 2004, 2005
Herzer et al., 1997; Lafoy et al., 2005
Sutherland, 1995
Kroenke, 1984; this work
Joshima et al., 1987; Joshima and Honza, 1987;
Hall, 2002
Burns et al., 1973b; Andrews et al., 1975c;
Weissel et al., 1982; Davey, 1982; Sdrolias et
al., 2003
Herzer et al., 2000; this work; Malahoff et al.,
1982; Sdrolias et al., 2003
Collot et al., 1987; Auzende et al., 2000; Cluzel
et al., 2001
Hayes and Ringis, 1973; Kennett et al., 1975b;
Gaina et al., 1998
Taylor et al., 1995
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W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx 5

estimated. This basin was almost completely subducted
in the Eocene to earliest Miocene along the New
Caledonia subduction zone, which culminated in the
obduction of ophiolites in New Caledonia and North-
land, New Zealand. The reconstruction also provides an
estimate for the total amount of Pacific slab that
subducted since 82 Ma, of which 47% resulted
from slab rollback, while the remainder resulted from
PacificAustralia plate convergence. Finally, the paper
discusses the episodic nature of backarc basin formation,
subduction and slab rollback in the Southwest Pacific
and elaborates about potential explanations for this
episodic behaviour.
2. Geological and tectonic setting of the Southwest
Pacific
The current tectonic setting of the Southwest Pacific
region is characterized by the Australian plate in the west
and the Pacific plate in the east (Fig. 1). The Pacific plate
is subducting westward underneath the Australian plate
along the TongaKermadecHikurangi Trench, while
the Australian plate is subducting northward underneath
the Pacific plate along the New BritainSan Cristobal
New Hebrides Trench. The region in between the eastern
margin of the Australian continent and the Pacific plate is
defined by a number of basins and basin-bounding

Table 2
Interpretation and age of plateaus, ridges and terranes in the Southwest Pacific
Name
d'Entrecasteaux Ridge (north)
d'Entrecasteaux Ridge (south)
Fiji block
Finistre arc terrane
Lau-Colville Ridge
Lord Howe Rise
Louisiade Plateau
Loyalty Ridge
Melanesian Border Plateau
New Britain Ridge
New CaledoniaNorfolk Ridge
New Hebrides Ridge
Northland Plateau Seamount
Chain
OntongJava Plateau
Solomon Ridge
Three Kings Ridge
TongaKermadec Ridge
West Norfolk Ridge
West Torres Plateau
Interpretation and age Reference
Continuation of New Caledonia Ridge. Contains Eocene Maillet et al., 1983; Collot et al., 1992; Coltorti
backarc or fore-arc volcanics. et al., 1994a,b; Crawford et al., 2003
Continuation of Loyalty Ridge; Eocene arc volcanism Maillet et al., 1983; Collot et al., 1992; Baker et
(youngest volcanism on Bougainville Seamount dated at al., 1994
37Ma).
Remnant of volcanic ridge, oldest arc material is late Hathway, 1993; Taylor et al., 2000
Eocene in age. Paleomagnetism implies 135
anticlockwise rotation starting at or before 10Ma.
Arc terrane, oldest arc material middle Eocene. Pigram and Davies, 1987
Remnant volcanic arc. Hawkins, 1995
Continental ribbon split from Australia by spreading in Burns et al., 1973c; Hayes and Ringis, 1973;
Tasman Sea, Paleozoic basement, rift initiation in Weissel and Hayes, 1977; Willcox et al., 2001
Jurassic/Early Cretaceous. DSDP site 207 drilled
Maastrichtian glauconitic claystone and sandstone
overlying rhyolite tuffs and flows.
Extended continental crust. Taylor and Falvey, 1977
Eocene volcanic arc. Maillet et al., 1983; Baker et al., 1994; Cluzel et
al., 2001
Volcanic plateau, unknown age, presumably similar to Hathway, 1993
OntongJava plateau.
Active volcanic arc, oldest arc rocks late Eocene. Madsen and Lindley, 1994
Continental crust (Permo-Jurassic basement (New Shor et al., 1971; Black, 1995; Cluzel et al.,
Caledonia), overlain with mid to Late Cretaceous rift 2001
related sediments and volcanics).
Active volcanic arc, oldest arc rocks late Oligocene in Falvey, 1978; Greene et al., 1994; Musgrave
age. Paleomagnetism implies 2852 clockwise and Firth, 1999
rotation since the late Miocene.
Volcanic rocks dated at 20Ma; Most likely volcanic arc Herzer et al., 2000; this paper
of NE-dipping South Loyalty slab.
Volcanic plateau, formed at 120 Ma. Mahoney et al., 1993
Active volcanic arc, oldest arc material is Eocene. Petterson et al., 1999
CretaceousEocene volcanic arc or latest Eocene to early Kroenke and Eade, 1982; Launay et al., 1982;
Miocene volcanic arc (volcanic dredge samples date from Herzer, 1995; Mortimer et al., 1998; Sdrolias et
37 to 19.7Ma). West-facing arc morphology. al., 2004b
Active volcanic arc, oldest arc material is middle Eocene Sager et al., 1994; Hawkins, 1995; Crawford et
in age (4640Ma). Paleomagnetism implies that Tonga al., 2003
segment has rotated 20 clockwise since opening of
Lau Basin.
Continental crust, Permo-Triassic continental basement. Mortimer et al., 1998
Continental crust? this paper
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Table 3
Interpretation and age of structural lineaments in the Southwest Pacific
Name Interpretation and age Reference
Alpine fault, New Zealand Dextral lithospheric scale shear zone with subsidiary Kamp, 1986; this paper
component of convergence; active since 23Ma.
Cook fracture zone Sinistral transform fault of Norfolk backarc Basin, active in S. Meffre, personal communication
Miocene (20 Ma).
d'Entrecasteaux Ridge Ancient transform of subduction zone, active in Eocene to Maillet et al., 1983; this paper
accommodate tearing of slab and anticlockwise rotation of the
Loyalty arc.
Hunter fracture zone Transform fault of New Hebrides subduction zone to Schellart et al., 2002a,b
accommodate tearing of slab and clockwise rotation of the
New Hebrides arc.
Osbourn Trough Fossil spreading ridge, stopped spreading at 82Ma. Billen and Stock, 2000
Pocklington Trough Fossil subduction zone, active from Paleocene/Eocene to Cooper and Taylor, 1987
Oligocene.
South Rennell Trough Fossil spreading ridge. Larue et al., 1977
Vening Meinesz fracture zone Dextral transform fault of Norfolk backarc Basin, active in early Herzer et al., 1997
to middle Miocene.
Vitiaz Trench Fossil subduction zone, active from (at least) Eocene to middle/ Hathway, 1993
late Miocene.

plateaus and elongated ridges. The ridges and plateaus in
the western part are underlain by extended continental
crust (e.g. Dampier Ridge, Chesterfield Plateau, Lord
Howe Rise, Challenger Plateau, Norfolk Ridge, Camp-
bell Plateau, Chatham Rise), which were rifted from
Australia and Antarctica in the Cretaceous (Hayes and
Ringis, 1973; Yan and Kroenke, 1993; Gaina et al., 1998,
1999; Norvick et al., 2001; Sutherland et al., 2001). The
ridges in the eastern part display more characteristic
features of remnant and active volcanic arcs (e.g.
Solomon Ridge, New Hebrides arc, Three Kings Ridge,
FijiLauColville Ridge, TongaKermadec Ridge).
Recent investigations of rock samples dredged from
the western part of the Three Kings Ridge, however,
suggest that it contains a continental crust component as
well, probably also originating from the eastern margin
of Australia (Crawford et al., 2004). Most of the basins
in the Southwest Pacific are underlain by oceanic crust
(Tasman Sea, Coral Sea, Solomon Sea, South Fiji Basin,
North Fiji Basin, North Loyalty Basin, North d'Entre-
casteaux Basin, Santa Cruz Basin, Lau Basin, Reso-
lution Basin, Emerald Basin), some (New Caledonia

Table 4
Interpretation and timing of collision/obduction events in the Southwest Pacific
Name
Collision proto-New Hebrides arc and
Melanesian border plateau
Collision New Guinea and Finistre arc
terrane
Collision Solomon Islands and Ontong
Java plateau
Collision Hikurangi plateau and
Chatham Rise
New Caledonia ophiolite obduction and
Poya and Poubo terrane thrusting
Northland allochthon obduction
Papuan ophiolite obduction
Interpretation and timing Reference
Collision caused arc-polarity reversal and took Falvey, 1975; Hathway, 1993; this paper
place before opening of North Fiji Basin
( 1211Ma). Subduction along Vitiaz trench
stopped.
Collision occurred in Pliocene. Abbott et al., 1994; Weiler and Coe, 2000
Initial contact at 2520Ma, forceful collision Petterson et al., 1999
since 4Ma.
Initial contact probably several Myr before Billen and Stock, 2000; this paper
82Ma, the time when the Osbourn Trough
stopped spreading and subduction seized.
Southwest-directed thrusting and obduction of Paris, 1981; Aitchison et al., 1995; Ali and
the terranes and ophiolites in the latest Eocene Aitchison, 2000; Cluzel et al., 2001
to earliest Oligocene (3833.7Ma).
Southwest-directed obduction, from latest Sprli, 1989; Malpas et al., 1992; Herzer, 1995;
Oligocene to earliest Miocene (2522Ma or Rait, 2000; Mortimer et al., 2003
2421Ma).
South-directed obduction, either in the Monnier et al., 1999; Pigram and Davies, 1987
Oligocene or middle Miocene.
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W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx 7

Basin, Norfolk Basin) are at least partly underlain by Table 6

extended continental crust and some (Havre Trough, Finite Rotations of the Lord Howe Rise microplate relative to the
Australian plate. Data from Gaina et al. (1998). Negative rotations
Reinga Basin) are entirely underlain by extended indicate clockwise rotations when viewed from above the surface of
continental crust (see Table 1 for more details). the Earth and going backward in time.
Diffuse extensional deformation in the continental Age Latitude Longitude Rotation angle
parts of the region started in the Early Cretaceous, as (Ma) (N) (E) ()
evidenced by deformation in East Australia, New
52.0 0 0 0
Zealand and the offshore continental fragments, ridges 53.3 14.19 130.41 0.723
and plateaus (Weissel and Hayes, 1977; Uruski and 55.8 15.93 133.47 2.112
Wood, 1991; McDougall et al., 1994; Herzer et al., 57.9 16.93 136.23 3.792
1997; Norvick et al., 2001; Sutherland et al., 2001; 61.2 4.650 131.51 4.432
62.5 4.710 132.68 5.168
Willcox et al., 2001). This extension was followed by
64.0 0.190 130.37 5.461
episodic opening of a number of basins from the Late 65.6 3.990 131.80 6.735
Cretaceous to the Present (Table 1), including the
Tasman Sea, Coral Sea, Solomon Sea, New Caledonia,
Norfolk, South Loyalty, North Loyalty, South Fiji, Recalculated rotation parameters of the Pacific plate
North Fiji and LauHavre basins. relative to the Australian plate and the Lord Howe Rise
relative to the Pacific plate are plotted in Tables 5 and 7
3. Spatio-temporal constraints respectively. Rotation poles of the Lord Howe Rise
relative to the Australian plate are plotted in Table 6.
Constraints for the reconstruction are presented in The uncertainties associated with the reconstruction
Tables 17. These include the timing of basin formation will be discussed in Section 6. In particular, we will
or age of obducted ophiolites that represent remnants of elaborate on the available data for a number of
(backarc) ocean floor (Table 1), nature and age of plateaus problematic regions and structures. We present our
and ridges (Table 2), nature and timing of activity of large- interpretation of these regions and structures in order to
scale structural lineaments (Table 3), and nature and fit them into a logical tectonic reconstruction of the
timing of major collision/obduction events (Table 4). entire Southwest Pacific region.

Table 5 4. Reconstruction of the Southwest Pacific

Finite rotations of the Pacific plate relative to the Australian plate. Data
compiled, modified and recalculated from Cande and Kent (1995), Below we describe an evolutionary model for the
Cande et al. (1995, 2000), Huestis and Acton (1997), Royer and Rollet Southwest Pacific region. The model was constructed
(1997) and Royer and Sandwell (1989). Times for isochron picks have
been reassigned based on updated timescales of Huestis and Acton
with software to do reconstructions on a sphere, which
(1997) and Cande and Kent (1995). Negative rotations indicate was developed by the ACcESS MNRF (http://www.
clockwise rotations when viewed from above the surface of the Earth access.edu.au). The Late Cretaceous and the Cenozoic
and going backward in time. See appendix for more detail. tectonic model of the region is presented in Figs. 2 and 3.
Age Latitude Longitude Rotation angle
(Ma) (N) (E) ()
0.0 0 0 0 Table 7
0.8 59.14405 177.6128 0.830711 Finite Rotations of the Lord Howe Rise microplate relative to the
2.6 59.91248 178.3630 2.941864 Pacific plate. Positive rotations indicate anticlockwise rotations when
5.9 60.48305 178.3839 6.566746 viewed from above the surface of the Earth and going backward in
9.0 59.63949 181.3727 9.823060 time.
12.6 58.53777 183.2443 13.84880
Age Latitude Longitude Rotation angle
17.6 52.16382 186.8310 22.14973
(Ma) (N) (E) ()
24.1 55.19854 183.9288 26.39683
26.1 55.15455 182.8670 28.95834 52.0 50.10 174.27 51.74
27.4 54.88977 182.0366 30.63211 53.3 50.88 174.52 51.46
33.5 52.15516 180.9583 37.07357 55.8 51.88 173.56 51.77
42.5 50.14776 177.4638 47.38101 57.9 53.06 172.82 51.60
47.9 50.45626 175.9420 50.26227 61.2 54.11 170.78 53.64
53.3 50.35134 173.9509 51.92256 62.5 54.48 169.85 54.06
61.1 50.32633 168.6213 55.98808 64.0 54.65 168.82 55.31
67.7 49.18015 164.2440 60.56760 65.6 55.20 168.00 55.36
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
8 W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
In Fig. 4 the evolution of the region is illustrated with a
number of eastwest cross-sections (see Fig. 1 for
location of cross-sections) to provide an additional
perspective of the evolution of the AustralianPacific
plate boundary. In particular, the cross-sections provide
insight into the subduction processes and slab kinematics
in the region and into the amount of subduction of the
Pacific plate.
4.1. Cretaceous
Initial widespread extension along the eastern margin
of Australia and in the New Zealand region started in the
Early to mid Cretaceous. Volcanic sediments were
deposited along the East Australian margin in the Early
Cretaceous (BarremianAlbian) (Bryan et al., 1997),
and have been interpreted to result from widespread
backarc extension (Norvick et al., 2001; Betts et al.,
2002). If this interpretation is correct, it would imply that
the East Australian margin would have functioned as a
subduction zone at this time, and that extension in East
Australia resulted from east to northeast-directed
rollback of a west to southwest-dipping subduction
zone (e.g. Lister and Etheridge, 1989; Veevers et al.,
1991, Veevers, 2000a,b; Cluzel et al., 2001; Betts et al.,
2002; Forster and Lister, 2003). Widespread eastwest
to northeastsouthwest-directed Cretaceous extension is
Fig. 2. Reconstruction of the Southwest Pacific region for the Late Cretaceous period in an Australia-fixed reference frame. See Section 4 for
discussion. Note that the geographic outlines have been added to help identify the location of the present-day coastline but bear no paleogeographic
significance.
also evident in seismic profiles across the Lord Howe
Rise, Norfolk Ridge, Challenger Plateau, Campbell
Plateau, Chatham Rise, Marion Plateau, Queensland
Plateau, Louisiade Plateau, Reinga Basin and New
Caledonia Basin, and from on-land geology in Northland
(Sprli, 1989; Herzer et al., 1997; Norvick et al., 2001;
Sutherland et al., 2001; Willcox et al., 2001; Lafoy et al.,
2005). Overriding plate extension ceased during the
Cenomanian, but resumed again during the Turonian to
Santonian (Figs. 2a, 4a) and the extension phase
subsequently led to spreading in the Tasman Sea
(Norvick et al., 2001). Veevers (2000a,b) proposed that
a change in relative plate motion along the eastern
margin of Australia from head-on subduction to sinistral
motion at 99Ma caused a fundamental change along
the Southwest Pacific margin of Australia and New
Zealand. In particular, it was proposed that a Chilean-
type margin was present in the PaleozoicEarly
Cretaceous with the subduction zone located along the
continent, while a Mariana-type margin was present in
the Late CretaceousPresent with subduction separated
from the continent by a 3000km wide backarc or
marginal sea complex.
Seafloor spreading in the Tasman Sea started at 85
80Ma (Santonian to Early Campanian) (Hayes and
Ringis, 1973; Gaina et al., 1998; Norvick et al., 2001).
Late Cretaceous extension in the Chatham Rise
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx 9

Fig. 3. Reconstruction of the Southwest Pacific region for the Cenozoic period in an Australia-fixed reference frame. See text for discussion. Cfz,
Cook fracture zone; d'ER, d'Entrecasteaux Ridge; LB, Lau Basin; MaB, Manus Basin; NBT, New Britain Trench; Nd'EB, North d'Entrecasteaux
Basin; NFB, North Fiji Basin; NFoB, Norfolk Basin; NHT, New Hebrides Trench; PuT, Puysegur Trench; ResB, Resolution Basin; SCT, San
Cristobal Trench; VMfz, Vening Meinesz fracture zone; VM-VdLfz, Vening MeineszVan der Linden fracture zone; WoB, Woodlark Basin. See
Section 4 for discussion. Note that the geographic outlines have been added to help identify the location of the present-day coastline but bear no
paleogeographic significance.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
10 W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx

Fig. 3 (continued).

