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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 1998; v. 146; p. 269-278;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.1999.146.01.16
© 1998 Geological Society of London

Late Cenozoic emergence of the islands of the northern Lau-Colville Ridge, southwest Pacific

P. D. Nunn

Department of Geography, The University of the South Pacific, P.O. Box 1168, Suva, Fiji

The Lau-Colville Ridge is part of an island arc abandoned during Pliocene time as a result of development of the back-arc Lau Basin. Throughout much of Plio-Pleistocene time, the ridge subsided, and its volcanic peaks were submerged and cloaked with (reef) limestone. Uplift, mostly during Pleistocene time, caused the northern part of the ridge to emerge by at least 315m. Islands along the northern Lau-Colville Ridge exhibit ten well-defined terraces above c. 10m whose ages are constrained by those of anomalously young lavas and avian phosphates. Low-level emerged shorelines may be all of Holocene age and exhibit a recurrence interval of coseismic uplift events of 1500 years.