Vanuatu subduction zone
subduction zone under South Pacific Ocean
The Vanuatu subduction zone (previously called New Hebrides subduction zone) is currently one of the most active subduction zones on Earth, producing great earthquakes (magnitude 8.0 or greater), with potential for tsunami hazard to all coastlines of the Pacific Ocean. There are active volcanoes associated with arc volcanism.
Geography
The zone includes most of the islands of Vanuatu, the Santa Cruz islands of the southern Solomon Islands, and the Loyalty Islands. A number of ocean floor features are related to the zone, in particular the
New Hebrides Trench (South New Hebridies Trench) and the North New Hebrides Trench (Torres Trench) which is separated from the southern trench by the d'Entrecasteaux Ridge and the island of Espiritu Santo. The d'Entrecasteaux Ridge is at this point of intersection two parallel, east–west trending ridges that
are 1 to 2 km (0.62 to 1.24 mi) above the surrounding abyssal plain.
Geology
Shore based observations had characterised the islands of the volcanic arc as having typical lavas and being of early Miocene or younger in age. More recently marine surveys have supplemented this limited sampling. Reef terraces mantle on Espiritu Santo and Malekula show rapid late Quaternary terrace uplift of between 0.2 to 0.6 cm/year (0.079 to 0.236 in/year). It is known that the Torres Islands to the north west have had less uplift recently.
Off shore in the north it is known that the subducting plate has up to 1 km (0.62 mi) of sediments.
The public source identifies “Vanuatu subduction zone” as subduction zone under South Pacific Ocean. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Vanuatu, subduction and zone.
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This entry incorporates text from “Vanuatu subduction zone” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.