Ellice Deep Sea Basin

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The Ellice ocean basins (ger .: Ellice Basin ) is a basin in the Pacific Ocean . The basin is named after the surrounding Ellice Islands, today's Tuvalu .

geography

The deep sea basin extends north of Fiji , between the Ontong Java Plateau in the west and the Manihiki Plateau in the southeast. It is believed that the oceanic crust in the basin was formed by the formation of the edge of the Pacific Phoenix plate in a quieter phase of the Cretaceous Period (Cretaceous Quiet Zone). Possibly further expansion centers later formed in the Penrhyn Basin , the Tongareva and Osbourn troughs and in the west on the Manihiki Plateau.

The Ellice Basin has a complex tectonic structure and is characterized by a narrow band of oceanic crust (115–190 km wide and approx. 1000 km long), which extends roughly from east to west. There are several oblique, northwest-southeast oriented, regularly subdivided fracture zones ( Ellice Ridge and others) that subdivide this band and run into two almost parallel fracture zones that limit this stream to the north and south. North of this band up to the Nova-Canton Trough , the ocean floor is much more uniform and less divided by fracture zones. South of the band, towards Robbie Ridge , the ocean floor is even more fragmented. The region is also subdivided by a number of hotspots (the Gilbert Seamounts ) from around 58–72 million years ago, which also disrupt the original tectonic structure.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chandler et al. 2012.
  2. ↑ Taylor et al. 2006; Chandler et al. 2012.
  3. ↑ Tamaki et al. 1979.
  4. ^ Taylor 2006.

literature

  • MT Chandler & al .: Reconstructing Ontong Java Nui: Implications for Pacific absolute plate motion, hotspot drift and true polar wander. In: Earth and Planetary Science Letters , 2012, v. 331-332: 140-151.
  • MB Croon, SC Cande, JM Stock: Revised Pacific-Antarctic plate motions and geophysics of the Menard Fracture Zone. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. 2008, v. 9: 1-20.
  • K. Tamaki, M. Joshima, RL Larson: Remanent Early Cretaceous spreading center in the central Pacific basin. In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth , 1979, v. 84, no. B9: 4501-4510.
  • B. Taylor: The single largest oceanic plateau: Ontong Java-Manihiki-Hikurangi. In: Earth and Planetary Science Letters , 2006, v. 241: 372-380.

Web links

Coordinates: 8 ° 0 ′ 0 ″  S , 178 ° 0 ′ 0 ″  E