Campbell Plateau region and the Ross Sea region of
Antarctica is also interpreted as backarc extension due to
subduction and rollback along the Chatham subduction
zone (Fig. 2a). Extension in the region started at
120Ma (Forster and Lister, 2003) and culminated in
spreading in the Bounty Trough at 90 Ma (Eagles et
al., 2004). Collision of the Hikurangi Plateau with the
Chatham Rise along the southwest-dipping Chatham
subduction zone probably occurred in the Late Creta-
ceous ( 82 Ma) and would have led to cessation of
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W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx 11

Fig. 3 (continued).

subduction along the Chatham subduction zone and
termination of spreading along the Osbourn Trough
(Fig. 2b) (Billen and Stock, 2000). The collision might
also have resulted in termination of backarc spreading in
the Bounty Trough, which stopped spreading at 83Ma
(Eagles et al., 2004). Subsequently, the subduction zone
became locked and the CampbellChathamHikurangi
block amalgamated with the Pacific plate, while the
spreading ridge jumped from the Bounty Trough to the
southern edge of the Campbell Plateau. Subduction and
slab rollback continued along the AustralianPacific
plate boundary further to the north, accommodating
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
12 W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
Fig. 3 (continued).
backarc extension and spreading in the overriding plate
(Fig. 2b), in particular backarc spreading in the South
LoyaltySanta CruzPocklington Basin, which started
at 8580Ma. Subduction also continued further to the
south along most of the Antarctic Peninsula (McCarron
and Larter, 1998; Larter et al., 2002).
4.2. Paleocene
Diffuse extension occurred along the northeast
Australian margin in the Late Cretaceous to Paleocene
(Norvick et al., 2001), while opening of the Coral Sea
started at 62Ma (Gaina et al., 1999) (Figs. 3ac, 4b).
Late Cretaceous to Paleocene extension also took place
in the region of the New Caledonia Basin, culminating
in 150 km of eastwest spreading in the Central New
Caledonia Basin, which is suggested to have taken place
from 62 to 56 Ma (Lafoy et al., 2005). The
reconstruction further shows continued spreading in
the South LoyaltySanta CruzPocklington Basin, from
which the southern sub-basin (the South Loyalty Basin)
is estimated to have reached a width of at least 750km
(see Section 6.1 for details). The 8580 Ma age for
inception of spreading in the basin is suggested by the
Campanian to earliest Eocene overthrusted Poya and
Pouebo terranes and the Cretaceous obducted ophiolites
in New Caledonia (Cluzel et al., 2001; Spandler et al.,
2005), and Late Cretaceous to Paleocene obducted
ophiolites and sediments in Northland (Hayward et al.,
1989; Malpas et al., 1992). The obducted rocks and
terranes have backarc geochemical characteristics and
represent the remnants of these basins. The elongated
South Loyalty Basin was bordered to the west by the
Norfolk Ridge, to the east by an active volcanic arc, and
to the south by the Vening MeineszVan der Linden
fracture zone (Figs. 3ac, 4b). The South Loyalty Basin
continued northward as the Santa Cruz Basin, which
again continued northwestward as the Pocklington
Basin. These basins opened in the same time frame as
the South Loyalty Basin, as deduced from Late
Cretaceous to Paleocene obducted ophiolites and
deep-sea sediments in Eastern New Guinea (Davies
and Jaques, 1984; Pigram and Davies, 1987), which
represent remnants of the Pocklington Basin. The age of
the remaining part of the Santa Cruz Basin is uncertain,
but was suggested to be of Cretaceous age (Kroenke,
1984). Northeastsouthwest-directed spreading contin-
ued in the Tasman Sea during the Paleocene. In the
reconstruction model, westward to southwestward
subduction continued along the Southwest Pacific
plate boundary during northeast to east-directed rollback
of the Pacific slab to accommodate backarc spreading in
the New Caledonia Basin, the South LoyaltySanta
CruzPocklington Basin, the Coral Sea and part of the
spreading in the Tasman Sea (Fig. 4b) (see Section 5 for
more details).
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W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
4.3. Eocene
In the early Eocene, spreading stopped in the Tasman
Sea Basin ( 52 Ma) (Hayes and Ringis, 1973; Gaina et
al., 1998) and Coral Sea Basin (52 Ma) (Gaina et al.,
1999). Spreading also stopped in the South Loyalty
Santa CruzPocklington Basin at 55 Ma (Figs. 3d,
4c), because the youngest known obducted ophiolite
remnants and terranes of this basin are Paleocene to
earliest Eocene in age (Davies and Jaques, 1984; Pigram
and Davies, 1987; Hayward et al., 1989; Malpas et al.,
1992; Cluzel et al., 2001; Spandler et al., 2005). It is
proposed that eastward subduction of the South Loyalty
backarc Basin commenced in the latest early Eocene to
earliest middle Eocene ( 50 Ma) along the newly
formed New Caledonia subduction zone. The first
shortening event accompanied by HP/LT metamor-
phism in the metamorphic Pouebo terrane in northwest
New Caledonia (e.g. Rawling and Lister, 1999, 2002)
could represent the formation of this incipient subduc-
tion zone. The subduction zone formed in a trapped
backarc basin and therefore subduction could only be
achieved by westward slab rollback. Such rollback
initiated extension in the region and splitting of the
Loyalty arc from the outer arc (Figs. 3df, 4c, d). The
first extension event documented in the HP/LT Pouebo
terrane in New Caledonia documented by Rawling and
Lister (2002) would have resulted from this rollback
event. Northward subduction along the Pocklington
Trough commenced in the middle Eocene with
subduction of the Pocklington backarc Basin lithosphere
(Fig. 3e). Explanations for the termination of backarc
basin opening at 5552 Ma (Tasman Sea Basin, Coral
Sea Basin, South LoyaltySanta CruzPocklington
Basin) and the formation of the new subduction zones
at 5045 Ma (New Caledonia and Pocklington
subduction zones) are discussed in Sections 5 and 8.1.
Continued eastward subduction and westward roll-
back of the South Loyalty Basin lithosphere induced
formation of the North Loyalty backarc Basin and was
accompanied by volcanism along the Loyalty volcanic
arc and South d'Entrecasteaux Ridge, which took place
in the Eocene (Maillet et al., 1983; Baker et al., 1994;
Cluzel et al., 2001). Results from DSDP site 286 and a
recent reinterpretation of geophysical data indicate that
the crust in the North Loyalty Basin is of middle to late
Eocene age (Andrews et al., 1975a; Sdrolias et al.,
2003). In the latest Eocene to earliest Oligocene the
northern part of the South Loyalty Basin lithosphere
had been subducted. This resulted in southwestward
thrusting of terrane slices (e.g. Poya and Pouebo
terranes) and southwestward obduction of fore-arc
13
ophiolites on top of the New Caledonia basement at
3833.7Ma as implied by structural, sedimentological
and paleomagnetic investigations (Figs. 3g, 4e) (Aitch-
ison et al., 1995; Ali and Aitchison, 2000; Auzende et
al., 2000; Cluzel et al., 2001). We suggest that
obduction of the ophiolite was facilitated by a
downward pull force exerted by the South Loyalty
slab on the New Caledonia basement and by a push
force exerted by the backarc spreading ridge in the
North Loyalty Basin on the obducting ophiolite (Fig.
4e). The second shortening event in the Pouebo terrane
in New Caledonia documented by Rawling and Lister
(1999, 2002) would have resulted from the obduction
event.
The reconstruction requires the overthrusted Poya
terrane and Pouebo terrane in New Caledonia to have
formed in a backarc environment, e.g. the South
Loyalty backarc Basin (Fig. 4e). This is indeed
suggested by geological and geochemical data from
the obducted sediments and volcanics and blueschist
to eclogite facies metabasites and metasediments
(Aitchison et al., 1995; Cluzel et al., 2001; Spandler
et al., 2005). The Poya and Pouebo terranes are of
Campanian to earliest Eocene age as determined from
microfossil assemblages in the Poya terrane (Cluzel et
al., 2001), UPb dating of inherited magmatic zircon
grains from the Pouebo metamorphic terrane ( 85
55 Ma, Spandler et al., 2005) and identification of
Senonian ( 8965 Ma) Inoceramus fossils and Paleo-
cene foraminifera in the Pouebo and Diahot metamor-
phic terranes (Paris, 1981; Yokoyama et al., 1986).
The reconstruction would further predict the New
Caledonia ophiolite to have a Cretaceous backarc
origin, cross-cut by younger ( 5030Ma) fore-arc
signatures. The age of the New Caledonia ophiolite is
not accurately constrained, but it probably formed
during the Cretaceous (Auzende et al., 2000; Cluzel et
al., 2001). A range of unpublished ages shows clusters
around 10077 Ma and 48Ma, which imply a complex
history (e.g. Prinzhofer (1981) as cited in Aitchison et
al. (1995)). The Late Cretaceous ages could be
interpreted as the formation age of the ophiolite. The
Eocene age approximately coincides with the sug-
gested time of formation of the New Caledonia
subduction zone ( 50 Ma). If the ophiolite, however,
formed in the Early Cretaceous rather then the Late
Cretaceous, then it could have been a trapped piece of
oceanic lithosphere located along the eastern margin
of Gondwana on which the Cretaceous outer arc was
built (e.g. Cluzel et al., 2001). Early to mid Tertiary
low-Ca boninites located in between the Poya terrane
(formation des basalts) and the main ophiolite
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14 W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx 15

Fig. 4. Eastwest cross-sections illustrating the evolution of the Southwest Pacific region since the Cretaceous in an Australia-fixed reference frame.
For location of final cross-section in Fig. 4h see Fig. 1. White arrows indicate convergence between Pacific plate and Australia. Black arrows illustrate
the sinking kinematics of a slab. Diagrams illustrate that subduction of Pacific lithosphere from the Late Cretaceous to Paleocene and subduction of
backarc lithosphere (e.g. South Loyalty slab) results primarily from slab rollback (i.e. negligible convergence between overriding and subducting
plate), leading to a simple slab geometry with draping of the slab over the upperlower mantle discontinuity. Subduction of the Pacific plate from the
Eocene to Present results from both slab rollback and convergence, leading to a more complex slab geometry with slab draping (due to rollback) and
folding (due to convergence). Slab kinematics was inspired by subduction models from Guillou-Frottier et al. (1995), Griffiths et al. (1995),
Funiciello et al. (2003) and Schellart (2004a, 2005). For a more extensive discussion of the reconstruction see text.

