Tonga Trench - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Tonga_Trench

Coordinates: 22°56′41″S 174°43′59″W

Tonga Trench
e Tonga Trench is an oceanic trench located in the south-west
Pacific Ocean. It is the deepest trench of the Southern Hemisphere
and the second deepest on Earth. e fastest plate tectonic velocity
on Earth occurs as the Pacific Plate is being subducted westward in
the trench.

When the Apollo 13 mission was aborted in 1970 following an

explosion in an oxygen tank, the radioisotope thermoelectric
generator broke-up in the atmosphere and the heat source plunged
in or near the Tonga Trench. Atmospheric and oceanic monitoring
indicate no release of nuclear fuel has occurred.[2]

Contents
Horizon Deep
Geology The Tonga Trench is the
Tonga-Kermadec arc system northern half of the Tonga-
Pacific slab avalanche
Kermadec subduction system
Tonga Trench–Lau Basin transition which extends 2,550 km
Louisville Seamount Chain collision (1,580 mi) between New
Osbourn Trough Zealand and Tonga.[1]
Capricorn Seamount
See also
References
Notes
Sources

Horizon Deep
e deepest point of the Tonga Trench, the Horizon Deep at 23.25833°S 174.726667°W, is 10,800   ±   10   m
(35,433 ± 33 ) deep, making it the deepest point in the Southern Hemisphere and the second deepest on Earth aer
the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. It is named for the research vessel Horizon of the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, the crew of which found the deep in December 1952.[3]

As one of the deepest hadal trenches, the sediments of the Horizon Deep harbours a community of roundworms. A
2016 study found that the abundance of individuals in this community is six times greater than it is at a site on the
trench edge (c. 6,250 m (20,510 )) near the deep and that the difference in biomass between these locations is even
bigger. Species diversity, on the other hand, is twice as big on the trench slope, probably because of a small number

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of opportunistic species in the trench.[4] Figures for abundance and biomass are similar for the deeps of the
Mariana Trench but considerably lower in the Peru–Chile Trench.[5]

Geology

Tonga-Kermadec arc system

e region between the Tonga trench and the Lau back-arc basin, the Tonga-Kermadec Ridge, moves independently
from the Australian and Pacific plates and is subdivided into several small plates, the Tonga, Kermadec, and
Niuafo'ou plates. e Tonga Plate is facing the Tonga Trench.[6]

e Tonga Trench-Arc system is an extension-dominated, non-accretionary convergent margin. e Pacific Plate is

being subducted westward in the trench. e convergence rate has been estimated to 15 cm/year (5.9 in/year) but
GPS measurements in the northern trench indicate a convergence rate of 24 cm/year (9.4 in/year) there.[7] is is
the fastest plate velocity on Earth, a result is the earth's most active zone of mantle seismicity.[8] Subduction rates
decreases southward along the Tonga-Kermadec Arc, from 24 cm/year (9.4 in/year) in the north to 6 cm/year
(2.4 in/year) in the south and also becomes more oblique southward. e high rate in the Tonga Trench is largely
due to a reduction in extension in the Lau Basin.[9] Crustal extension in the Miocene Lau-Colville Ridge began at
6 Ma which initiated the opening of the Lau Basin-Havre Trough. is extension has propagated southward since
and has developed into a spreading centre in the Lau Basin in front of the Tonga Trench. New crust is thus
produced in front of the Tonga-Kermadec trenches while old crust is consumed behind it in the Tonga Trench.[10]

Pacific slab avalanche

While most of the large earthquakes occur at the contact zone between both tectonic plates, related to the friction
during subduction, others are produced in the Pacific plate due to its bending.[11] e Pacific crust that descends
into the trench is old, 100-140 Ma, and relatively cold and it can therefore store a lot of elastic energy. As it reaches
deep into the mantle, more than 600 km (370 mi), and encounters barriers, it is being contorted which produces
deep mantle earthquakes.[12]

c. 500 km (310 mi) beneath the North Fiji Basin a detached segment of the subducted Australian Plate has collided
with the subducted Pacific Plate which produces many large-scale earthquakes. e subducted Pacific Plate is also
being deformed in the collision as both slabs seles on the 660 km discontinuity. is slab collision probably
occurred 5–4 Ma when the Lau Basin started to open.[13]

