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The North Fiji Basin Geology, Structure, and Geodynamic Evolution

  • Chapter
Backarc Basins

Abstract

As the result of intensive studies conducted by U.S., French, and Japanese scientific teams, the North Fiji Basin ridge, poorly known 10 years ago, is one of the most exhaustively investigated ridge axes of the world’s oceans. Today, a ridge segment more than 800 km long and 100 km wide has been fully mapped with the Sea Beam and Furono echo sounders. This ridge axis shows four main segments characterized by the same morphostructural aspect and limits that characterize mid-oceanic ridges. Along the whole length of the axis, a water-column sample has been taken every 20 km and rock samples every 10 km. Different types of hydrothermal activity have been discovered and explored either during the Nautile cruise in 1989 or during the Shinkai 6500 cruise in 1992. The most famous site is the “White Lady,” located around 17°S; it is characterized by 285°C shimmering hot water, which is very poor in metallic elements, expelled through an anhydrite chimney. This water probably represents the low salinity end-member resulting from phase separation in the deep levels of the oceanic crust. Other active sites have been observed all along the axis showing different characteristics such as low-temperature diffusion zones. Even though some parts of the North Fiji Basin remain poorly investigated, the newly acquired data from the ridge axis and from the eastern and northwestern parts allow us to develop a new tectonic model of basin evolution since its creation 12 m.y. ago.

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Author notes

  1. Jean-Marie Auzende

    Present address: ORSTOM, BPA5, Nouméa, New Caledonia, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IFREMER/CB, 29280, Plouzané, France

    Jean-Marie Auzende

  2. ORSTOM, BPA5, Nouméa, New Caledonia, France

    Bernard Pelletier

  3. Antenne ORSTOM-IFREMER/CB, 29280, Plouzané, France

    Jean-Philippe Eissen

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  1. Jean-Marie Auzende
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  2. Bernard Pelletier
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  3. Jean-Philippe Eissen
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  1. University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

    Brian Taylor

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Auzende, JM., Pelletier, B., Eissen, JP. (1995). The North Fiji Basin Geology, Structure, and Geodynamic Evolution. In: Taylor, B. (eds) Backarc Basins. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1843-3_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1843-3_4

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