(Cameron, 1989) and sparse boninite dikes that cross-
cut the ophiolite (Cluzel, personal communication)
imply that the New Caledonia ophiolite was in a fore-
arc setting with respect to the Loyalty arc during
subduction of the South Loyalty slab in the Eocene.
The reconstruction shows continued southward
rollback along the north-dipping Pocklington subduc-
tion zone, which resulted in formation of the New
Guinea arc and opening of the Solomon Sea as a backarc
basin in the late Eocene (Fig. 3fg). A progressive
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
16 W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
change in relative motion between the Australian plate
and Pacific plate in the Eocene initiated spreading in the
Resolution Basin located southwest of New Zealand at
4540 Ma (Sutherland, 1995), as the boundary
changed from a transform boundary (Emerald fracture
zone) to an oblique divergent boundary (Resolution
Ridge). The new boundary formed at an oblique angle to
the fracture zone, as evidenced by the obliquity between
the Resolution Ridge and fracture zones in the Tasman
Sea.
4.4. Oligocene
After latest Eocene obduction in new Caledonia, the
lithospheric mantle underneath the New Caledonia crust
delaminated from the crust and was subducted with the
South Loyalty slab during continued westward rollback
or, alternatively, a major detachment fault formed
underneath the continental crust as the subduction
zone jumped from the east side to the west side of
New Caledonia. Irrespective of the mechanism in-
volved, the New Caledonia crust was transferred from
the subducting plate to the overriding plate as the new
incipient subduction zone formed to the west of New
Caledonia (Fig. 4e) (Cluzel et al., 2005), as implied by
gravity and seismic data showing evidence for a fossil
subduction zone along the southwestern margin of New
Caledonia (Regnier, 1988). During this phase part of the
New Caledonia Basin was subducted by westward
rollback that could have induced extension in New
Caledonia. This phase could be represented by the
second extension event documented by Rawling and
Lister (1999, 2002)). The phase of rollback was short-
lived, and soon the South Loyalty slab detached from
the trailing plate at the surface (Fig. 4f), inducing local
granitoid magmatism at 2724Ma in southern New
Caledonia (Cluzel et al., 2005). Recent results from
structural mapping in New Caledonia imply that the
latest extension event documented by Rawling and
Lister (1999, 2002) was multidirectional, started after
the obduction event and lasted until after the middle
Miocene, thus until after 11Ma (Lagabrielle et al.,
2005). The multidirectional nature and timing of
extension would thus imply that at least the Miocene
extensional deformation was not related to slab rollback.
Most likely, this extension resulted from the isostatic
rebound of the New Caledonia crust after slab
detachment, because the regional extension is associated
with vertical uplift (e.g. Lagabrielle et al., 2005).
A new phase of eastward slab rollback of the Pacific
plate along the outer arc accommodated spreading in the
South Fiji Basin during the Oligocene (Figs. 3g, h, 4e,
f). This new phase of Pacific rollback was potentially
triggered by the push exerted by the backarc spreading
ridge in the North LoyaltySouth Fiji Basin, as the
northern part of the New Caledonia subduction zone
experienced increasing resistance to rollback westward
and finally became inactive in the Oligocene. Termina-
tion of subduction started in the north (New Caledonia)
and migrated southward (Three Kings and Northland
region). Thus it is likely that rollback of the Pacific slab
started in the north (proto Tonga section) and migrated
southward (proto Kermadec section) as well, which
could explain the wedge-shaped opening of the South
Fiji Basin. Consumption of the Pocklington Basin was
completed in the late Oligocene with collision of the
New Guinea arc with the passive margin of the Papua
Louisiade Plateau and obduction of ophiolites onto the
New Guinea passive margin (Fig. 3h) (Monnier et al.,
1999). This coincided with termination of spreading in
the Solomon Sea, which took place in the late Oligocene
(Joshima and Honza, 1987; Joshima et al., 1987; Hall,
2002). Remnants of the Pocklington Basin are found in
the New Guinea orogen, with Late Cretaceous to
Paleogene aged sediments and metamorphic rocks,
and Late Cretaceous to Paleocene ophiolites (Pigram
and Davies, 1987). The ophiolites are thought to have
formed in a backarc setting (Monnier et al., 2000), e.g.
the Pocklington backarc Basin, as shown in the
reconstruction (Fig. 3e). The reconstruction shows that
in the late Oligocene to earliest Miocene, consumption
of the remainder of the South Loyalty backarc Basin
lithosphere in the south resulted from southwest-
directed rollback and led to obduction of ophiolites on
top of the Northland passive margin. The obduction of
ophiolites and sediments (e.g. Northland allochthon)
onto the passive margin took place at 2522Ma or
2421 Ma with a displacement from northeast to
southwest (e.g. Sprli, 1989; Malpas et al., 1992;
Herzer, 1995; Rait, 2000; Mortimer et al., 2003) (Fig.
3h, i). The obduction model for Northland is comparable
to the one proposed for New Caledonia and is similar to
a combination of two conceptual obduction models
proposed by Dewey (1976, his Figs. 4ab and 8ac) and
the conceptual obduction models proposed by Moores
(1970) and Edelman (1988). The reconstruction model
can account for the make-up of the allochthon, which
consists of Late Cretaceous to Oligocene sediments
(mainly flysch, sandstone and mudstone) and Late
Cretaceous to Early Paleogene peridotite, gabbro and
pillow basalts (Hayward et al., 1989) that show
geochemical signatures of both arc and backarc
environments (Thompson et al., 1997; Nicholson et
al., 2000). Fossils recovered from a number of ophiolite
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
outcrops show a wide range of ages from 80 to 55Ma
(Whattam et al., 2004 and references therein), which
coincides with the age in the Poya terrane in New
Caledonia as determined from microfossils (Cluzel
et al., 2001). The reconstruction model can also accom-
modate recently published Oligocene radiometric ages
(2926Ma) for igneous rocks from the allochthon with a
supra-subduction zone signature and paleomagnetic
data that imply that the rocks formed at a latitude
close to the latitude ( 510 further north) of the
Northland basement in the Oligocene (Whattam et al.,
2004, 2005). These Oligocene rocks would have formed
above the northeast-dipping South Loyalty slab as
shown in Fig. 3hi.
4.5. Miocene
East-directed rollback of the Pacific slab continued
until the latest Oligocene to early Miocene during
opening of the South Fiji Basin and Norfolk Basin.
Rollback first stopped in the north along the proto Tonga
section, as spreading in the northern South Fiji Basin
stopped at 2524Ma, but continued until 2016 Ma in
the south along the proto Kermadec section (Fig. 3j). In
the south, rollback was accommodated by opening of
the southern South Fiji Basin and the Norfolk Basin.
WNWESE-directed spreading in the southern South
Fiji Basin took place in the Oligocene to early/middle
Miocene (Herzer et al., 2000). Extension in the
NorfolkThree Kings region culminated in spreading
in the Norfolk Basin, with NNESSW oriented
spreading ridges that were active in the early Miocene
(Crawford et al., 2003; Sdrolias et al., 2004b). The basin
is bound by the sinistral Cook fracture zone in the north,
which was active in the early Miocene ( 20 Ma (S.
Meffre, personal communication)) and by the dextral
Vening Meinesz fracture zone in the south, which was
active in the early to middle Miocene (Herzer et al.,
1997). The spreading ridges in the Norfolk Basin and
the southern South Fiji Basin were connected via the
triple junction in the central South Fiji Basin, from
which the northern arm in the northern South Fiji Basin
was no longer active, as it stopped spreading at 25
24 Ma.
Extension in the Northland region was oriented
northwestsoutheast and northeastsouthwest, took
place in the Miocene after ophiolite obduction and
persisted into the Quaternary (Sprli, 1982, 1989). The
ophiolite obduction temporarily overlapped with the
early phase of predominantly early Miocene andesitic
volcanism in Northland and thus it can be concluded
that the extension phase in Northland started after the
17
earliest phase of volcanism. The volcanism is aligned
along two closely spaced northwestsoutheast trending
belts, is commonly attributed to southwest-directed
subduction (Sprli, 1989; Herzer, 1995; Hayward et al.,
2001) and took place from 23 to 16Ma (Herzer, 1995) or
2511 Ma (Hayward et al., 2001). The widespread
distribution of volcanism (see Fig. 2 in Herzer (1995))
over an area with a low aspect ratio ( 210 km by
350 km), however, suggests that the volcanism is not
related to subduction. It has recently been suggested that
the volcanism resulted from the Miocene extension in
the region (Crawford et al., 2003), but this does not
explain that the extension started several Myr after the
start of volcanism. Also, it would not explain the calc-
alkaline character of the volcanism in Northland,
because continental rift environments are associated
with alkaline magmatism and, to a lesser extent, with
tholeiitic magmatism (Wilson, 1993). New research
indicates that the volcanism in Northland is best
explained by slab detachment of the northeast-dipping
South Loyalty slab from the trailing Northland passive
margin lithosphere in the final stage of subduction
(Schellart, in review). The conceptual scenario is similar
to the model of slab detachment and late to post-
orogenic magmatism proposed previously for the Alps,
Carpathians and Apennines (von Blanckenburg and
Davies, 1995; Seghedi et al., 1998; Wortel and Spak-
man, 2000). The new model for the Northland region
explains the Cretaceous to Miocene geology of
Northland, can account for the geochemistry of the
early Miocene volcanism and also fits within the
Southwest Pacific tectonic framework (Schellart, in
review) as presented here in Figs. 2 and 3. Slab
detachment could also explain the post-obduction
extension and uplift of the region by isostatic rebound
of the Northland crust in a similar way as has been
discussed in Section 4.4 for the New Caledonia region.
Part of the extension, however, could also be attributed
to eastward rollback of the Pacific slab.
Collision of the Ontong Java Plateau or related
fragments with the Solomon arc along the North
Solomon Trench started in the early to middle Miocene
(Petterson et al., 1999; Hall, 2002). This collision
initiated southward subduction of the Solomon Sea
along the Trobriand Trough and later also northward
subduction along the New BritainSan Cristobal
Trench. Collision of the Melanesian Border Plateau
with the proto-New Hebrides arc and the Fiji block
along the Vitiaz Trench probably started in the middle
Miocene (Fig. 3l). The collision caused northeastward
subduction of the northern part of the South FijiNorth
Loyalty Basin and the remainder of the Santa Cruz
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
18 W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
South Loyalty Basin along the newly formed New
Hebrides Trench (Fig. 3l, m, 4g). This subduction zone
soon started to retreat southwestward forming the North
Fiji backarc Basin in its wake. Spreading started at 12
11 Ma (Pelletier et al., 1993).
The PacificAustralia rotation poles indicate that in
the Alpine fault region of New Zealand, highly oblique
convergence started at 2520 Ma and made way for
predominant dextral shearing with a subsidiary compo-
nent of convergence since 20 Ma. This is in agreement
with the age of inception of the modern Alpine fault in
New Zealand at 23 Ma (Kamp, 1986). Spreading in
the Resolution Basin located southwest of New Zealand
stopped at 11Ma (Sutherland, 1995) as the Pacific
Australia relative plate motion in this region changed
from oblique divergent to oblique convergent. Contin-
ued oblique convergence initiated subduction along the
Puysegur Trench with eastward subduction of the
Australian plate underneath the Pacific plate.
4.6. Pliocene
Continued subduction along the New Hebrides
Trench and clockwise rollback of the subducting slab
resulted in the wedge-shaped opening of the North Fiji
backarc Basin and clockwise rotation of the New
Hebrides arc (Figs. 3m, n, 4h) (Hathway, 1993; Schellart
et al., 2002a). A new phase of eastward rollback of the
Pacific plate resulted in formation of the LauHavre
Basin in between the remnant FijiLauColville arc and
the active TongaKermadec arc (Figs. 3m, n, 4h).
Rifting started at 76 Ma, while spreading in the Lau
Basin started at 5 Ma (Parson and Hawkins, 1994).
Opening of the Woodlark Basin started at 6 Ma
(Taylor et al., 1995), potentially related to northward
rollback of the Solomon Sea plate subducting along the
Trobriand Trough. Spreading in the Manus Basin started
in the Pliocene (Martinez and Taylor, 1996), partly
driven by south to southeastward rollback of the
Solomon Sea slab subducting along the New Britain
Trench.
4.7. Present
At present, the Alpine fault in New Zealand
accommodates dextral transpression. Eastward subduc-
tion of the Australian plate occurs along the Puysegur
Trench, while westward subduction and eastward
rollback of the Pacific plate along the TongaKermadec
trench drives active spreading in the Lau Basin and
active extension in the Havre Trough (Fig. 3n). Backarc
spreading is much faster in the north compared to the
south (Bevis et al., 1995), resulting from asymmetric
slab rollback, inducing the formation of a wedge-shaped
Lau backarc Basin. Subduction of the Australian plate
continues along the New BritainSan CristobalNew
Hebrides Trench. Continued clockwise rollback of the
slab subducting along the New Hebrides Trench is
responsible for the wedge-shaped opening of the North
Fiji Basin. The clockwise rollback along the New
Hebrides Trench necessitates the formation of a tear at
the southeastern end of the slab, the surface trace of
which is the Hunter Fracture zone (Schellart et al.,
2002b; Govers and Wortel, 2005). The complex
spreading pattern in the North Fiji Basin is most likely
the result of the asymmetric wedge-shaped opening of
the basin and the collision of the arc with the
d'Entrecasteaux Ridge and West Torres Plateau (Schel-
lart et al., 2002a). The clockwise rollback of the New
Hebrides and Tonga slabs was probably facilitated by
lateral flow of mantle material around the lateral slab
edge towards the mantle wedge side (Schellart, 2004a).
Such flow can indeed explain the well-defined curved
geometry of the Tonga slab near its northern edge,
which is concave towards the mantle wedge side. For
the Tonga region, such lateral flow has also been
suggested from arc and backarc geochemistry of
volcanic rocks (Wendt et al., 1997; Turner and Hawkes-
worth, 1998) and seismic shear wave splitting (Smith et
al., 2001).
The present-day slab geometry in the TongaNew
Hebrides region as postulated in Fig. 4h shows
similarity with a tomographic eastwest cross-section
across the New Hebrides and Tonga arc from Hall and
Spakman (2002) (Fig. 5). The image shows the
westward-dipping Tonga slab continuing down to the
Fig. 5. Eastwest tomographic cross-section along a 30 great circle
segment down to a depth of 1500km (simplified from Hall and
Spakman (2002)), illustrating subduction of both the New Hebrides
slab and Tonga slab. White dots represent hypocenters of earthquakes
that occurred within 50km of the cross-section plane. See Fig. 1 for
location. Dashed line represents upperlower mantle discontinuity.
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W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx 19

upperlower mantle discontinuity, where it is deflected large-scale undefined blob. The lower mantle blob is
horizontally for some distance until it penetrates the interpreted as a folded slab pile, as illustrated in Fig. 4h.
discontinuity and continues into the lower mantle as a It is explained to have resulted from convergence

