Origin and evolution of Lord Howe Island, Southwest Pacific Ocean

Abstract

Lord Howe Island is the eroded remnant of a large shield volcano. Tholeiitic lavas of the North Ridge Basalt comprise the main shield building phase and were erupted about 6.9 Ma ago. The Boat Harbour Breccia probably formed within the throat of the volcano and, together with the North Ridge Basalt, is intruded by numerous basaltic dykes, which grade into a cone sheet complex near the main vent. Large scale collapse of the summit area of the volcano produced a caldera which was filled rapidly by lavas of the Mount Lidgbird Basalt some 6.4 Ma ago, bringing to a close the volcanic history of Lord Howe Island. The shield volcano thus was built during a short interval in the late Miocene. Palaeomagnetic data show that the North Ridge Basalt and the Mount Lidgbird Basalt were erupted during periods when the geomagnetic field had normal polarity, and that their formation was separated by at least one interval of reversed polarity when the dykes and cone sheets were emplaced. The directions of magnetisation for the lavas and intrusives are such that, palaeomagnetically, no movement of Lord Howe Island is detected since its formation. Lord Howe Island is the subaerial part of a large seamount which lies at the southern end of a northerly‐trending line of volcanic seamounts extending for more than 1000 km. The Lord Howe seamount chain probably was produced by movement of the Australian lithospheric plate over a magma source or hot spot located below the plate within the upper mantle. Other data suggest that the Australian plate is moving N at about 6 cm/a and from this it is predicted that the seamount underlying Nova Bank, at the northern end of the chain, was constructed by volcanic activity about 23 Ma ago. Similarly, if volcanism were to occur now in the Lord Howe seamount chain we predict that its location would be about 400 km S of Lord Howe Island.