Plate boundaries in the Woodlark Basin and Solomon Sea Region, Papua New Guinea

The Solomon Sea and Woodlark Basin region of eastern Papua New Guinea is a tectonically complex region between the obliquely converging Pacific and Australian plates. Despite numerous marine geophysical surveys in the region, the exact nature of the tectonic boundaries between the Solomon Sea and the Woodlark Basin remains controversial. Marine geophysical data collected in the last decade provides additional insight into this region and clearly defines the boundaries of the Solomon Sea, Trobriand, Woodlark, and Australian plates. Multibeam bathymetry data collected in 2004 along the Trobriand Trough, together with seismic profiles across the trough, show a prominent deformation front in the trench that defines the southern boundary of the Solomon Sea plate. Petrologic data from volcanoes to the south of this boundary indicate that they have a subduction affinity. Heat flow profiles to the south of the plate boundary show a clear subduction signature. At the eastern termination of the Trobriand Trough the plate boundary forms a triple junction with the NE-SW trending Nubaru strike-slip fault. To the NE this major fault separates the Solomon Sea plate from the Woodlark plate. The morphology of this fault and a CMT solution indicate that it is right-lateral. To the SW the Nubaru strike-slip fault passes to the south of the Trobriand Trough, forming the southern boundary of the Trobriand plate (with the Trobriand Trough as the northern boundary). Further west the trend of the strike slip fault becomes more ENE-WSW. A significant extension component is evident as the fault passes to the north of Egum Graben and meets the Woodlark Basin spreading system at the current rifting to seafloor spreading transition directly to the east of Moresby Seamount. The revised tectonic model for this region has important implications for tectonic reconstructions that include an active rifting to spreading transition and prominent core complexes. In the past, models have assumed a simple two-plate system. The inclusion of the Trobriand plate at the rifting to spreading transition will change estimates of extension that have assumed that the system can be described by a single Euler pole directly to the WSW.