Fig. 6. Displacement of the Pacific plate, Lord Howe Rise microplate and the AustralianPacific plate boundary relative to Australia for successive
5Myr periods from 65 Ma to Present. Rotation parameters for the Pacific plate relative to Australia and the Lord Howe Rise relative to Australia are
presented in Tables 5 and 6 respectively. See text for discussion.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
20 W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
Fig. 6 (continued).
between the Australian plate and the Pacific plate, while
the horizontal part resting on the discontinuity is
interpreted to have resulted from slab rollback processes
(see also Section 5). The eastward-dipping New
Hebrides slab can also be observed in Fig. 5, dipping
at a somewhat steeper angle than the Tonga slab and
reaching a subduction depth close to the upperlower
mantle discontinuity.
5. Relative plate motions and plate boundary
migration
West-directed displacement and subduction of
oceanic lithosphere underneath the Australian conti-
nent took place during most of the Paleozoic and
Mesozoic periods (Veevers et al., 1991; Collins, 2003;
Veevers, 2004). However, in the Late Cretaceous,
west-directed displacement was disrupted, most likely
due to collision of the Hikurangi Plateau with the
Chatham Rise at 82 Ma (Billen and Stock, 2000) or
potentially earlier at 99 Ma (Veevers, 2000a,b). This
collision locked the subduction zone in the Chatham
region and would have stopped spreading along the
Osbourn Trough, resulting in amalgamation of the
Hikurangi plate located south of the Osbourn Trough
with the Pacific plate (Fig. 2). Subperpendicular
subduction along the AustralianPacific plate bound-
ary stopped at this time and the motion along the
boundary became predominantly strike-slip. This
strike-slip motion along the plate boundary has been
illustrated in Fig. 6ac for the period 6550Ma. As
can be observed, relative motion in the south along the
Emerald fracture zone is very small, because both the
Lord Howe Rise and the Pacific plate are moving
towards the northeast at a similar velocity. Along the
eastern and northern boundary, Pacific plate motion
relative to the boundary is primarily strike-slip.
However, subduction continued along the eastern
and northern plate boundary due to east-directed and
northeast-directed rollback of the Pacific slab. This
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W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
rollback and hinge-migration provided space to
accommodate opening of the South LoyaltySanta
CruzPocklington Basin, New Caledonia Basin and
Coral Sea Basin and partly accommodated opening of
the Tasman Sea Basin.
Fig. 7 shows how much of the Tasman Sea opening
was accommodated by east-directed slab rollback in
the Paleogene. Here, the relative motion of the Lord
Howe Rise microplate with respect to Australia has
been plotted for the period 6552 Ma, resulting from
the opening of the Tasman Sea. Also plotted is the
motion of the Pacific plate relative to Australia. The
difference in motion between the Lord Howe Rise
microplate and the Pacific plate indicates the relative
motion between the two. The microplate is moving
faster towards the east than the Pacific plate, implying
convergence between the two plates. The convergence
is oriented eastwest and is only 25 km in the south
(along the northeastern extent of the Emerald fracture
zone), with an additional 25 km of dextral strike-slip,
but increases along the northsouth striking eastern
boundary from 150 km in the south up to 300km
Fig. 7. Displacement of the Lord Howe Rise microplate (LHRmp)
relative to Australia (e.g. Table 6) and displacement of the Pacific plate
relative to Australia (e.g. Table 5) for the period 65 Ma to 52 Ma. The
difference between these two relative displacements illustrates the
convergence between the Lord Howe Rise microplate and the Pacific
plate (grey lines). Lord Howe Rise microplatePacific plate rotation
parameters are presented in Table 7.
21
in the north. This points to an average convergence
velocity of 1.22.3cm/yr.
On top of the convergence due to Tasman Sea
spreading, geological evidence points to a minimum
eastwest width of the South Loyalty Basin at 55Ma
of 750 km (see Section 6.1). Paleontological and
radiometric data point to an age for the South Loyalty
Basin of 8085 to 55 Ma (Cluzel et al., 2001; Spandler
et al., 2005). This would imply an average eastwest
spreading rate of 3.0cm/yr. Finally, the latest results
from a geophysical investigation of the New Caledonia
Basin suggest that the basin opened up in an eastwest
fashion from the Late Cretaceous to the Paleocene, with
extension until 62 Ma and spreading in the Central
New Caledonia Basin from 62 Ma until 56Ma
(Lafoy et al., 2005). The amount of extension remains
unquantified, but the amount of eastwest spreading is
150 km, implying an average spreading rate of
2.5cm/yr. These calculations would thus point to a
maximum east-directed migration of the Pacific plate
boundary from 62 to 56Ma of 7.8 cm/yr relative to
Australia to accommodate the spreading in the three
basins. The migration rates from 80 to 62 Ma and from
56 to 52 Ma were smaller, but were still several
centimeter per year. As shown in Fig. 4ac, we argue
that this migration is accommodated by east-directed
retreat of the subduction hinge and rollback of the
Pacific slab relative to Australia. Subduction during this
time was thus accommodated entirely by slab rollback
processes. Geodynamic modelling (e.g. Griffiths et al.,
1995; Funiciello et al., 2003; Schellart, 2004a) implies
that such subduction would result in backward (east-
ward) sinking of the slab and a relatively simple slab
geometry, in which the slab is draped on top of the
upperlower mantle discontinuity. This has been
illustrated in Fig. 4ac.
At 50Ma, a change in relative displacement along
the plate boundary occurred from strike-slip to oblique
convergent motion (Fig. 6d). This change would have
induced an increase in compressive stress across the
subduction plate boundary (Schellart, 2005), which
would have promoted subduction hinge-advance, short-
ening in the overriding plate and potentially formation
of new subduction zones in the backarc region of the
overriding plate (e.g. east-dipping New Caledonia
subduction zone and north-dipping Pocklington sub-
duction zone). Evidence for such regional shortening
has been recorded in exhumed high-pressure/low-
temperature (HP/LT) metamorphic rocks in northern
New Caledonia (Rawling and Lister, 2002), for which
peak high pressure metamorphism has been dated at
44Ma (Spandler et al., 2005). The newly formed
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
22 W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
subduction zones with small subduction perturbations
were located in locked backarc basin settings, implying
that continued subduction was primarily accommodated
by slab rollback and was therefore driven by the
negative buoyancy of the short slab. Dynamic modelling
of subduction shows that a slab length of 100150 km is
already sufficient for subduction and slab rollback to
become self-sustaining (Gurnis et al., 2004; Schellart,
2005). Thus, it is expected that the South Loyalty slab
and Pocklington slab started to retreat westward and
southward, initially slowly ( 12 cm/yr), but progres-
sively faster with progressive lengthening of the slab
(510 cm/yr) (Fig. 6dh) (e.g. Funiciello et al., 2003;
Schellart, 2004a, 2005), extending the overriding plate
and forming new backarc basins (e.g. North Loyalty
Basin and Solomon Sea). The progressive change in
PacificAustralian relative plate motion that started at
50Ma continued until 30Ma, when convergence
was approximately perpendicular to the eastern subduc-
tion zone and oblique to the northern subduction zone
(045) (Fig. 6g).
The AustralianPacific plate convergence, which
started at 50Ma and continued up to the Present,
complicated the slab kinematics significantly. Subduction
was now accommodated by convergence with a relatively
stable subduction hinge, while a large part of the slab was
already resting on the upperlower mantle discontinuity
in the early Eocene (Fig. 4c). Geodynamic modelling of
subduction implies that in such a scenario, subduction is
accommodated by slab folding, resulting in piling up and
folding of the slab at the discontinuity (Fig. 4d, e) (e.g.
Griffiths et al., 1995; Schellart, 2005). As convergence
continued and two additional rollback episodes took
place, one in the Oligocene to early Miocene (opening of
the South Fiji Basin) and one in the latest Miocene to
Present (opening of the LauHavre Basin), a slab folding
geometry, to accommodate subduction due to plate
convergence, was superposed on a slab draping geometry,
to accommodate subduction due to slab rollback (e.g. Fig.
4fh). The final slab geometry in Fig. 4h resembles the
slab geometry suggested by the tomography in Fig. 5, and
thus the reconstruction provides a consistent and coherent
kinematic model for the present-day mantle structure. The
horizontal slab segment on top of the discontinuity has
already been explained previously as a result of eastward
rollback of the Pacific slab (van der Hilst, 1995).
6. Uncertainties in the reconstruction
A large part of the Southwest Pacific region remains
poorly explored. For a number of basins, ridges and
plateaus deep-sea drilling data and seismic sections to
unravel the complex geological history remain sparse or
even absent. In other cases, former backarc basins have
completely disappeared due to subduction and only
obducted ophiolites and deep-sea sediments testify to
their former existence. This makes parts of the proposed
reconstruction speculative. However, overall, the recon-
struction provides a logical synthesis of the region and
shows that the dominant structural features can be
explained by subduction, slab rollback and backarc
extension processes.
The large-scale plate motions in the plan-view
reconstruction in Figs. 3 and 6 are accurately con-
strained by rotation parameters presented in Tables 57.
The rotation parameters since 45Ma presented in
Table 5 are in close agreement with previously
published data on the PacificAustralia relative plate
motions for this time frame (e.g. Sutherland, 1995;
Cande and Stock, 2004a). Adopting the rotation
parameters from these authors instead of the ones
presented here will not make any significant difference
for the reconstruction and will not influence any of the
conclusions drawn from the reconstruction. There is a
degree of incertitude in the PacificAustralia rotation
parameters prior to 45 Ma (see also Appendix) due to
potential deformation in Antarctica. The amount of
deformation and timing of deformation are, however,
not accurately quantified and have therefore not been
incorporated here. We have assumed no deformation at
all for this time frame, resulting in convergence between
the Lord Howe Rise and the Pacific plate (e.g. Fig. 7).
Steinberger et al. (2004) have taken the other extreme
assuming that the Lord Howe Rise is attached to the
Pacific plate, resulting in a large extensional deforma-
tion (400450km) in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica.
The reality could potentially lie somewhere in the
middle, with a moderate amount ( 100km) of defor-
mation in Antarctica (e.g. Cande and Stock, 2004b),
which would result in a reduced amount of Lord Howe
RisePacific convergence. In any case, even by taking
the other extreme standpoint or an intermediate
standpoint, this would not change the conclusions
drawn about the Late Cretaceous to earliest Eocene
plate boundary at the southwestern edge of the Pacific
plate. One would still require a convergent plate
boundary, represented by a west-dipping eastward
retreating subduction zone, between the Lord Howe
Rise microplate and the Pacific plate to accommodate
the 900 km of Late Cretaceous to earliest Eocene
eastwest spreading in the New Caledonia backarc
Basin and the South Loyalty backarc Basin. The 900km
of required slab rollback is a minimum, because it is
based on the minimum width of the South Loyalty
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
Basin, while (unquantified) Late Cretaceous and Early
Paleogene extension in the overriding plate (e.g. Lord
Howe Rise, New Caledonia Basin) is not taken into
account either.
The time of opening of a large number of basins
(Tasman Sea, Coral Sea, North Fiji Basin, northern
South Fiji Basin, LauHavre Basin, North Loyalty
Basin) and the time of obduction events (New
Caledonia, Northland, New Guinea) are accurately
dated, putting additional constraints on the reconstruc-
tion. The largest degree of uncertainty in the plan-view
reconstruction originates from the extent of the South
LoyaltySanta CruzPocklington Basin. In Section 6.1
we discuss one important constraint that places a
minimum on the width of the South Loyalty Basin.
The cross-section reconstruction in Fig. 4 contains a
relatively large degree of uncertainty concerning the
exact slab geometry, sinking kinematics and (dis)
continuity of the Pacific and South Loyalty slabs.
However, the amount of Pacific subducted slab has been
constrained by the amount of convergence-induced
subduction and rollback-induced subduction as pre-
sented in Figs. 3 and 6 (see also Section 7). Also, the
relative motion between the Australian plate, Pacific
plate and the Lord Howe Rise microplate, as well as the
opening of backarc basins constrain the amount of
migration of the trench (see previous section). With
these constraints and important insights obtained from
dynamic subduction models (e.g. Guillou-Frottier et al.,
1995; Griffiths et al., 1995; Funiciello et al., 2003;
Schellart, 2004a, 2005), a subduction reconstruction has
been built that is geometrically, kinematically and
geologically constrained and is geodynamically
feasible.
Some of the least explored and problematic
geological structures in the Southwest Pacific include
the South Rennell Trough, the d'Entrecasteaux Ridge,
the Norfolk Basin, the North d'Entrecasteaux Basin and
the Santa Cruz Basin. Below we will describe in some
more detail the available data for these problematic
regions and structures, and present our interpretation in
order to fit them into a logical tectonic synthesis of the
entire Southwest Pacific region. We will also discuss
some of the uncertainties related to the New Caledonia
subduction zone, the spreading patterns in the backarc
basins and the Pacific subduction zone prior to 45Ma.
6.1. The d'Entrecasteaux Ridge
The d'Entrecasteaux Ridge is located north of New
Caledonia and consists of two distinct ridges, a northern
and a southern ridge (Fig. 1). The northern ridge consists
23
of elongated ridge segments that link up with New
Caledonia. The southern ridge consists of separate
guyots that are continuous with the Loyalty ridge in the
south. The ridge structure was active in the Eocene, as
determined from dredged Eocene volcanics from the
northern ridge (Maillet et al., 1983) and drilled upper
Eocene andesitic volcanics from Bougainville guyot
located on the southern ridge, which stopped activity at
37Ma (Baker et al., 1994; Quinn et al., 1994). It has
also been suggested that the subducted part of the
northern ridge potentially consists of highly attenuated
continental crustal slivers (Laporte et al., 1998) that
originated from the Gondwana margin. Late Eocene
( 37Ma) volcanics retrieved from Bougainville guyot
are typical intra-oceanic arc volcanics (Maillet et al.,
1983; Baker et al., 1994; Quinn et al., 1994; Crawford et
al., 2003), while primitive arc tholeiitic magmas
retrieved from underneath middle Eocene sediments
on the North d'Entrecasteaux Ridge imply a backarc or
fore-arc origin (Coltorti et al., 1994a,b; Crawford et al.,
2003). All these dates agree with the proposed Eocene
age for the Loyalty arc (Maillet et al., 1983; Baker et al.,
1994; Cluzel et al., 2001). The origin of the structure is
unclear and it has been suggested that it is a fossil
transform fault similar to the Hunter fracture zone
(Maillet et al., 1983). We also interpret the ridge to be a
fossil transform fault that was active and connected with
the New Caledonia subduction zone that rolled back
anticlockwise and consumed the South Loyalty Basin
lithosphere. In this scenario, the fault essentially
represents the surface expression of the subvertical
slab tear of the northernmost edge of the South Loyalty
slab (compare with Fig. 2 in Schellart et al. (2002b)).
This model fits with the geochemistry from the andesitic
rocks from Bougainville guyot at ODP site 831, which
show a weak subduction-related signature superimposed
on a MORB character of the volcanics (Baker et al.,
1994). Rollback-induced clockwise mantle return flow
around the northern slab edge towards the mantle wedge
(e.g. Schellart, 2004a) would suppress a subduction
signature vertically above the slab edge, as the mantle
return flow would drag the geochemical signature
released near the slab edge southward.
The d'Entrecasteaux Ridge probably had a similar
function during opening of the North Loyalty Basin as
the Hunter fracture zone had during opening of the
North Fiji Basin. The final arcbackarc geometry of the
Loyalty arc resembles the New Hebrides arcbackarc
geometry, with anticlockwise rotation of the Loyalty arc
contemporaneous with dextral shearing along the
d'Entrecasteaux Ridge, similar to clockwise rotation of
the New Hebrides arc contemporaneous with sinistral
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
24 W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx

shearing along the Hunter fracture zone (Schellart et al.,
2002a,b). Both faults accommodated asymmetric roll-
back and tearing of the slab, arc rotation and asymmetric
backarc opening.
The eastward extent of the d'Entrecasteaux Ridge
prior to its subduction along the New Hebrides trench
gives an important constraint on the minimum eastward
extent, and therefore, the width of the South Loyalty
Basin. The geometry of the present-day remainder of the
d'Entrecasteaux Ridge implies that its eastward contin-
uation was striking approximately eastwest. It has been
argued that the first collision of the d'Entrecasteaux
Ridge with the New Hebrides arc sometime in the late
Miocene or Pliocene resulted in the formation of the
Efate re-entrant, a dent in the New Hebrides arc located
at 167 30 E 17 30 S, to the northwest of the island
of Efate (Fig. 1) (Greene and Collot, 1994; Greene et al.,
1994). Others have argued that collision might have
occurred further south along the New Hebrides arc, but
that the arc morphology has returned to normal south of
the Efate re-entrant (Meffre and Crawford, 2001). The
location of this dent can give an indication of the
minimum eastward extent of the d'Entrecasteaux Ridge
by reconstructing the New Hebrides arc back to its
original position prior to opening of the North Fiji Basin
(Fig. 8). The New Hebrides arc can be rotated back to its
original position, in alignment with the fossil Vitiaz
Trench, by rotating it 45 anticlockwise around a pole
with longitude 166 E and latitude 09 S. As can be
observed in Fig. 8, the Efate re-entrant places the extent
of the d'Entrecasteaux Ridge as far east as 173 E and
at 15 S. This implies that the minimum eastwest
width of the South Loyalty Basin at the end of spreading
at 5550 Ma was 750km, as illustrated in Fig. 3d.

