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Change of tectono-stratigraphic regime in the Australian plate during the 99 Ma (mid-Cretaceous) and 43 Ma (mid-Eocene) swerves of the Pacific

¹ Australian Plate Research Group and Key Centre for the Geochemical Evolution and Metallogeny of the Continents, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia

The clockwise bend at 99 Ma (mid-Cretaceous) in linear volcanic chains in the tropical Pacific coincides with a change from pre-99 Ma head-on Chilean-type subduction of the Pacific plate beneath eastern Gondwana to 99–43 Ma sinistral oblique Mariana-type subduction and strike-slip breakup by simple sea-floor spreading between Australia and Antarctica and by backarc spreading in the southwest Pacific. The 99 Ma breakup of Australia from Antarctica is documented by a mid-Cretaceous unconformity. This tectono-stratigraphic change founded modern Australia, with a mountain chain along an upper plate margin in the east and lowlands on the lower plate margin in the south. The counterclockwise bend at 43 Ma (mid-Eocene)—the Emperor-Hawaiian bend—coincides with the onset of structure in the Challenger Rift of New Zealand, the Eromanga-Cooper basin of central Australia, and the oil-shale grabens of coastal Queensland.

Key Words: Australia • mid-Cretaceous • mid-Eocene • Pacific • hotspot bends

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