Oceanic trenches are important sites for the formation of what will become continental crust and for recycling of
material back into the mantle. Along the Tonga Trench mantle-derived melts are transferred to the island arc
systems, and abyssal oceanic sediments and fragments of oceanic crust are collected.[7]

Tonga Trench–Lau Basin transition

e northern end of the Tonga Trench (at 15°10'S) is probably linked to the Fiji Fracture Zone, trending east-west
north of Fiji, but the trench ends in a complex transition from subduction to a strike-slip motion and seismicity
paerns indicate a presence of a c. 100 km (62 mi)-broad transition zone rather than a simple transform fault. In or
near this zone there is a ridge-ridge-ridge triple junction (15°37′S 174°52′W), known as the King’s or Mangatolu

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Triple Junction (MTJ), characterised by deformation and recent and

intense volcanism (see for example Home Ree). e Tofua volcanic
arc on the northern Tonga Ridge extends to less than 40 km (25 mi)
of the trench's northern end.[14]

Just north of the MTJ lies the south-north-trending Northeast Lau

Spreading Centre (NELSC) which intercepts the northern end of the
Tonga Trench and is one of three major spreading centres in the
northern Lau Basin (together with the Futuna Spreading Centre and
Northwest Lau Spreading Centre.) e maximum spreading rate in
At its northern end the Tonga
the NELSC is 94 mm/a (0.117 in/Ms) but spreading decreases to zero
Trench bends west into the
at either end of the spreading centre. e total spreading rate
microplates, interconnected
between the Tongan and Australian plates, however, is 157   mm/a spreading centres, and
(0.196 in/Ms) and additional microplates and/or deformations zones deformation zones of the Lau
must thus exist. e NELSC probably receives magmatic Basin. But the Tonga trench also
contributions from the Samoa hotspot.[15] e NELSC has a has a continuation in the
morphology which is similar to those of slow-spreading ridges with inactive Vitiaz Trench (north of
map area) with which it formed
many closely packed ridges and troughs reaches. Where it meets the
a single continuous trench
trench a ridge-transform-transform boundary is developing between
before the opening of the North
the Tonga Ridge, the Pacific Plate, and the Australian Plate.[14] Fiji Basin (west of map area).
The Capricorn Seamount
North-east of the 60° bend in the Tonga Trench the Pacific seafloor is
(centre right) is sitting on the
full of parallel lineations. ese have been interpreted as remnants of eastern slope of the trench.
an extinct, east-to-west-trending spreading centre on the Pacific
Plate, much older than the Tonga Trench.[14]

Louisville Seamount Chain collision

At its southern end (c. 26°S) the Tonga Trench is colliding with the Louisville Seamount Chain, a chain of guyots
and seamounts on the Pacific Plate roughly parallel to the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain in the northern
pacific. e Louisville collision zone migrates southward at a rate of 18   cm/year (7.1   in/year) because of the
difference in the oblique angel between the Louisville ridge relative the direction of convergence. In the eastern Lau
Basin spreading centres are propagating southward at roughly the same rate. e collision zone also offsets the
Tonga Trench to the north-west relative to the Kermadec Trench by c. 50 km (31 mi).[7] e subducting Louisville
Ridge has caused a significant amount of erosion on the outer edge of the southern Tonga fore-arc and has probably
accelerated subsidence in the Tonga Trench, a process which makes the Tonga Trench the second deepest trench on
Earth and considerably deeper than the Kermadec Trench.[16]

e oldest and westernmost of the Louisville seamounts, the Osbourn Seamount, is siing on the edge of the trench
and its former flat top is currently tilting towards the trench.[17] West of the Osbourn Seamount a broad zone of
faulted blocks shallows the trench by 3,000 m (9,800 ) while the adjacent fore-arc is elevated by c. 300 m (980 )
and covered by canyons.[18]

e Louisville collision zone correlates with a zone of seismic quiescence along the Tonga-Kermadec Trench known
as the "Louisville Gap". is gap in seismicity indicates that subducting seamounts inhibit or even prevent
seismicity at subduction zones, perhaps by increasing intervals between earthquakes, but the mechanism behind

