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Geotectonics and volcanism in Papua New Guinea: a review of the late Cainozoic

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

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A considerable amount of new information obtained since about 1965 has contributed greatly to a fuller understanding of late Cainozoic tectonics and volcanism in Papua New Guinea. The region straddles a complex zone of convergence between the major Indo-Australian and Pacific plates (estimated rates are about 9-14 cm yr^-1), and includes two, and possibly as many as four, minor plates. There are at least six - perhaps as many as ten - plate boundaries in Papua New Guinea. Most of them are zones of convergence, characterised by different components of strike-slip motion; one, and part of another, are ridge transform zones where new sea floor is being created. The Australian continent and Ontong Java Plateau reached the region during the Cainozoic, and may have had a major influence on plate kinematics in the late Cainozoic. Late Cainozoic volcanoes of Papua New Guinea are widely distributed and chemically diverse. Andesite is common, and most volcanic rocks may be classified broadly as arc-trench type; but comendites, intra-plate rhyolites, strongly undersaturated rocks, and basalts similar to those of back-arc basins, are among the rock types represented in some areas.

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Field Value
Title Geotectonics and volcanism in Papua New Guinea: a review of the late Cainozoic
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/65feca22-3ef8-49e4-bcb6-11004d2921e1
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Geotectonics and volcanism in Papua New Guinea: a review of the late Cainozoic". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/geotectonics-and-volcanism-in-papua-new-guinea-a-review-of-the-late-cainozoic