The Vanuatu Island Arc: An Outline of the Stratigraphy, Structure, and Petrology

Abstract

Vanuatu (formerly the New Hebrides Anglo—French Condominium) forms one sector of a Cretaceous to Recent island arc system extending from New Britain through the Solomon Islands to Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and the Kermadec Islands (Fig. 1). The component arcs originally formed a volcanic chain to the south and west of a subduction zone dipping towards Australia and now seen as a discontinuous line of active and inactive trenches. Fragmentation of this earlier arc—trench system during the late Miocene resulted in the formation of new subduction zones dipping northwards and eastwards beneath the Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and New Britain arc sections.