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this process is poorly understood.[19]

Geochemical evidence suggests that the Louisville chain has been subducting under the Tonga-Kermadec Arc since
4 Ma. Seismic studies have identified a southward, along-arc mantle flow that indicate that Pacific mantle is being
replaced by Indo-Australian mantle west of the Tonga trench.[20]

Osbourn Trough
e Osbourn Trough, located at 25.5°S just north of the Louisville Ridge collision zone, is a 900 km (560 mi)-long
extinct spreading ridge located midway between two large oceanic plateaux north and south of the Tonga Trench
respectively: Manihiki 1,750 km (1,090 mi) to the north and Hikurangi 1,550   km (960   mi) to the south. ese
plateaux once formed part of the 100 ×106  km3 (3.5 × 1018  cu ) Ontong Java-Manihiki-Hikurangi large igneous
province (LIP). Spreading between the plateaux ceased when Hikurangi collided with the Chatham Rise east of New
Zealand at 86 Ma.[21] e western end of the Osbourn Trough is bounded by the Tonga Trench and its eastern by
the Wishbone–East Manihiki Scarp. In between the Osbourn Trough is divided into three segments separated by
dextral offsets. Near the Tonga Trench the bathymetry of these structures is affected by the bending of the Pacific
Plate.[22]

Capricorn Seamount
e Capricorn Seamount is a guyot located on the eastern wall of the northern Tonga Trench (see map above). It is
a large guyot, 100 km (62 mi) wide at its base with a small part of its reefal or lagoonal summit reaching 440 m
(1,440 ) below sea level. e bending of the Pacific Plate at the Tonga Trench is currently slicing it like a loaf of
bread: inside the guyot a north-south-trending horst and graben system is developing parallel to the trench; the
western slope of the guyot has reached the 9,000 m (30,000 )-deep trench and has started to fill it; the summit of
the guyot is tilted 1.7° towards the trench and its centre is only 45 km (28 mi) from the trench axis.[23] e
Capricorn Seamount is expected to be completely consumed by the trench within 500,000 years.[24]

See also
Geology of the Pacific Ocean
List of submarine topographical features

References

Notes
1. Smith & Price 2006, p. 316
2. Furlong & Wahlquist 1999, p. 27
3. "GEBCO Gazetteer of Undersea Feature Names" (https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/gazetteer/).
GEBCO. 26 April 2015. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
4. Leduc et al. 2016, Abstract
5. Leduc et al. 2016, p. 8
6. Bird 2003, Tonga Plate (TO), Kermadec Plate (KE), and Niuafo’ou Plate (NI), p. 28

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7. Wright et al. 2000, Geologic setting, pp. 490–491

8. Bevis et al. 1995, Abstract
9. Smith et al. 2003, p. 100
10. Smith et al. 2003, p. 114
11. Garcia-Castellanos, Torne & Fernandez 2000
12. Bevis et al. 1995, p. 251
13. Richards, Holm & Barber 2011, Abstract
14. Wright et al. 2000, Map 1: A strike-slip boundary and the termination of the Trench, pp.
499–502
15. German et al. 2006, pp. 3–4
16. Contreras‐Reyes et al. 2011, Fig. 1, p. 2; [6], p. 2
17. Contreras‐Reyes et al. 2011, 4:12; 14:38
18. Stratford et al. 2015, p. 6, Geological setting
19. Peirce & Watts 2010, The Louisville Ridge–Tonga Trench collision, pp. 9–11; Fig. 3, p. 10
20. Timm et al. 2013, p. 2
21. Worthington et al. 2006, Abstract
22. Worthington et al. 2006, pp. 686–687
23. Hill & Glasby 1996, Abstract; Morphology and Seismic Evidence, pp. 21–24
24. Hill & Glasby 1996, p. 20

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