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western Pacific Ocean
Bruce P. Luyendyk
Professor
Dept. Earth Science
The Manihiki Plateau is a
submerged volcanic feature covering an immense area about
the size of Texas in the southwest Pacific, east of the
Samoa Islands. Investigations so far indicate it originated
in Early Cretaceous time (ca. 125 million years ago) from
the rapid outpouring of lavas onto the seafloor. It shares
characteristics of other volcanic plateaus in the southwest
Pacific including the Ontong-Java and Hikurangi Plateau. The
latter submerged plateau, located adjacent to New Zealand,
has been proposed to be a matching part of the Manihiki
Plateau that rifted away from it via plate tectonics soon
after formation. Other hypotheses state the plateaus evolved
separately and were never connected.
Scientific party of KIWI LEG 12
