Southern New Hebrides Basin and western South Fiji Basin as a single marginal basin

Abstract

The results of various recent geophysical studies suggest that the southern New Hebrides Basin and the western South Fiji Basin were once a single marginal basin. The basin originated above an ancient subduction of the lndian Plate under the Pacific Plate, active during Eocene?Oligocene. The 'fossil' subduction zone stretched along the western side of the Loyalty Rise and the Three Kings Rise both of which would have then belonged to the same volcanic arc.