Ontong Java and Kerguelen Plateaux: Cretaceous Icelands?

• Main Authors: Coffin, M.F., Gahagan, L.M.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1995
• Subjects: Kerguelen; Pacific; Indian; Broken Ridge; Iceland
• Online Access: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/52421/; http://jgs.lyellcollection.org/cgi/content/abstract/152/6/1047

Together with Iceland, the two giant oceanic plateaux, Ontong Java in the western Pacific and Kerguelen/Broken Ridge in the Indian Ocean, are accumulations of mafic igneous rock which were not formed by ‘normal’ seafloor spreading. We compare published geochronological, crustal structure, and subsidence results with tectonic fabric highlighted in new satellite-derived free-air gravity data from the three igneous provinces, and conclude that existing evidence weighs lightly against the Ontong Java and Kerguelen plateaux originating at a seafloor spreading centre.