Austral-Cook Volcanic Chain: Magma Source
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Title
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Austral-Cook Volcanic Chain: Magma Source
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Description
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The Austral-Cook volcanic chain formed as the result of three distinct hotspots in the South Pacific active since 35 Ma (Bonneville et al., 2002) The Arago Seamount is the most recent surface expression of hotspot volcanism, and is responsible for forming islands in the center of the chain, such as Rurutu. The Macdonald Hotspot had a southeast movement, and formed the southern islands. An extinct magma source, therefore, must be responsible for the formation of the northern Austral Islands. (Bonneville et al., 2002). The ages of deposits across the volcanic chain suggest that the hotspots were once active at the same time. Therefore, Bonneville et al. (2002) suggest that magma here was likely sourced by magma from the upper mantle that upwelled due to lithospheric weakness. Bonneville et al. (2005) suggest that the chemical similarity of these three hotspot deposits is because the three hotspots come from the same "superplume" that originates at the core-mantle boundary.
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Creator
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Devon Gorbey
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Source
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Bonneville, A., Le Suave, R., Audin, L., Clouard, V., Dosso, L., Gillot, P. Y., Janney, P., Jordahl, K., Maamaatuaiahutapu, K., 2012, Arago Seamount: the missing hotspot found in the Austral Islands, Geology, 30(11) 1023-1026.
Alain Bonneville, Laure Dosso, Anthony Hildenbrand. Temporal evolution and geochemical
variability of the South Paci c superplume activity. Earth and Planetary Science Letters,
Elsevier, 2006, 244 (1-2), pp.251-269. .
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Mediator
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Tamara Carley
