The tectonic history of the Tasman Sea: A puzzle with 13 pieces

TLDR

The early opening of the Tasman Sea cannot be modeled by a simple two‑plate system because rifting propagated from south to north in stages and several rifts failed. The study presents a new model for the tectonic evolution of the Tasman Sea based on dense satellite altimetry data and a new shipboard data set. The model was built by integrating satellite altimetry, shipboard data, revised magnetic anomaly and fracture zone interpretations, and gravity, bathymetry, seismic, and dredged rock evidence to calculate relative motions and finite rotations between the Australian and Lord Howe Rise plates from 73.6 to 52 Ma. The model shows that from 67.7 to 64.0 Ma transpression between the Chesterfield and Marion plateaus produced strike‑slip motion and likely formed the Capricorn Basin, a counterclockwise shift in spreading direction at 61.2 Ma coincided with a similar event in the southwest Pacific, and 13 microplates drove the early opening of the Tasman Sea, with derived finite rotations describing their dispersal.

Abstract

We present a new model for the tectonic evolution of the Tasman Sea based on dense satellite altimetry data and a new shipboard data set. We utilized a combined set of revised magnetic anomaly and fracture zone interpretations to calculate relative motions and their uncertainties between the Australian and the Lord Howe Rise plates from 73.6 Ma to 52 Ma when spreading ceased. From chron 31 (67.7 Ma) to chron 29 (64.0 Ma) the model implies, transpression between the Chesterfield and the Marion plateaus, followed by strike‐slip motion. This transpression may have been responsible for the formation of the Capricorn Basin south of the Marion Plateau. Another major tectonic event took place at chron 27 (61.2 Ma), when a counterclockwise change in spreading direction occurred, contemporaneous with a similar event in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The early opening of the Tasman Sea cannot be modeled by a simple two‐plate system because (1) rifting in this basin propagated from south to north in several stages and (2) several rifts failed. We identified 13 continental blocks which acted as microplates between 90 Ma and 64 Ma. Our model is constrained by tectonic lineaments visible in the gravity anomaly grid and interpreted as strike‐slip faults, by magnetic anomaly, bathymetry and seismic data, and in case of the South Tasman Rise, by the age and affinity of dredged rocks. By combining all this information we derived finite rotations that describe the dispersal of these tectonic elements during the early opening of the Tasman Sea.