Examination of Global Seismic Tomography Images and Sea-Surface Magnetic Field Anomaly Profiles in the West Philippine Basin for the Large Clockwise Rotation of the Philippine Sea Plate during the Last 55 Million Years

Abstract:

The Philippine Sea Plate is thought to have undergone a 90° clockwise rotation during the last 55 million years. However, evidences for such an argument are rather circumstantial. For instance, paleomagnetic measurements for the large rotation are derived largely from Halmahera, Indonesia which is quite close to the plate boundary. It is thus possible that this region may have undergone local deformation separate from the main parts of the Philippine Sea Plate. In this study, we examine the global seismic tomography images of the mantle beneath the Philippine Sea Plate and the marine magnetic field anomaly data at the sea surface from the West Philippine Basin to see whether they agree with the presumed motion of the Philippine Sea Plate. Our comparison between the plate reconstruction and global tomography suggests that the rotation of Philippine Sea Plate may not have been continuous but instead experienced a temporal break at around 32 Ma. The exact nature of this pause is uncertain, but it may be related to a sudden change in the configuration of subduction systems. A detail comparison with recent results from IODP Legs 350 and 351 is therefore necessary, including a search for a change in the depositional style of basin sediment. We also examined the detailed the shape of magnetic anomalies (such as skewness) and compare them with the previous model by allowing the magnetization to have direction corresponding to that during the opening of the West Philippine Basin. At this moment, it is too early to tell if the sudden change at around 32 Ma or other inferred breaks can be seen in the magnetic profiles as well.