Earth:Balmoral Reef Plate

Short description: Small tectonic plate in the south Pacific north of Fiji

<mapframe zoom="5" text="Approximate surface projection on Pacific Ocean of minor plates. Key:'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000000-QINU`"'<div class="legend"><span class="legend-color mw-no-invert" style="background-color:#d49a8f; color:black;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;(red orange) New Hebrides Plate</div>'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000002-QINU`"'<div class="legend"><span class="legend-color mw-no-invert" style="background-color:#b29a8f; color:black;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;(brown) Balmoral Reef Plate - pale brown ? bordering block</div>'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000003-QINU`"'<div class="legend"><span class="legend-color mw-no-invert" style="background-color:#d4a88f; color:black;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;(orange) Conway Reef Plate</div><div class="legend-line"><span style="display:inline-block; vertical-align:middle; width:1.67em; height:0px; border-style:none; border-top:2px dotted #000; border-top:blue solid 2px;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;(blue) Active subduction trenches</div><div class="legend-line"><span style="display:inline-block; vertical-align:middle; width:1.67em; height:0px; border-style:none; border-top:2px dotted #000; border-top:yellow solid 3px;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;(yellow) Spreading centers or rifts</div> Seismic context, is shown in a map in the article Vanuatu subduction zone. 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Map of the Balmoral Reef Plate (as "Récif Balmoral") and its neighbouring plates (in French)

The Balmoral Reef Plate is a small tectonic plate (microplate) located in the south Pacific north of Fiji. Clockwise from the north, it borders the Pacific Plate, the Australian Plate, Conway Reef Plate, and the New Hebrides Plate. The northern and western borders are a divergent boundary while the rest of the borders are transform and convergent boundaries. The Balmoral Reef Plate's ocean crust is less than 12 million years old and is spreading between the New Hebrides and Tonga subduction. The plate forms the west central part of the seafloor of the North Fiji Basin.

The plate's movement vectors, as accepted today, were first proposed in 2003 by Bird. Its boundaries and angular momentum were further defined in 2011 and 2018 with refinement of tectonic plate deformation and strain rate.. The Balmoral Reef Plate however may be less rigid, as assummed in such modelling, as it is dominated by active deformation zones. The region is complex and may well have several other microplates or blocks.. To the west its triple junction with the Pacific Plate and the Australian Plate is quite close to the western triple junction of the Futuna Plate.

See also

• North Fiji Basin

References

Sources

• Bird, Peter (2003). "An updated digital model of plate boundaries". Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 4 (3): 1027. doi:10.1029/2001GC000252. Bibcode: 2003GGG.....4.1027B. 
• Argus, D. F.; Gordon, R. G.; DeMets, C. (2011). "Geologically current motion of 56 plates relative to the no‐net‐rotation reference frame". Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 12 (11): 1-13. doi:10.1029/2011GC003751. Bibcode: 2011GGG....1211001A. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1029/2011GC003751. Retrieved 14 October 2023. 
• Wang, S; Yu, H; Zhang, Q; Zhao, Y (15 May 2018). "Absolute plate motions relative to deep mantle plumes". Earth and Planetary Science Letters 490: 88-99. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2018.03.021. 
• Hall, R. (2002). "Cenozoic geological and plate tectonic evolution of SE Asia and the SW Pacific: computer-based reconstructions, model and animations". Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 20 (4): 353–431. doi:10.1016/S1367-9120(01)00069-4. Bibcode: 2002JAESc..20..353H. 
• Richards, S; Holm, R; Barber, G (2011). "When slabs collide: A tectonic assessment of deep earthquakes in the Tonga-Vanuatu region". Geology 39 (8): 787–790. doi:10.1130/G31937.1. Bibcode: 2011Geo....39..787R. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264782762. Retrieved 14 October 2023. 
• Szitkar, F; Dyment, J; Pelleter, E; Thomas, Y; Marsset, B; Ker, S; Fouquet, Y (2022). "Effusive and explosive volcanism on the northern Futuna Ridge, Lau Basin: A combined bathymetric, magnetic and seismic investigation". Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 431 (107646). doi:10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2022.107646. 
• Covellone, BM; Savage, B; Shen, Y (15 June 2015). "Seismic wave speed structure of the Ontong Java Plateau". Earth and Planetary Science Letters 420: 140-50. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2015.03.033. 
• Matsuyama, T; Iwamori, H (2016). "Analysis of plate spin motion and its implications for strength of plate boundary". Earth, Planets and Space 68: 1-9. doi:10.1186/s40623-016-0405-5. 
• Bird, P., Y. Y. Kagan, and D. D. Jackson, Plate tectonics and earthquake potential of spreading ridges and oceanic transform faults, in Plate Boundary Zones, Geophys. Monogr. Ser., vol. 30, edited by S. Stein and J. T. Freymueller, 203–218, AGU, Washington, D. C.,

2002.