Fig. 8. Reconstruction of the clockwise rotation of the New Hebrides arc during opening of the North Fiji backarc Basin, resulting in collision of the
arc with the d'Entrecasteaux Ridge and formation of the Efate re-entrant during initial collision. Location of the initial collision site provides an
estimate of the eastward continuation of the d'Entrecasteaux Ridge, and therefore an estimate of the eastwest width of the South Loyalty Basin
( 750km). Location of the rotation pole is indicated by the black dot and the curved arrow. Numbers indicate approximate amount of rotation of the
New Hebrides arc since opening of the North Fiji Basin at 1211 Ma. Australia is fixed. Hfz, Hunter fracture zone; LB, Lau Basin; NFB, North Fiji
Basin; NHT, New Hebrides Trench; SCT, San Cristobal Trench.
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W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
The initial collision could have occurred further south,
forming a similar well-defined dent in the New Hebrides
arc located southwest of the Island of Efate (named the
South Efate re-entrant in Fig. 1). In that scenario, the
reconstruction implies that the eastwest extent of the
basin was 900 km.
6.2. The Norfolk Basin
The age of the Norfolk Basin has been debated for
several decades, but conclusive data from deep-sea
drilling have been lacking. It has been suggested that
the basin is underlain by oceanic crust formed during
the Cretaceous. Examination of seismic and magnetic
data in the basin suggested that it formed during the
Cretaceous quiet superchron (Launay et al., 1982;
Collot et al., 1987; Eade, 1988; Auzende et al., 2000).
The basin was interpreted to have formed as a backarc
basin above an east-dipping subduction zone located
west of the Norfolk Ridge. It was assumed that this
subduction zone was continuous with the fossil
subduction zone located west of New Caledonia.
There is good evidence for a fossil subduction zone
west of New Caledonia (Regnier, 1988), but there are
no data supporting the existence of a fossil subduction
zone located west of the southern Norfolk Ridge
(Uruski and Wood, 1991).
It has also been suggested that the basin formed
during the early Miocene, due to eastward rollback of a
westward-dipping subduction zone located immediately
east of the Three Kings Ridge (Herzer et al., 1997;
Mortimer et al., 1998; Hall, 2002). Data from dredge
samples point to volcanic activity on the Three Kings
Ridge during the early Miocene (Mortimer et al., 1998).
In addition, seismic data across the Reinga Ridge
indicate that the Vening Meinesz Fracture zone
(supposedly a backarc transform) was active in the
early to middle Miocene (Herzer et al., 1997). A number
of dredge samples of volcanic rocks that have been
collected from the Norfolk Basin floor indicate an early
to middle Miocene age (Mortimer et al., 1998; Sdrolias
et al., 2004b). Seismic profiles across the Three Kings
Ridge, however, show an arc morphology that suggests
a fossil subduction zone located to the west of the ridge
and not to the east (Kroenke and Eade, 1982). This is
supported by recently dredged fore-arc boninites from
the western side of the Three Kings Ridge, which are
similar to the boninites from the obducted ophiolites in
New Caledonia (Crawford et al., 2004). In addition,
more recent data indicate that Three Kings Ridge
volcanism was active from the latest Eocene to the early
Miocene ( 3720Ma (Sdrolias et al., 2004b)).
25
Most recently, it has been suggested that the Norfolk
Basin consists of remnants of Cretaceous basin floor in
between younger early to middle Miocene parts of
backarc oceanic floor (Crawford et al., 2003; Sdrolias et
al., 2004b). Combining ages of dredge samples from the
Norfolk Basin and Three Kings Ridge with a reinter-
pretation of gravity and magnetic data from the basin led
Sdrolias et al. (2004b) to conclude that the plateau
segments in the basin formed in the Cretaceous, while
the deeper parts of the basin formed during spreading in
the early to middle Miocene.
We adopted this new model for the age of the Norfolk
Basin from Crawford et al. (2003) and Sdrolias et al.
(2004b) into the reconstruction. As can be observed in
Fig. 3, the reconstruction can accommodate the primary
geological events of the region, including eastward
subduction underneath the Three Kings Ridge, Three
Kings Ridge arc volcanism at 3720 Ma contempora-
neous with opening of the South Fiji Basin, the
Cretaceous remnants in the Norfolk Basin (e.g. remnants
of the South Loyalty Basin), the early Miocene spreading
in the Norfolk Basin contemporaneous with spreading in
the southern South Fiji Basin, shearing along the Vening
Meinesz and Cook fracture zones, and southwestward
obduction of ophiolites in Northland at 2522Ma.
6.3. The North d'Entrecasteaux Basin, South Rennell
Through and Santa Cruz Basin
Not much is known about the age and origin of the
North d'Entrecasteaux Basin, the Santa Cruz Basin and
the South Rennell Trough. The North d'Entrecasteaux
Basin is continuous with the northernmost part of the
New Caledonia Basin, which is suggested to have
opened in the Cretaceous (Uruski and Wood, 1991) or
the Late Cretaceous to Paleocene (Lafoy et al., 2005).
The North d'Entrecasteaux Basin has been interpreted to
be of Late Cretaceous age ( 8066 Ma), based on
identification of magnetic anomalies, which strike at
high angle and cross the South Rennell Trough
(Lapouille, 1982; Maillet et al., 1983). This interpreta-
tion appears incompatible with the proposed structural
origin of the South Rennell Trough, which is supposed
to be a fossil spreading ridge (Larue et al., 1977). If the
trough is indeed a fossil spreading ridge, then one would
expect the magnetic lineations in the North d'Entrecas-
teaux Basin and the Santa Cruz Basin to align with the
elongated trough, unless the trough is a relatively young
structure and therefore cross-cuts the magnetic anoma-
lies. We interpret the North d'Entrecasteaux Basin to be
the northwestern extent of the New Caledonia Basin and
therefore interpret it to be of Late Cretaceous to
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26 W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
Paleocene age. Part of the basin was subducted/under-
thrusted during the final stage of subduction rollback
along the east-dipping New Caledonia subduction zone
in the late Eocene to Oligocene (Fig. 3fh).
The Santa Cruz Basin probably developed in the Late
Cretaceous to Paleocene as the northwestern continua-
tion of the South Loyalty Basin (Fig. 3ac). In this light,
the South Rennell Trough could have functioned as a
Late Cretaceous to Paleocene spreading ridge to
accommodate arc-parallel extension behind the arc-
shaped subduction zone. This fits with the interpretation
of Larue et al. (1977) that extension along the trough
increases from southwest to northeast. The spreading
ridge would thus have formed a connection between
spreading in the New CaledoniaNorth d'Entrecasteaux
Basin and the South LoyaltySanta CruzPocklington
Basin.
6.4. New Caledonia subduction zone
The age of formation of the New Caledonia
subduction zone remains speculative, but is here
indirectly constrained from predetermined ages of
geological entities related to the subduction zone. The
first constraint is the age of the South Loyalty backarc
Basin, which subducted along the New Caledonia
subduction zone. The basin formed in the Late
Cretaceous to earliest Eocene (80/85Ma to 55Ma)
(Cluzel et al., 2001; Spandler et al., 2005). It is most
reasonable to assume that the New Caledonia subduc-
tion zone, which formed inside the South Loyalty
backarc Basin, formed after termination of spreading in
the basin, because it is a backarc basin. This assumption
is reasonable, because there is ample evidence that a
new subduction zone, which forms inside a backarc/
marginal basin, only forms after cessation of spreading
in the backarc/marginal basin. Examples include the
formation of the Japan Sea incipient subduction zone in
the Japan Sea backarc Basin, the New Hebrides
subduction zone in the South Fiji Basin (Fig. 3) and
the New BritainSan Cristobal and Trobriand subduc-
tion zones in the Solomon Sea (Fig. 3). Thus, the New
Caledonia subduction zone most likely formed after
55Ma, the time of cessation of spreading in the South
Loyalty Basin.
Some of the South Loyalty backarc Basin sediments
were subjected to 1.92.3GPa HP/LT metamorphism at
44Ma (Aitchison et al., 1995; Carson et al., 1999;
Rawling and Lister, 2002; Fitzherbert et al., 2004;
Spandler et al., 2005) (equivalent to a depth of 58
70km), here interpreted to have been induced by the
initial formation of the subduction zone. Thus, another
constraint is that the subduction zone must have formed
before 44 Ma. The PacificAustralia rotation parameters
indicate that the relative motion changed from strike-slip
to oblique convergent at 50 Ma. As indicated by
dynamic modelling of subduction, an increase in trench-
perpendicular velocity of the subducting plate promotes
subduction-hinge-advance and compression in the
overriding plate (Schellart, 2005). Such a mechanism
could thus have induced formation of the New
Caledonia subduction zone at 50 Ma. The total amount
of PacificAustralia convergence velocity in this region
from 50Ma to 44 Ma is 100150km. If it is assumed that
all the convergence in this period is accommodated
along the incipient subduction fault dipping 30 or 45,
and subduction is only accomplished by convergence
(not by a combination of convergence and gravitational-
induced rollback of the slab itself), then the basin
sediments and volcanics would have been brought to a
depth of 5075km or 71106km respectively. These
depths are sufficient to explain the HP/LT metamor-
phism at 44Ma. Depending on the dip of the incipient
subduction zone one could argue that most of the
convergence (30 fault dip) between the Australian and
the Pacific plates was accommodated by the incipient
subduction zone or only partly (45 fault dip), while part
continued to be accommodated by the Pacific subduc-
tion zone. Considering the PacificAustralia plate
kinematics and the discussion from above it is
concluded that 50 Ma is the most reasonable time for
New Caledonia subduction zone initiation. An earlier
age of subduction initiation between 55Ma and 50 Ma
cannot be excluded, but in this case there is no driving
mechanism that can account for the formation of the
new subduction zone.
One might consider the opposite-dipping New
Caledonia and Pacific subduction zones as illustrated
in the reconstruction in Fig. 3d and e kinematically
unfeasible, as it might result in space-problems at depth,
where the tip of the new Caledonia slab might collide
with the Pacific slab at 200 km depth. Fig. 4c and d
show, however, that such collision at depth does not
occur. A number of reasons can be invoked for this non-
event. First, the New Caledonia trench probably formed
at least 300 km to the west of the Pacific trench,
because the distance between the Loyalty arc and the
southwesternmost extent of the New Caledonia ophio-
lites is presently 200 km. Second, the Pacific slab most
likely had a dip close to vertical at the time of New
Caledonia subduction zone formation, because the
Pacific trench was relatively stable or slowly migrating
forward, promoting a subvertical slab signature in the
upper mantle (e.g. Schellart, 2005). Third, after
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W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
formation of the incipient New Caledonia subduction
zone, subduction became self-sustaining, driven by the
negative buoyancy of the South Loyalty slab itself, and
was almost entirely realised by slab rollback, implying
that the slab sank backward with sinking vectors
oriented westward and dipping at 6570 (Fig. 4c, d)
(e.g. Schellart, 2004a, 2005). These three points
combined indicate that the slabs did not collide at
depth and that the opposite-dipping subduction setting is
geometrically and kinematically feasible. The setting is
also geodynamically plausible, because formation of the
New Caledonia subduction zone was triggered by the
start of convergence between the Australian and Pacific
plates, while continued subduction and rollback was
primarily driven by the negative buoyancy of the South
Loyalty slab itself.
6.5. Spreading patterns in the backarc basins
There is evidently some degree of uncertainty in the
location and orientation of the former spreading ridges
in the backarc basins of the region. In particular, this is
so for the basins that were subsequently (almost)
completely subducted, such as the Pocklington Basin
and the South Loyalty Basin. For these basins, the
spreading ridges were drawn striking subparallel to the
trench and subperpendicular to the trench retreat
direction, as this is observed in most arcbackarc
systems that open approximately symmetrically (Schel-
lart et al., 2002a). The backarc spreading pattern in the
Santa Cruz Basin and the northernmost part of the South
Loyalty Basin was probably rather complex, as it took
place behind a curved subduction zone and arc that were
increasing in arc-parallel length during the Late
Cretaceous and Paleocene. Thus, one could expect
arc-perpendicular spreading ridges (e.g. South Rennell
Trough), arc-parallel spreading ridges and curved
transform faults to accommodate the complex multidi-
rectional extension behind the curved arc. A structural
analysis of the obducted New Caledonia ophiolite has
identified a northsouth oriented shear zone interpreted
as a fossil transform fault and northsouth oriented
mineral lineations interpreted as striking parallel to the
fossil spreading direction (Prinzhofer and Nicolas,
1980; Prinzhofer et al., 1980). The spreading pattern
for the northern South Loyalty Basin as drawn in the
reconstruction can accommodate these observations,
where the initial spreading direction and the strike of
transform faults in the Northern South Loyalty Basin
were oriented northeastsouthwest (Figs. 2b and 3a).
These structures were later reoriented in a position
striking northsouth due to 45 of anticlockwise
27
rotation of the ophiolite during and after obduction onto
the New Caledonia basement (Fig. 3dh).
More recently, it was proposed that a northwest
southeast striking shear zone in the ophiolite in the
northwesternmost part of New Caledonia represents a
fossil transform fault (Leblanc, 1995). Such an interpre-
tation of a northwestsoutheast striking transform fault
cannot be incorporated into the reconstruction, and is at
odds with previous results from Prinzhofer and Nicolas
(1980) and Prinzhofer et al. (1980). We add that the
structural data and geological interpretation from
Prinzhofer and Nicolas (1980) and Prinzhofer et al.
(1980) are more robust because they include both
mineral lineations and foliations, and because the
structures were mapped in a structurally less complicated
region (Southeast New Caledonia) where the ophiolite
sheet is continuous and relatively intact. The northwest
southeast striking shear zone from Leblanc (1995) is
actually the northwestern part of a controversial structure
named the sillon (see Baldwin et al. (in press) for
overview). The structure extends for the entire length of
New Caledonia and is a crustal or lithospheric scale
dextral strike-slip fault that was active after ophiolite
obduction (Brothers and Blake, 1973). Such a strike-slip
structure with its alignment parallel to the fossil New
Caledonia subduction zone and its dextral sense of shear
could be incorporated into the reconstruction. It would
here be interpreted as a dextral transcurrent fault in the
overriding plate above the New Caledonia subduction
zone (e.g. comparable to the Sumatran fault (Fitch,
1972)) accommodating the trench-parallel component of
overriding plate-subducting plate oblique convergence.
The oblique subduction resulted from anticlockwise
rollback of the slab along the curved New Caledonia
subduction zone, which would induce dextral strike-slip
motion along the sillon (Fig. 3h).
The southern termination of the South Loyalty Basin
is interpreted to be a large northwestsoutheast striking
strike-slip fault zone (Fig. 3ac), the Van der Linden
fault zone, which is located just northeast of Northland
and is clearly visible on magnetic maps of the region.
The northwestern continuation of this fault zone, the
Vening Meinesz fracture zone, was active during
opening of the Central New Caledonia Basin (Lafoy et
al., 2005) and was later reactivated during opening of the
Norfolk Basin. The topographic expression of the Van
der Linden fault zone was annihilated after consumption
of the South Loyalty Basin and southwestward obduc-
tion of ophiolites on top of the Northland basement (Fig.
3i), but is still visible on magnetic maps of the region. As
shown in the reconstruction, the spreading orientation in
the southernmost part of the South Loyalty Basin is
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
28 W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
eastwest, subperpendicular to the trench. The recon-
struction predicts that fossil spreading orientations in the
obducted Northland allochthon, which originated from
the southern South Loyalty Basin, would vary between
eastwest and northeastsouthwest, because the alloch-
thon rotated up to 45 anticlockwise from subduction
initiation (Fig. 3f) until obduction (Fig. 3j). This
prediction agrees with findings from structural investi-
gations of the Northland allochthon. The obducted
allochthon contains pre-obduction mafic dikes oriented
northsouth to northwestsoutheast that suggest a
spreading direction oriented eastwest to northeast
southwest (Sprli, 1982), in agreement with the
reconstruction. The anticlockwise rotation of the
allochthon discussed above is in contrast with the large
clockwise rotation (> 60) suggested by Whattam et al.
(2005) based on a paleomagnetic study of rocks from the
allochthon. Their paleomagnetic data, however, show
both apparent clockwise and apparent anticlockwise
rotations, but the apparent anticlockwise rotations were
assumed to result from paleomagnetic poles that formed
during a reversed magnetic polarity chron, thereby
forcing these data to fit into a clockwise rotation model
as well. Turning the assumption around for the apparent
clockwise and apparent anticlockwise rotations would
make the data fit an anticlockwise rotation model. In any
case, it is difficult to incorporate a large clockwise
rotation for the Northland allochthon into the recon-
struction presented in Fig. 3 or any previously proposed
Southwest Pacific reconstruction, including the one
proposed by Whattam et al. (2005). We thus conclude
that the scattered paleomagnetic data could equally be
interpreted the opposite way (e.g. anticlockwise rotation
of the allochthon) or that the data represent local block
faulting rotations rather then rotation of the allochthon as
a whole.
The spreading pattern in the Solomon Sea backarc
Basin and the northeastern part of the North Loyalty
South Fiji backarc Basin are also somewhat speculative,
because large parts have been subducted along the
Trobriand Trough and the New BritainSan Cristobal
New Hebrides Trench. Magnetic anomalies have been
documented for the Solomon Sea and strike eastwest
(Joshima et al., 1987), which fits with the reconstruc-
tion, as it would also predict such an orientation based
on the strike and direction of retreat of the Pocklington
subduction zone. For the subducted part of the North
LoyaltySouth Fiji Basin, the spreading ridges have
been interpreted to strike NNESWW, following a
similar strike as the magnetic anomalies in the South Fiji
Basin (e.g. Davey, 1982; Weissel et al., 1982). Magnetic
anomalies for the North Loyalty Basin have been
interpreted striking ENEWSW (Weissel et al., 1982;
Sdrolias et al., 2003), but this orientation is speculative,
as magnetic data from the basin are not well resolved
and do not provide an unambiguous and clear anomaly
pattern. The anomalies strike parallel to the d'Entrecas-
teaux Ridge and perpendicular to the Loyalty arc. This
appears to be at odds with observations from active arc
backarc systems, where magnetic anomalies run sub-
parallel to the arc and strike subperpendicular to fracture
zones. Potentially, the anomaly pattern in the North
Loyalty Basin is very complex, as it developed behind a
rotating arc in a similar fashion as the North Fiji Basin,
which also has a complex spreading pattern. In the
North Fiji Basin, however, the complex spreading
pattern is observed in the northwestern corner close to
the pole of rotation for the arc, and not in the region
close to the Hunter fracture zone, where the anomalies
run subparallel to the arc and strike at high angle to the
fracture zone (Schellart et al., 2002a). Thus, from the
analogous development of the two basins, one would
expect the magnetic anomalies in the North Loyalty
Basin to strike NNWSSE, subparallel to the Loyalty
arc and subperpendicular to the d'Entrecasteaux Zone,
as illustrated in the reconstruction (Fig. 3e-g).
6.6. Pacific subduction prior to 45Ma
The reconstruction shows the presence of a west to
southwest-dipping Pacific subduction zone prior to
45 Ma. Previously, it has been suggested that this
subduction zone only formed at 2743 Ma (Yan and
Kroenke, 1993) or 4045Ma (Bloomer et al., 1995;
Mller et al., 2000; Hall, 2002). For the time prior to
45 Ma it has been suggested to be an east-dipping
subduction zone (Hall, 2002; Sdrolias et al., 2003,
2004b), a west-dipping subduction zone (Veevers et al.,
1991, Veevers, 2000a,b), a west-dipping subduction
zone before 55Ma (Crawford et al., 2003), a strike-slip
boundary (Mller et al., 2000), an undefined boundary
(Sutherland et al., 2001; Norvick et al., 2001), or no
boundary at all (e.g. the Lord Howe Rise being part of
the Pacific plate (Steinberger et al., 2004)). As shown in
the reconstruction in Figs. 3, 6 and 7, and as discussed in
Section 5 it is kinematically evident that the western
boundary of the Pacific plate must have accommodated
eastwest opening of the South Loyalty Basin and New
Caledonia Basin, and part of the Tasman Sea spreading
from 8052 Ma. The fact that the remnants of the
South Loyalty Basin and Pocklington Basin show
backarc geochemical signatures (e.g. Aitchison et al.,
1995; Thompson et al., 1997; Monnier et al., 1999;
Nicholson et al., 2000; Cluzel et al., 2001; Crawford et
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W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
al., 2003; Spandler et al., 2005) make it therefore most
logical to interpret the Southwest Pacific plate boundary
as a west to southwest-dipping subduction zone that
retreated east to northeastward.
Geological evidence for a westward-dipping subduc-
tion zone in the mid Cretaceous comes from Barremian to
earliest Cenomanian calc-alkaline and andesitic volcanic
rocks in Eastern Australia (Bryan et al., 1997). This has
led several authors to suggest the presence of a mid
Cretaceous volcanic arc and subduction zone running
roughly northsouth along the Eastern margin of
Australia (e.g. Veevers et al., 1991; Norvick et al., 2001;
Sutherland et al., 2001; Betts et al., 2002; Crawford et al.,
2003). The volcanic deposits are mainly found in
extensional and sag basins along the East Australian
coast, suggesting they resulted from backarc extension.
As backarc extension and spreading continued during the
Late Cretaceous to earliest Eocene, arc volcanism would
have migrated towards the east and northeast along with
the retreating subduction zone (Figs. 2 and 3ac).
Remnants of Late Cretaceous to early Eocene arc
volcanism are not overwhelmingly present in the
Southwest Pacific, but could be expected in the New
Guinea, Solomon, New Caledonia, Loyalty, Three
Kings and Northland regions. In the New Caledonia
region, Late Cretaceous calc-alkaline volcanic rocks
have indeed been documented in extensional basins
(Paris, 1981; Black, 1995; Cluzel et al., 2001). In the
Northland region, geochemical analysis of volcanics
also suggests the presence of a Late Cretaceous to Early
Tertiary arc above a west-dipping subduction zone
(Nicholson et al., 2004). Most of the Late Cretaceous to
Early Tertiary arc material in the Southwest Pacific,
however, was probably destroyed or severely disrupted
during phases of slab rollback leading to intra-arc
extension, arc splitting and backarc extension, or during
collision and obduction events, or arc-polarity reversals
(Fig. 3). In addition, one would not expect a large
amount of subduction-induced volcanism to have been
produced during this period in the first place, because
subduction settings, in which subduction largely results
from slab rollback, produce only a limited amount of arc
volcanism. For example, along the Hellenic, the
Calabrian and Betic-Rif arcs, subduction is almost
entirely accomplished by slab rollback at rates of several
centimeters per year (Lonergan and White, 1997; Wortel
and Spakman, 2000). Subduction due to convergence is
very small, due to the high obliquity between the
convergence direction and strike of the trench and due to
the slow convergence between the overriding European
plate and subducting African plate (increasing from
0.4cm/yr near the Betic-Rif arc to 0.8cm/yr near the
29
Hellenic arc (Kahle et al., 1998)). The three Mediter-
ranean subduction zones are characterized by a limited
amount of arc volcanism, producing only a small
number of isolated volcanoes.
A final point should be discussed concerning
subduction kinematics of very wide subduction zones.
The Southwest Pacific subduction zone is sketched as a
long and continuous zone during the Late Cretaceous
and Early Paleogene with a total trench length of
6300km at 50 Ma (Figs. 2 and 3). As discussed in
Sections 5 and 8.3, the predicted rate of rollback of the
eastern segment of the subduction zone is several
centimeters per year with a potential maximum of
7.8cm/yr in the late Paleocene. Current and ongoing
research by the first author and colleagues indicates that
present day very wide subduction zones are close to
stationary or retreat very slowly at up to only 2 cm/yr
(Stegman et al., in press; Schellart et al., unpublished
results). This could imply that the continuous subduc-
tion zone sketched in Figs. 2 and 3ad is actually
segmented in two or more sections separated by small
offsets or slab tears, which would allow the separate
sections to retreat at relatively fast rates and induce
backarc extension and spreading due to more efficient
mantle return flow around the slab tears or edges.
Obviously, it is not possible to plot the location of such
offsets or tears in the reconstruction with any degree of
accuracy, and the speculative nature forced us to not
incorporate such features in the reconstruction. Retreat
of a wide subduction zone was recently proposed to
explain widespread Cenozoic extensional and strike-slip
deformation in East and Southeast Asia. The widespread
deformation was suggested to have resulted from east
and southward retreat of slab segments of the East and
Southeast Asian subduction zones, for which the
cumulative length was more than 7000 km (Schellart
and Lister, 2005). The rate of retreat along these
subduction segments was not quantified, but could
locally have amounted to several centimeter per year in
the Oligocene and Miocene.
7. Amount of Pacific plate subduction since 82 Ma
The total amount of Pacific plate subduction since
82Ma was calculated from the reconstruction at the
location of the cross-section reconstructions presented in
Fig. 4. A total of 2650km (150km) of Pacific plate
was subducted due to PacificAustralia plate convergence
(primarily since 50 Ma), while a minimum of 2350km
(350km) of Pacific plate was subducted due to trench
retreat and rollback of the Pacific slab relative to the
Australian plate (Fig. 9). Uncertainty in the amount of
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
30 W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
Fig. 9. Amount of subduction of the Pacific plate since 82Ma along the
cross-section in Fig. 4. Subduction results from both convergence
between the Australian plate and Pacific plate and from rollback of the
Pacific slab.
subduction due to convergence results from incertitude in
the AustralianPacific relative plate motion. The relative
motion is least constrained for the Late Cretaceous and is
better constrained for the Cenozoic. The total error
probably amounts to not more than 150 km and is
smaller than the total error in estimating the amount of
subduction due to rollback. The rollback component was
calculated from the amount of eastwest opening of the
backarc basins (New Caledonia Basin, South Loyalty
Basin, Norfolk Basin, North Loyalty Basin, South Fiji
Basin, LauHavre Basin) and from part of the Tasman Sea
opening. The estimate of subduction due to rollback
should be seen as a minimum, because only a minimum
eastwest width could be estimated for the South Loyalty
Basin and extensive northeastsouthwest to eastwest
extension in the Lord Howe Rise and New Caledonia
Basin was not taken into account, because the amount of
extension is hard to quantify. The extension predomi-
nantly took place in the Late Cretaceous, and therefore the
amount of subduction prior to 65Ma as postulated in
Fig. 9 is the least constrained. An additional degree of
uncertainty in the amount of subduction due to rollback is
present, because the component also depends on how
much of the backarc extension is caused by absolute
trench-perpendicular motion of the overriding Australian
plate away from the subduction zone. The absolute
motion of the Australian plate was primarily northward to
eastward during the Cenozoic (Gordon and Jurdy, 1986;
Yan and Kroenke, 1993; Mller et al., 2000; Hall, 2002).
Absolute motion of the Australian plate was thus
subparallel to the eastern plate boundary or subperpendi-
cular and converging with the eastern plate boundary.
Therefore backarc opening did not result from Australian
plate motion away from the eastern plate boundary (e.g.
westward motion of the Australian plate) but resulted
almost exclusively from slab rollback. In any case, trench-
perpendicular absolute motion of the overriding plate
away from the subduction zone would modify the
percentage of subduction due to slab rollback, but
would not alter the total amount of subduction, as this is
only dependent on the motion of the subduction hinge
relative to the subducting plate.
The total slab length due to Pacific plate subduction
since 82Ma is of the order 5000km (Fig. 9). One can
assume that Pacific lithosphere that was subducted at
82Ma has now reached a depth of 1800km, which is the
maximum depth of the high-velocity anomaly represent-
ing the Tonga slab in tomography from Krason and van
der Hilst (2000). By tracing the high velocity anomaly in
Fig. 5 and in the tomography of Krason and van der Hilst
(2000), assuming that the slab is planar and not tightly
folded, the slab length only measures 2600km. This
leaves 2400km of slab unaccounted for, implying that
the maximum slab depth is greater than the 1800km as
shown by the tomography or that the slab geometry near
the transition zone and in the lower mantle is not planar
but more complicated, with tight folding of the slab. Such
folding of the Pacific slab is schematically illustrated in
Fig. 4 and could be interpreted from the tomography in
Fig. 5, where the indicated lower mantle high-velocity
anomaly (with P-wave velocities 0.21.0% higher) is
500km wide by 500km thick. Slab folding near and
below the transition zone is indeed predicted by fluid
dynamic modelling of subduction, when a slab
approaches a viscosity gradient near the upperlower
mantle transition zone (Guillou-Frottier et al., 1995;
Griffiths et al., 1995; Schellart, 2005).
8. Discussion
8.1. Episodic backarc extension
The formation of most backarc basins can be
considered as a direct consequence of hinge-retreat of
the subducting plate and collapse of the overriding plate
towards the retreating hinge (Elsasser, 1971; Lonergan
and White, 1997; Hamilton, 1988; Schellart et al.,
2002b; Schellart and Lister, 2004). Thus, to understand
the episodic nature of backarc basins, the episodic
behaviour of hinge-migration needs to be investigated.
From the reconstruction presented in Figs. 2, 3, 4 and 6
it is clear that the structure of the region is a direct result
of a number of distinct slab rollback events, which
lasted 1025Myr. Absolute motion of the Australian
plate cannot be invoked to explain opening of the
Southwest Pacific basins in the Late Cretaceous and
Cenozoic, because it was moving eastward to
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W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
northward, subparallel to subperpendicular to the
eastern and northern boundaries. This absolute motion,
in combination with the PacificAustralia relative
strike-slip motion before 50 Ma and the relative
convergent motion from 50 Ma imply that there was
no significant movement of the Australian plate away
from the subduction zone.
A number of causes can be responsible for the
episodic behaviour of subduction zone hinges. The most
obvious cause is the arrival of buoyant crust (e.g.
continent, arc, ridge, plateau) on the subducting plate at
the trench, which would cause slab rollback to stop or
be retarded and could lead to an increase in compres-
sional stresses across the subduction interface. Indeed,
for the Solomon Sea backarc Basin, the end of a
rollback episode responsible for basin formation
resulted from the consumption of the entire Pocklington
Basin lithosphere and arrival of more buoyant passive
margin lithosphere (New Guinea passive margin) at the
trench. This appears not to have happened after
consumption of the South Loyalty Basin in the New
Caledonia region in the latest Eocene to earliest
Oligocene, as spreading continued in the northern
South Fiji Basin until the latest Oligocene to earliest
Miocene. Presumably, the ridge push force from the
backarc spreading ridge was strong enough to initiate a
new eastward rollback event along the proto Tonga
Kermadec trench at 35 Ma. Also, the combination of
ridge push from the backarc spreading ridge and slab
pull from the South Loyalty slab was strong enough to
accrete the New Caledonia basement to the overriding
plate as the subduction zone jumped to the west of New
Caledonia. This was possible, because the New
Caledonia Ridge was a relatively narrow ridge
( 100km), while it was not possible in the New
Guinea passive margin region, because it was bordered
by an extensive continental hinterland.
For other regions, the termination of backarc opening
appears to be unrelated to the arrival of buoyant
lithosphere at the trench. For example, there is no
geological evidence for initiation of subduction of
buoyant crust along the Pacific trench, which could be
responsible for the termination of opening of the South
LoyaltySanta CruzPocklington Basin, New Caledo-
nia Basin, Tasman Sea Basin, and Coral Sea Basin at
5652 Ma, nor for the termination of spreading in the
northern South Fiji Basin at 2524 Ma and southern
