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Impact origin for the greater Ontong Java Plateau?

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 08:42 authored by Ingle, S, Mike CoffinMike Coffin
The ∼120 Ma Ontong Java Plateau and neighboring, contemporaneous Nauru, East Mariana, and (probably) Pigafetta basin flood basalts in the western equatorial Pacific Ocean comprise the Earth's largest flood basalt province. Geophysical, geochemical, and geodynamic evidence from the province are difficult to reconcile with mantle plume models; absence of an obvious hotspot source or track, minor crustal uplift associated with emplacement, minor total subsidence compared with normal oceanic crust or other oceanic plateaus and submarine ridges, high degrees of melting at shallow, upper mantle depths, low water contents of basalts, enrichment of platinum group elements in basalts, and a ∼300 km deep, seismically slow mantle root are more consistent with the consequences of an impacting bolide. An object ∼20 km in diameter impacting relatively young (∼20 Myr) Pacific lithosphere and penetrating into the uppermost asthenosphere would have initiated massive decompression melting in the upper mantle, and may have resulted in emplacement of the greater Ontong Java Plateau. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

History

Publication title

Earth and Planetary Science Letters

Volume

218

Issue

1-2

Pagination

123-134

ISSN

0012-821X

Department/School

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies

Publisher

Elsevier Science Bv

Place of publication

Po Box 211, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1000 Ae

Rights statement

Copyright © 2003 Elsevier B.V.

Repository Status

  • Restricted

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