Part 5. Plate boundary evolution in the New Guinea region: Southeastern Papua ? evolution of volcanism on a plate boundary

Abstract

Eastern Papua straddles a minor plate boundary between the India plate to the south and the Solomon Sea plate to the north (Johnson & Molnar, 1972). This boundary is defined by a zone of weak, shallow, seismicity (Denham, 1969) and is clearly not particularly active at the present time. Nevertheless there is ample geological evidence for intense tectonic activity and volcanism at various times during the Cenozoic.