Lm. Parson et Dl. Tiffin, NORTHERN LAU BASIN - BACKARC EXTENSION AT THE LEADING-EDGE OF THE INDO-AUSTRALIAN PLATE, Geo-marine letters, 13(2), 1993, pp. 107-115
GLORIA imagery of the Lau Basin north of 17-degrees-S shows several mo
rphotectonic terrains: a basement ridge and sedimented inter-ridge are
a in the SE; a nascent triple junction in the NE; a deeply sedimented
basinal terrain in the central area; a linear neovolcanic zone strikin
g NNE-SSW in the NW; and the northern flank of a leaky transform, the
Peggy Ridge. Extension is now being accommodated at two main areas of
spreading, but as no site of persistent long-term backarc crustal accr
etion is evident in this 250-km-wide portion of the basin, we conclude
that past extension was largely by formation of pull-apart basins and
local magmatism.