Revised history of early Tertiary plate motion in the south-west Pacific

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Stock, Joann, Molnar, Peter
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 1987
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Bellingshausen Sea; Pacific; New Zealand; Campbell Plateau; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1038/325495a0

Reanalysis of early Tertiary magnetic anomalies on the Pacific plate south of the Campbell Plateau indicates that in early Tertiary time there was a previously unrecognized triple junction of the Pacific, the Antarctic, and a third plate now beneath the Bellingshausen sea. Corresponding revised parameters for Pacific–Antarctica motion do not require early Tertiary displacements within Antarctica or New Zealand, but suggest a change in direction of the Pacific plate over the hotspots of approximately the same sense and timing as the Hawaiian–Emperor bend. © 1987 Nature Publishing Group. Received 23 July; accepted 9 December 1986. We thank J. Weissel for providing copies of Endeavor magnetic records, Graig McHendrie of the US Geological Survey for assistance with plotting, and R. L. Larson and W. Harbert for constructive criticism of the manuscript. This work was supported by NSF grant OCE-8400090 and by a Fannie and John Hertz Foundation graduate fellowship to J. Stock.