Hikurangi Plateau: Crustal structure, rifted formation, and Gondwana subduction history

Seismic reflection profiles across the Hikurangi Plateau Large Igneous Province and adjacent margins reveal the faulted volcanic basement and overlying Mesozoic-Cenozoic sedimentary units as well as the structure of the paleoconvergent Gondwana margin at the southern plateau limit. The Hikurangi Plateau crust can be traced 50-100 km southward beneath the Chatham Rise where subduction cessation timing and geometry are interpreted to be variable along the margin. A model fit of the Hikurangi Plateau back against the Manihiki Plateau aligns the Manihiki Scarp with the eastern margin of the Rekohu Embayment. Extensional and rotated block faults which formed during the breakup of the combined Manihiki-Hikurangi plateau are interpreted in seismic sections of the Hikurangi Plateau basement. Guyots and ridgelike seamounts which are widely scattered across the Hikurangi Plateau are interpreted to have formed at 99-89 Ma immediately following Hikurangi Plateau jamming of the Gondwana convergent margin at similar to 100 Ma. Volcanism from this period cannot be separately resolved in the seismic reflection data from basement volcanism; hence seamount formation during Manihiki-Hikurangi Plateau emplacement and breakup (125-120 Ma) cannot be ruled out. Seismic reflection data and gravity modeling suggest the 20-Ma-old Hikurangi Plateau choked the Cretaceous Gondwana convergent margin within 5 Ma of entry. Subsequent uplift of the Chatham Rise and slab detachment has led to the deposition of a Mesozoic sedimentary unit that thins from similar to 1 km thickness northward across the plateau. The contrast with the present Hikurangi Plateau subduction beneath North Island, New Zealand, suggests a possible buoyancy cutoff range for LIP subduction consistent with earlier modeling.