Hiatus and tephrochronology of the Ontong Java Plateau: correlation with regional tectono-volcanic events

Abstract

Evidence of regional tectonism/volcanism in the southwestern Pacific is inferred from the presence of hiatuses and/or ash encountered in the sections drilled on the Ontong Java Plateau at Ocean Drilling Program Sites 803-807 and Deep Sea Drilling Project Sites 288 and 289/586. In general, hiatuses on the plateau do not correlate well with one another or with the deep-sea hiatuses reported by others. Correspondence between groups or clusters of ash horizons between sites on the plateau is better in the upper part of the stratigraphic section than in the lower part. Both hiatus and ash occurrences appear to correlate well with changes in plate motion of the Indo-Australian and Pacific plates, seafloor-spreading story, initiation and cessation of southwest Pacific subduction events, related periods of explosive arc volcanism, and proximal intraplate volcanism. -Authors