South Fiji Basin and Norfolk Basin at 2016Ma.
Other potential causes for episodic backarc opening and
hinge-migration in these regions should be considered,
such as change in convergence velocity, change in
convergence direction, or change in subduction dynam-
31
ics due to interaction between the slab tip and upper
lower mantle transition.
The episodic nature of subduction hinge-migration
has been investigated previously with fluid dynamical
laboratory models simulating subduction and slab
rollback (Funiciello et al., 2003; Schellart, 2004a,
2005). Schellart (2005) particularly investigated the
behaviour of the subduction hinge during progressive
subduction for a number of trench-perpendicular sub-
ducting plate velocities. The models consist of a dense
high-viscosity plate (e.g. oceanic lithosphere) subduct-
ing into a less dense low-viscosity upper mantle. Results
indicated that the episodic nature of hinge-migration
mainly results from interaction of the slab with the
upperlower mantle discontinuity, which retards or
stops further penetration into the lower mantle and slows
down hinge-retreat. The modelling results further
indicated that a decrease in trench-perpendicular sub-
ducting plate velocity significantly increases the slab
rollback rate. This could possibly explain the initiation
of backarc spreading in the South LoyaltySanta Cruz
Pocklington Basin and spreading in the TasmanCoral
Sea Basin at 8580 Ma. At this time subperpendicular
convergence across the AustralianPacific plate bound-
ary stopped due to termination of spreading along the
Osbourn Trough ( 82 Ma (Billen and Stock, 2000))
(Fig. 2). With a trench-perpendicular subducting plate
velocity close to zero, this would have triggered the
onset of relatively fast east to northeast-directed slab
rollback of the Pacific slab, inducing backarc spreading.
The experimental results of Schellart (2005) further
indicate that episodic hinge-migration is dramatically
amplified if the subducting plate has a relatively high
absolute trenchward plate velocity. Phases of hinge-
retreat were observed to alternate with phases of slow
hinge-retreat, hinge-stability or hinge-advance with a
periodicity of 1020Myr for subducting plate veloc-
ities scaling to >4 cm/yr. This episodic behaviour at high
plate velocities could explain the termination of opening
of the northern South Fiji Basin at 2524Ma and the
southern South Fiji Basin and Norfolk Basin at 20
16 Ma, and the initiation of opening of the LauHavre
Basin at 75Ma, because the absolute velocity of the
subducting Pacific plate was relatively high at this time
( 6.313.3 cm/yr (Wessel and Kroenke, 1997)). Epi-
sodic migration of the subduction hinge along the
AustralianPacific plate boundary would have been
further amplified by a change in PacificAustralia
relative plate motion along the outer subduction zone
from almost pure strike-slip to oblique convergence
between 55 and 45 Ma (Fig. 6). The change in
convergence direction would have caused additional
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
32 W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
compressive stresses along the outer arc, leading to a
stable hinge or hinge-advance and termination of
opening of the TasmanCoral Sea Basin, New Caledo-
nia Basin and South LoyaltySanta CruzPocklington
Basin at 5652 Ma.
8.2. High-pressure rocks in New Caledonia
The reconstruction presented in this paper has some
bearing on mechanisms proposed for the formation
and later exhumation of high-pressure eclogite and
blueschist facies metamorphic rocks in northeast New
Caledonia. These coherent sheets of rock have been
subjected to a number of subsequent shortening and
extension events (Rawling and Lister, 1999, 2002). The
bulk percentage of the rocks has been interpreted as
metasediments and metabasites that formed on the
ocean floor of a backarc basin to be subsequently
metamorphosed under blueschist and eclogite condi-
tions (Aitchison et al., 1995; Cluzel et al., 2001). In the
structurally highest levels of the metamorphic terrane,
ultramafic serpentinites are found in sheet and lenticular
shaped bodies (Cluzel et al., 2001; Rawling and Lister,
2002). These ultramafic rocks have been interpreted to
originate from the mantle of the overriding plate side of
a subduction zone that were incorporated in the
metabasite and metasediment rock pile during subduc-
tion (Cluzel et al., 2001; Fitzherbert et al., 2004).
Spandler et al. (2005) showed that eclogite facies high-
pressure metamorphism in northeast New Caledonia
took place at 44 Ma, using SHRIMP geochronology
on zircon rims. Rawling and Lister (2002) used 40Ar/
39
Ar geochronology to show that exhumation in
extensional shear zones had taken place by 40 Ma. A
more recent and complete 40Ar / 39Ar and fission track
thermochronology study was undertaken by Baldwin et
al. (in press), leading the authors to concluded that rapid
exhumation ( 5mm/yr) via ductile shearing occurred
from 40 to 34 Ma followed by much slower
exhumation (< 0.3 mm/yr) due to brittle normal faulting
and erosion. Thus, it is conclude that the HP event took
place well before the obduction of the main ophiolite
sheet in New Caledonia at 3833.7 Ma, while the
exhumation event started before and continued during
obduction.
The New Caledonia data can be accommodated into
the reconstruction proposed in this paper. Figs. 3d and
4c shows that from 50 Ma, lithospheric shortening
would have been initiated in the backarc region of the
overriding plate above the west-dipping Pacific sub-
duction zone, driven by the onset of convergent motion
between the Australian and Pacific plates at that time.
This correlates with the first shortening event reported
by Rawling and Lister (1999, 2002). The initiation of
convergence led to westward advance of the Pacific
subduction hinge and would have been responsible for
the formation of an east-dipping incipient subduction
zone fault in the backarc region of the overriding plate.
The rotation parameters indicate that from 50 to 44 Ma
the amount of AustralianPacific plate convergence in
this region totals 100150km. If this convergence
would have been accommodated by the incipient
subduction zone fault in the backarc dipping eastward
at 30, then sediments and backarc crust on the lower
plate would have been transported to a depth of 50
75 km. Such depths are sufficient to explain the
formation of the HP/LT metamorphic assemblages in
New Caledonia, which reached blueschist and eclogite
conditions with pressures up to 1.92.3 GPa at 44 Ma
(Aitchison et al., 1995; Carson et al., 1999; Rawling and
Lister, 2002; Fitzherbert et al., 2004). At 44 Ma, the
incipient slab could thus have been up to 100150km
long. Dynamic modelling of subduction shows that a
slab length of 100150 km is already sufficient for
subduction and slab rollback to become self-sustaining
(Gurnis et al., 2004; Schellart, 2005). Dynamic
modelling of subduction further shows that in a scenario
in which the trench-perpendicular plate velocity is close
to zero (fixed trailing edge scenario in Schellart (2005),
which is applicable to the South Loyalty slab) a 120km
long slab can grow to 150km length in 2Myr, with a
total amount of rollback of 60 km and a hinge-retreat
velocity increasing from 0.4cm/yr to 3.5 cm/yr
(Schellart, 2005). Once the slab is 150km long it can
grow to 400km in length in 4 Myr, with a total amount
of rollback of 250 km and a hinge-retreat velocity
increasing to 6.7 cm/yr (Schellart, 2005). Westward
rollback of the east-dipping South Loyalty slab could
thus have accelerated quickly since 44 Ma, causing
extension in the overriding plate, culminating in
splitting of the arc and formation of the North Loyalty
backarc Basin. This extensional phase can be correlated
with the first extension phase along low-angle shear
zones in the HP/LT metamorphic rocks reported by
Rawling and Lister (1999, 2002) and with the
exhumation at 4034 Ma (Baldwin et al., in press). It
is proposed that rapid west-directed rollback of the
South Loyalty slab significantly reduced compressive
stresses in the subduction channel and in the overriding
plate and facilitated rapid exhumation of the high-
pressure rocks when earlier formed thrust faults in the
upper level of the subduction channel were reactivated
as low-angle normal faults. Ultramafics from the
overriding plate hanging wall mantle were incorporated
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
in the upper levels of the sheet of metasediment and
metabasite during exhumation. Continued westward
rollback subsequently led to collision of the Loyalty
fore-arc with the Norfolk Ridge, overthrusting of the
Poya and Pouebo terranes and obduction of the main
mass of the New Caledonia ophiolite at 3833.7Ma
(Cluzel et al., 2001). The ophiolite would have
overridden the exhumed HP/LT rocks in northern New
Caledonia, and caused the second period of shortening
reported by Rawling and Lister (1999, 2002) forming
crustal-scale upright folds.
It is further proposed that the South Loyalty slab
(partly or wholly) delaminated the mantle lithosphere
from the New Caledonia basement crust or that a
detachment fault formed below the New Caledonia crust
while the trench jumped from the east to the west of the
New Caledonia basement crust, which was thereby
accreted to the overriding plate. After jumping of the
subduction zone, a short phase of subduction and
rollback of the North d'EntrecasteauxNew Caledonia
Basin lithosphere continued to the west of New
Caledonia (Fig. 4e). This short rollback stage could be
represented by the early phase of the late-stage normal
faulting episode in New Caledonia as reported by
Rawling and Lister (2002) and Lagabrielle et al. (2005).
A comparable conceptual model of jumping of subduc-
tion zones across narrow continental slivers has recently
been proposed for the Late Cretaceous to Present
evolution of the Hellenic subduction zone. This
subduction zone is characterized by a continuous and
undisrupted Hellenic slab down to 1600km depth,
which implies continuous subduction without breaking
of the slab during accretion of continental slivers to the
overriding plate (van Hinsbergen et al., 2005).
From the discussion above it is clear that the two
shortening events and the two extension events reported
by Rawling and Lister (1999, 2002) can indeed be
incorporated into the reconstruction. Thus, the first
shortening event is attributed to the formation of the
incipient subduction zone fault zone with HP metamor-
phism of sediments and volcanics that were incorporated
into the fault zone. The first extension event is related to
exhumation of the HP metasediments and metabasites as
the incipient subduction zone evolved into a self-
sustaining subduction zone. The subduction zone started
to roll back and releases pressure in the subduction
channel, resulting in exhumation to upper crustal levels
of the HP rocks in the subduction channel region close to
the overriding plate hanging wall. The second shortening
event is attributed to the obduction of the fore-arc
ophiolites on top of the New Caledonia basement. The
second extension event is attributed to the renewed
33
rollback of the South Loyalty slab after jumping of the
subduction zone from the east of the New Caledonia
basement to the west of the New Caledonia basement
and to subsequent slab detachment. The reconstruction
model would thus predict that the first shortening event
and the first extension event only occurred in the HP
metamorphic terranes (Pouebo, Diahot), that the second
shortening event occurred in the overthrusted terranes
(Poya, Pouebo, Diahot), the obducted ophiolite, and
potentially in the New Caledonia basement close to the
thrust faults, while the second extension event occurred
in the overthrusted terranes, the obducted ophiolite and
the New Caledonia basement.
Subduction along the New Caledonia subduction
zone ended when the slab started to detach from the
lithosphere at the surface, potentially due to initiation of
subduction of extended continental crust from the North
d'EntrecasteauxNew Caledonia Basin. Such detach-
ment would then have caused rebound of New
Caledonia crust. The slab detachment process might
also have been responsible for the late stage plutonism
of granitiods in New Caledonia, which took place at
2724 Ma (Cluzel et al., 2005) and post-obduction
multidirectional extension in New Caledonia that lasted
until after the middle Miocene (Lagabrielle et al., 2005).
8.3. Comparison with previous reconstructions
A number of Late CretaceousCenozoic recon-
structions of the Southwest Pacific region have been
presented previously (e.g. Veevers et al., 1991; Yan
and Kroenke, 1993; Gaina et al., 1998; 1999; Mller
et al., 2000; Norvick et al., 2001; Sutherland et al.,
2001; Hall, 2002; Sdrolias et al., 2003, 2004b;
Crawford et al., 2003). Some of these reconstructions
primarily focused on extensional features in the basins
or continental shelf (Norvick et al., 2001; Sutherland
et al., 2001) or on spreading patterns in ocean basins
(Veevers et al., 1991; Gaina et al., 1998, 1999). Such
reconstructions do not offer much insight into the
kinematic development of the southwestern plate
boundary of the Pacific plate. A number of recon-
structions do illustrate the evolution of the southwest-
ern boundary of the Pacific plate, but do not
incorporate primary geological data from one or
more key locations in the Southwest Pacific (e.g.
New Caledonia, Northland, New Guinea), which
makes those reconstructions inconsistent with these
data.
Yan and Kroenke (1993) show the development of
two new large-scale ( 4000km long) intra-oceanic
volcanic arcs, one at 40 Ma (the proto Solomon
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
34 W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
VitiazFiji arc) and one at 27Ma (the proto Tonga
Kermadec arc) in the middle of the Pacific domain, due
to the formation of new intra-oceanic subduction zones.
Other reconstructions show the boundary between the
Pacific and Australian plates as a large-scale ( 5000km
long) east to northeast-dipping subduction zone in the
Late Cretaceous to Eocene, part of which corresponds
with the New Caledonia subduction zone (Hall, 2002;
Sdrolias et al., 2003, 2004b). However, this east-
directed New Caledonia subduction zone was probably
only 2500 km long, bound to the north by the
d'Entrecasteaux transform zone and to the south by
the southern margin of the South Loyalty Basin (e.g.
northeastern passive margin of Northland) (Fig. 3dh).
Sdrolias et al. (2003) show that their inferred large-scale
east-dipping subduction zone was preceded by a west-
dipping subduction zone in the Early Cretaceous, while
both Sdrolias et al. (2003) and Hall (2002) show that the
east-dipping subduction zone was succeeded by a west
to southwest-dipping subduction zone in the late Eocene
to Present. This would require two subduction polarity
reversals along a 5000 km long subduction zone in a
relatively short time-span, which could be geodynami-
cally unlikely. In addition, it cannot explain the backarc
origin and age ( 8055Ma) of the obducted ophiolites
and deep-sea sediments in New Caledonia and North-
land. Furthermore, the models from Sdrolias et al.
(2003) and Hall (2002) are not in agreement with
geological age constraints from New Caledonia. Geo-
logical data imply that subduction continued until
33.7Ma, the last stage of ophiolite obduction in
New Caledonia (Cluzel et al., 2001), or potentially even
several million years longer to produce the 2724 Ma
granitoid intrusives in New Caledonia during the latest
stage of subduction (Cluzel et al., 2005). Thus, the New
Caledonia subduction zone did not become inactive at
45Ma or 50Ma as proposed in the reconstructions
of Sdrolias et al. (2003) and Hall (2002). In addition,
further south, subduction continued until 2221 Ma,
the last stage of ophiolite obduction in Northland (Fig.
3i). The 33.7Ma age from New Caledonia is very
important, because it implies that the middle to late
Eocene North Loyalty Basin and Loyalty arc formed
above an east-dipping subduction zone, as shown in Fig.
3eg and also suggested by Cluzel et al. (2001) and
Crawford et al. (2003), and not above a 5000 km long
west-dipping subduction zone as in Sdrolias et al.
(2003) and Hall (2002). Finally, a west-dipping
eastward retreating Pacific slab since the Late Creta-
ceous is required to accommodate extension and
spreading in the overriding plate backarc basins. Thus,
two subduction polarity reversals along a 5000km
long subduction zone (e.g. Hall, 2002; Sdrolias et al.,
2003) or the formation of two 4000 km long
subduction zones in the middle of the Pacific domain
(e.g. Yan and Kroenke, 1993) are not in agreement with
onshore geological and offshore geophysical data, and
appear geodynamically implausible.
In another reconstruction presented by Sdrolias et al.
(2004b) the opening of the Norfolk Basin is shown to
take place in the early to middle Miocene, while the
southern South Fiji Basin is suggested to be no longer
active. Herzer et al. (2000), however, suggested that the
southern South Fiji Basin was active in the early/middle
Miocene based on seismostratigraphic interpretations of
seismic profiles across the Northland passive margin
and ages of volcanics dredged from seamounts on the
Northland Plateau. A problem with the model from
Sdrolias et al. (2004b) is that it requires the Cook and
Vening Meinesz fracture zones to continue eastward
some thousand kilometers to the proto-Kermadec trench
cutting through the southern South Fiji Basin (inactive
in their model) and the Colville arc to allow for the
Norfolk Basin opening to be accommodated by
eastward slab rollback (as shown in their Fig. 11 in
the 20 Ma and 15 Ma diagram). This does not appear to
be a plausible structural configuration and no present-
day examples exist on Earth with a comparable
geometry. In addition, their 15Ma diagram shows that
the northern part of the Pacific subduction zone (proto-
Tonga trench) has retreated eastward relative to the
location of the trench at 20Ma, presumably to prevent
the formation of a kink in the trench near its intersection
with their eastern extent of the Cook fracture zone.
However, spreading in the northern South Fiji Basin,
which could have accommodated this eastward rollback,
had already stopped in the latest Oligocene at 25 Ma
(Weissel et al., 1982; Sdrolias et al., 2003). Thus, this
trench section should not have retreated eastward,
contrary to what is shown in the diagrams in their Fig.
11. Finally, the reconstruction from Sdrolias et al.
(2004b) does not take the latest Oligocene to earliest
Miocene obduction event in Northland into account. In
conclusion, geological data and structural and kinematic
arguments support the model in which opening of the
Norfolk Basin was contemporaneous with the last phase
of opening in the southern South Fiji Basin, as shown in
Fig. 3ij and as proposed in the reconstruction from
Crawford et al. (2003).
The reconstruction presented in Fig. 3 shows
conceptual similarities with a reconstruction presented
by Crawford et al. (2003), who show the formation of a
backarc basin (South Loyalty Basin) in the Late
Cretaceous to Paleocene behind a west-dipping eastward
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
retreating Pacific subduction zone. In addition, Crawford
et al. (2003) argue for the formation of an east-dipping
New Caledonia subduction zone at 5550 Ma, which
consumes the South Loyalty backarc Basin during
westward rollback similar to the reconstruction pre-
sented in Fig. 3df. Crawford et al. (2003) show that this
new subduction zone forms by a polarity reversal, in
which the west-dipping Pacific subduction zone is
replaced at 5550 Ma by the east-dipping New
Caledonia subduction zone, while a new west-dipping
Pacific subduction zone forms in a later period from
45 to 35Ma. Although there is no geological or
geophysical data available that could disprove this
aspect of their reconstruction, we do question the
physical viability of the large-scale polarity reversals
between 55 and 45 Ma. At present, there is no record
of a geological event that could have been responsible
for such a large-scale reversal along a 3000 km long
subduction zone. The change in AustralianPacific
relative plate motion that occurred at 50Ma (see Fig.
6ce) would have induced additional compressive
stresses across the subduction zone to form a new
subduction zone in the backarc region, but is unlikely
that the change would have resulted in termination of
the Pacific subduction zone. Termination of a mature
subduction zone would require locking of the
subduction zone by arrival of buoyant material at
the trench (e.g. Regard et al., 2003) and subsequent
detachment of the slab from the trailing plate (e.g.
Wortel and Spakman, 2000). However, no geological
event has been documented to cause such locking
during this time interval in the Southwest Pacific
region. Slab pull forces exerted from the slab towards
the trailing plate at the surface would have sustained
progressive subduction (e.g. Schellart, 2004b) and
would therefore not have allowed termination of
subduction of the Pacific plate. Indeed, progressive
lengthening of the slab along the Southwest Pacific
subduction zone would have increases slab pull forces,
which would have forced the trailing Pacific plate to
move in a more westerly direction. This could have
attributed to the change in motion of the Pacific plate
that started at 50 Ma.
Numerous reconstructions have been proposed for
the Northland region. A number of these reconstruc-
tions imply that Northland allochthon obduction is
driven by southwestward Pacific plate subduction
underneath Northland or that obduction is driven by
southwestward South Fiji Basin subduction underneath
Northland resulting from collision of the Hikurangi
Plateau with New Zealand (Herzer et al., 1997, 2000;
King, 2000; Whattam et al., 2004, 2005). In both
35
scenarios it would imply that the amount and direction
of PacificAustralia relative motion in the Northland
region or Hikurangi trench region should be of
comparable magnitude and direction as that for the
obduction of the Northland allochthon at the time of
obduction ( 2522Ma). Structural investigations in-
dicate that the direction of Northland allochthon
obduction ranges between 185 and 238 with a
mean of 216 (Rait, 2000). The PacificAustralia
relative motion along the Hikurangi trench at 2520Ma
is oriented WNW ( 290) and the amount of
displacement in this 5 Myr period is 194 km in the
north and 163 km in the south (Fig. 6i), while in the
Northland region it is oriented WNW (285) and the
amount of displacement in this time frame is 190km.
The PacificAustralia relative plate motion in the
Hikurangi trench region and Northland region thus
strikes at high angle ( 74 and 69 respectively)
with the average direction of obduction (216). Such a
high strike angle makes it unlikely that the obduction
was driven by the PacificAustralia relative plate
motion. Furthermore, the Northland allochthon thrust
front strikes northwestsoutheast and thus strikes at a
low angle ( 30) with the direction of Pacific
Australia relative plate motion in the Northland region
(285). In the 3 Myr period of obduction, the total
amount of thrust front-perpendicular PacificAustralia
convergence only amounts to 57 km and the amount
of convergence parallel to the average ophiolite
displacement direction (216) is only 41 km. Con-
sidering that the amount of southwestward displace-
ment of the obducted sheet is at least 200 km
(calculated from the offshore thrust front southwest of
Northland (Fig. 1 in Rait, 2000) to the shelf edge
northeast of Northland) it is clear that the Pacific
Australia convergence is insufficient to explain such a
minimum distance of southwest-directed obduction.
Even when considering that the obduction period lasted
6 Myr instead of 3Myr and took place at any time in the
period 30 Ma to 20 Ma, then still the amount of
convergence is only 100 km, which is only half the
minimum amount required for obduction of the
ophiolite sheet. As shown in the reconstruction in
Fig. 3, southwestward rollback of the South Loyalty
slab can explain both the direction (southwestward) and
scale (minimum of 200km) of the obduction event
without any difficulty. This new model for ophiolite
obduction in Northland is kinematically and dynami-
cally feasible, and is supported by the geological,
structural and petrological characteristics of the region.
The structural setting for ophiolite obduction with a
slab dipping away from the continental passive margin
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
36 W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
has been proposed previously as a geodynamically
sound setting to explain ophiolite obduction at many
other sites around the globe (Moores, 1970; Dewey,
1976; Edelman, 1988).
It has recently been suggested that the Lord Howe
Rise was not a separate microplate at 8352 Ma, but
was part of the Pacific plate (Steinberger et al., 2004).
This model would predict a large amount of extensional
deformation in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica (400
450 km). We show that, by using the rotation poles from
Table 7 for the Lord Howe RisePacific relative motion
(and assuming no deformation in Antarctica prior to
45Ma), there is convergent motion for the period 65
52Ma between the Lord Howe Rise microplate and the
Pacific plate (Fig. 7). The convergent motion is very
small in the south, with only 25 km of convergence
across the northeastern extent of the Emerald fracture
zone, but increases along the eastern boundary from
150km of eastwest convergence in the southeast to
300km of eastwest convergence in the northeast.
Such large amounts of convergence in an oceanic setting
would require a subduction boundary in between the
microplate in the west and the Pacific plate in the east, in
which the Pacific plate rolled back eastward at an
average rate of 1.2 cm/yr in the southeast to 2.3 cm/
yr in the northeast. Thus, our data do not support the
assumption that the Lord Howe Rise was attached to the
Pacific plate from 6552Ma. In addition, our recon-
struction has identified another plate boundary in
between the Lord Howe Rise microplate and the Pacific
plate, i.e. the backarc spreading ridge in the South
LoyaltySanta CruzPocklington backarc Basin. The
backarc basin opened from 80Ma to 55 Ma and
reached an eastwest width of 750km or more. Also,
the latest results from a geophysical investigation of the
New Caledonia Basin suggest the existence of an
additional backarc spreading ridge. The new Caledonia
Basin opened up in an eastwest fashion from the Late
Cretaceous to the Paleocene, with extension until
62Ma and spreading in the Central New Caledonia
Basin that was suggested to occur from 62 Ma until
56Ma (Lafoy et al., 2005). The amount of extension
remains unquantified, but the amount of eastwest
spreading amounts to 150 km. This would imply two
northsouth striking spreading ridges in between the
Lord Howe Rise and the Pacific plate. The rate of east
west opening for these two basins is not accurately
constrained, but a number of average rates can be
calculated. A minimum average of 3.0 cm/yr can be
calculated for the period 80 Ma to 62 Ma (750 km/
25Myr), without taking into account the amount of
extension in the New Caledonia Basin, as it is not
quantified. An average of 5.5cm/yr can be calculated for
the period 62 Ma to 56Ma (750 km/25 Myr + 150 km/
6Myr). Finally, a rate of 3.0 cm/yr can be calculated for
the period 56 Ma to 55 Ma. These rates imply a
significant additional component of convergence on
top of the component calculated from the Lord Howe
RisePacific convergence. This convergence occurred
between the outer arc and the Pacific plate and was
accommodated by eastward rollback of the Pacific slab.
Thus, the Lord Howe Rise could not have been attached
to the Pacific plate from 83 Ma to 52Ma.
The plate boundary between the Challenger Plateau
on the Lord Howe Rise microplate and the Campbell-
Chatham block on the Pacific plate was probably
represented by the northeastern continuation of the
Emerald fracture zone. The diagram in Fig. 7 shows
25km of dextral strike-slip and 25 km of conver-
gence along this fault segment, which would translate
into an average of 2mm/yr dextral strike-slip and
2mm/yr convergence across the plate boundary. On
the South Island of New Zealand, there is structural
and geochronological evidence for dextral shearing in
mylonites from the Fraser complex during the Late
Cretaceous to Early Tertiary (White and Green, 1986;
Rattenbury, 1987). The foliation in the mylonites is
subvertical, dipping slightly towards and striking
parallel to the Alpine fault, while the lineations
indicate a dextral sense of shear and vary between
horizontal and 45 (Rattenbury, 1987), which could
be the result of the dextral oblique convergence as
implied by the Lord Howe RisePacific relative plate
motion (Fig. 7).
9. Conclusions
We have presented a tectonic reconstruction of the
Southwest Pacific region for the Late Cretaceous and
Cenozoic periods. The reconstruction provides a
coherent and logical synthesis of the region, in which
the large-scale structures resulted primarily from
subduction, slab rollback and backarc extension pro-
cesses. The first order structures resulted from episodic
eastward to northeastward rollback of the subducting
Pacific plate during the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic,
leading to the formation of several backarc basins bound
by continental fragments and volcanic ridges (e.g. New
Caledonia Basin, South LoyaltySanta CruzPockling-
ton Basin, South Fiji Basin, Norfolk Basin, LauHavre
Basin, Coral Sea). From the reconstruction a minimum
eastwest width of the South Loyalty Basin is estimated
at 750km. Slab rollback also accommodated part (150
300km) of the eastwest component of opening in the
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx
Tasman Sea Basin during the Paleocene and earliest
Eocene. The second order structures resulted from
subduction and rollback of backarc basin lithosphere.
Subduction of the South Loyalty and Pocklington
backarc basins took place from the Eocene to earliest
Miocene, induced arc volcanism in the LoyaltyThree
Kings arc and New Guinea arc, induced formation of the
North Loyalty and Solomon Sea backarc basins, and
culminated in the obduction of the New Caledonia,
Northland and New Guinea ophiolites in the latest
Eocene to earliest Miocene. In the early to middle
Miocene, two additional subduction zones formed in the
backarc region, namely the Trobriand subduction zone,
along which the Solomon Sea was subducted south-
ward, and the New BritainSan CristobalNew Heb-
rides subduction zone, along which the Solomon Sea,
the North LoyaltySouth Fiji Basin and the remains of
the Santa CruzSouth Loyalty Basin were subducted
northward. Southeastward rollback along the New
Britain trench partly accommodated opening of the
Manus backarc Basin from 6 Ma to Present, while
clockwise rollback along the New Hebrides trench
accommodated opening of the North Fiji Basin from
1211 Ma to Present. The episodic phases of slab
rollback and backarc opening in the region can be
explained by either a change in subducting plate density
(e.g. arrival of buoyant lithosphere at the trench), a
change in subduction dynamics related to slab tip
mantle transition zone interaction during rapid subduct-
ing plate motion, or a change in large-scale plate
kinematics. All these processes can potentially initiate
or stall hinge-retreat and might cause hinge-advance.
Such hinge-advance could result in formation of a new
subduction zone in the backarc region of the overriding
plate.
Acknowledgments
Discussions on Southwest Pacific geology with Tony
Crawford, Robert Hall, Dominique Cluzel, Mike Hall,
Tim Rawling, Joann Stock and Sebastian Meffre are
greatly appreciated. Comments by Gideon Rosenbaum
and Rupert Sutherland on an early version of the
manuscript and official reviews from John Veevers and
an anonymous reviewer are also appreciated. The
reconstruction software was provided by the Australian
Computational Earth Science Simulator Major National
Research Facility (the ACcESS MNRF) (http://www.
access.edu.au/). This research was supported by two
Discovery Grants from the Australian Research Coun-
cil, from which one was awarded to W. P Schellart and
one was awarded to G. S. Lister.
37
Appendix A
The PacificAustralia and Lord Howe RisePacific
relative plate motions were calculated using the
PacificWest AntarcticaEast AntarcticaAustralia
Lord Howe Rise plate circuit. PacificAntarctic
relative plate motions were calculated previously by
fitting of magnetic anomalies across the Southwest
Pacific Ridge (Cande et al., 1995), AntarcticAustralia
relative plate motions were calculated previously by
fitting of magnetic anomalies across the southeast
Indian Ridge (Royer and Sandwell, 1989; Royer and
Rollet, 1997; Cande et al., 2000), and Lord Howe
RiseAustralia relative plate motions were calculated
previously by fitting of magnetic anomalies across the
Tasman Sea (Gaina et al., 1998). Motion between East
and West Antarctica along a diffuse plate boundary was
quantified by Cande et al. (2000), who determined the
motions to close the gap between the Pacific and
Australian plates that had been a result of previous
reconstruction parameters. It was found that this motion
occurred between anomaly 20n (y) (42.5 Ma) and
anomaly 8n.1n (o) (26.1 Ma). We assumed that the
entire rotation of 1.7 had occurred at a constant rate
over this period. This is equivalent to a rotation rate of
0.104 Myr 1. Any rotation pole required for a certain
time (tr) during this period is located at the same place
as the pole describing the entire rotation, and has
magnitude equal to (tr 26.1) 0.104 Myr 1 . We
assumed that for times from anomaly 8n.1n(o)
(26.1 Ma) to the Present there was no relative motion
between East and West Antarctica (Cande et al., 2000).
We also assumed that there was no relative motion
prior to 20n (y). It has, however, been suggested that
there was relative motion between East and West
Antarctica prior to 42.5 Ma, but the amount of motion
is probably small and not well quantified ( 100km),
and the time frame for this motion is also not well
constrained (Cande and Stock, 2004b). Steinberger et
al. (2004) argued for a large amount of extension (400
450 km) between East and West Antarctica prior to
42.5 Ma, predicted by a plate-circuit reconstruction in
which the Lord Howe Rise is assumed to be attached to
the Pacific plate prior to 45 Ma. This plate circuit was
chosen to avoid a circuit going through East and West
Antarctica. With such a circuit, in which it was
assumed that no deformation occurred between East
and West Antarctica prior to 42.5 Ma, the rotation
parameters from Steinberger et al. (2004) predicted
large amounts of convergence in the New Zealand
region from 6547 Ma for which they claimed there is
no geological evidence. However, such a large amount
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
38 W.P. Schellart et al. / Earth-Science Reviews xx (2006) xxxxxx

