
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Carney, J.N. 
A1  - Macfarlane, A. 
T1  - Lower to middle Miocene sediments on Maewo, New Hebrides, and their relevance to the development of the outer Melanesian arc system
JF  - Exploration Geophysics
JO  - Explor. Geophys.
Y1  - 1978
VL  - 9
IS  - 3
SP  - 123
EP  - 130
KW  - 
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1071/EG978123 
N2  - Lower to Middle Miocene sediments on Maewo contain clasts derived from the 'Vitiaz arc', a former tholeiitic volcanic belt similar in age, lithology and geochemistry to Upper Eocene?Middle Miocene rocks on Viti-Levu, Fiji. The configuration of Outer Melanesia from the New Hebrides through Fiji to Tonga-Lau in the Early to Middle Miocene was a double arc compising a frontal arc (Vitiaz arc ? Viti Levu ? Tonga Ridge) and a rear arc (Western Belt?Lau Ridge) couple. Tectonism in the Middle Miocene brought about inter-arc rifting between the Vitiaz arc?Western Belt couple and the anti-clockwise rotation of Viti Levu into a rear arc position; further fragmentation and the development of marginal basins had also affected the Tonga-Lau couple by the Early Pliocene. Mio-Pliocene lavas of the New Hebrides Eastern Belt were erupted in the Vitiaz arc?Western Belt inter-arc basin in response to further rifting and crustal thinning associated with the developing proto-North Fiji Basin. Expansion of this basin was accompanied by subduction reversal from the eastern to western margins of the New Hebrides Ridge which then migrated south-westwards to its present position. The present configuration of the New Hebrides Ridge is a typical of that usually attributed to SW Pacific arc systems. 
ER  -

