Tectonic and magmatic development of Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea

The Bismarck Sea represent a unique region in the equatorial western Pacific where one can explore the relationship between tectonic and magmatic processes associated with back-arc opening. The sea, located north of Papua New Guinea and just south of the equator, formed during the final stages of a long, complex geological development of the Melanesian Borderland. The development resulted from the Cenozoic convergence between the Australian and Pacific- Caroline Plates and the opening of back-arc basins. At present, the Bismarck Sea straddles two oppositely facing trenches, the inactive Manus trench and the active New Britain trench, and covers two basins, the New Guinea Basin (NGB) to the west and the Manus Basin (MB) to the east. The two basins are separated by the shallow Willaumez-Manus Rise (WMR), which trends roughly from WNW to ESE. The origin of these major structural units and their relationship with the presentday zone of major seismicity along the Bismarck Sea Seismic Lineation (BSSL) remains unclear and is the main focus of our study.