Table A1
Total poles of rotation to reconstruct the position of the first-listed plate relative to the second-listed plate at the given time from its present-day
position. Positive rotations indicate anticlockwise rotations when viewed from above the surface of the Earth and going backward in time
Magnetic anomaly a Age Latitude Longitude Rotation Reference
(Ma) a (N) (E) ()
PacificWest Antarctica
1 [1n (o)] 0.8 [0.8] 64.25 79.06 0.68 Cande et al., 1995
2a [2An.1n (y)] 2.6 [2.6] 67.03 73.72 2.42 Cande et al., 1995
3a [3An.1n (y)] 5.9 [5.9] 67.91 77.93 5.42 Cande et al., 1995
4a [4An (m)] 8.9 [9.0] 69.68 77.06 7.95 Cande et al., 1995
5a [5An.2n (m)] 12.3 [12.6] 71.75 73.77 10.92 Cande et al., 1995
5d [5Dn (m)] 17.5 [17.6] 73.68 69.85 15.17 Cande et al., 1995
6c [6Cn.3n (m)] 24.1 [24.1] 74.72 67.28 19.55 Cande et al., 1995
10 [10n.1n (y)] 28.3 [27.4] 74.55 67.38 22.95 Cande et al., 1995
13o [13n (o)] 33.5 [33.5] 74.38 64.74 27.34 Cande et al., 1995
20 [20n (y)] 42.5 [42.5] 74.90 51.31 34.54 Cande et al., 1995
21 [21n (o)] 47.9 [47.9] 74.52 50.19 37.64 Cande et al., 1995
24 [24n.3n (o)] 53.3 [53.3] 73.62 52.50 40.03 Cande et al., 1995
27 [27n (m)] 61.1 [61.1] 71.38 55.57 44.90 Cande et al., 1995
31 [31r (m)] 67.7 [67.7] 69.33 53.44 51.05 Cande et al., 1995

