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Letters to Nature
Nature 305, 123-126 (8 September 1983) | doi:10.1038/305123a0; Accepted 6 July 1983
Timing, trace and origin of basaltic migration in eastern Australia
F. L. Sutherland
- Department of Mineralogy and Petrology, The Australian Museum, 6–8 College Street, Sydney, Australia 2000
Abstract
Eastern Australian Cenozoic volcanism includes a prominent southward migration of activity. Varied explanations have invoked hotspot or linear magma sources in the asthenosphere, the movement of Australia over old seafloor spreading zones—with direct or delayed response in volcanism, or changes in stress fields. The present appraisal, using new data, contradicts some ideas and favours volcanism triggered directly by passage of lithosphere over initial sites of Coral Sea spreading. The conclusions suggest that eastern Australia has a major, complex hotspot trail established for the past 65 Myr. It forms an independent and key continental reference to the Hawaiian–Emperor oceanic trail. It raises the notion that both continental and oceanic trails can mark the ghosts of former spreading sites.
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