Three-dimensional imaging of impact of a large igneous province with a subduction zone

- Detailed determination of the shape of the subducted part of the Hikurangi Plateau.
- This shape explains how and why the plateau choked the Gondwana subduction zone.
- Choking of subduction by the plateau led to a global-scale plate reorganization.
- Concentrated slab pull in adjacent oceanic crust led to extension and magmatism.

How the thickened crust of a large igneous province on an incoming oceanic plate is accommodated at a subduction zone remains an open question. New Zealand is one of the few places to study this, as at ca. 105 Ma the ca. 35 km-thick Hikurangi Plateau impacted the Gondwana subduction zone in what is now the South Island. Here we report on results from a forty-station portable seismograph array in the southern South Island, designed to delineate the leading edge of the subducted plateau. Three-dimensional images of Vp and Vp/Vs reveal the southwestern part of the plateau was a relatively narrow salient, and the first part to be subducted. The plateau then rotated clockwise about this salient until the southern edge of the plateau was parallel to subduction strike and subduction ceased at ca. 100 Ma. Our results suggest that the global-scale plate reorganization event at 105-100 Ma was due to a cessation of subduction caused by the Hikurangi Plateau choking the Gondwana subduction zone, rather than the subduction of mid ocean ridges as previously proposed. The choking of Gondwana subduction by the plateau also led to a concentration of slab pull in the adjacent subducted oceanic crust, explaining the episode of basin opening and intraplate magmatism there that occurred at the same time. Our study underlines the havoc caused by impact of a large igneous province with a subduction zone.