East AntarcticaAustralia
5 [5r.1n (y)] 10.5 [11.3] 12.5 36.7 6.62 Royer and Sandwell, 1989
6 [6n (o)] 20.5 [20.2] 14.5 32.8 11.98 Royer and Sandwell, 1989
13o [13n (o)] 33 [33.5] 13.696 33.975 20.485 Cande et al., 2000
18 [18n.2n (o)] 40.1 [40.1] 14.32 31.75 23.77 Royer and Rollet, 1997
20 [20n (o)] 46.2 [43.8] 15.1 31.3 24.50 Royer and Sandwell, 1989
24 [24n.3n (o)] 53.3 [53.3] 12.65 32.76 25.24 Royer and Rollet, 1997
30 [30n (y)] 65.6 [65.6] 11.79 32.96 26.05 Royer and Rollet, 1997
31 [31n (y)] 68.5 [67.7] 8.7 33.2 25.83 Royer and Sandwell, 1989

West AntarcticaEast Antarctica

8 [8n.1n(o)] 26 [26.1] 0 0 0 Cande et al., 2000
13o [13n (o)] 33 [33.5] 18.146 17.847 0.696 Cande et al., 2000
20 [20n (y)] 43 [42.5] 18.146 17.847 1.700 Cande et al., 2000
[31n (y)] [67.5] 18.146 17.847 1.700 Cande et al., 2000
a
Isochrons and ages on the left are from the reference in the sixth column, while isochrons and updated ages in the square brackets are correlations
by current authors.

of convergence is not observed in the reconstruction
here, with only 25km of convergence in the New
Zealand region from 65 Ma to 52Ma (Fig. 7) and only
15km of convergence from 52 Ma to 47Ma. This
translates into convergence velocities of only 2 mm/
yr and 3 mm/yr respectively. Thus, assuming no
deformation between East and West Antarctica prior to
42.5 seems warranted, at least until deformation prior
to 42.5 Ma is better quantified, as it only produces a
small amount of convergence in the New Zealand
region, for which there is indeed geological evidence
(e.g. Fraser complex, see Section 8.3). In addition, as
shown in the reconstruction and discussed throughout
the paper, geological and kinematic data demonstrate
that the Lord Howe Rise was not attached to the Pacific
plate prior to 45 Ma, but was separated from it by two
backarc spreading/extensional zones and a west-
dipping subduction zone. Therefore, a plate-circuit in
which the Lord Howe Rise is attached to the Pacific
plate cannot be adopted.
The various poles of rotation used in the Pacific
West AntarcticaEast AntarcticaAustralia plate cir-
cuit calculations are listed in Table A1. The ages
assigned to isochron picks by previous authors were
reassigned based on the updated timescales of
Huestis and Acton (1997) and Cande and Kent
(1995). Correlation of isochrons in the source data
was carried out by determining the age the authors
assigned to an isochron, reading off the exact
isochron with that age in the timescale they had
used, and then determining the age for that isochron
in the updated timescales. The methods outlined in
Cox and Hart (1987) were applied to the data plotted
in Table A1 to calculate the new rotation parameters
for PacificAustralia motion (Table 5) and Lord
Howe RisePacific motion (Table 7).
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
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