A Cenozoic diffuse alkaline magmatic province (DAMP) in the southwest Pacific without rift or plume origin

Common geological, geochemical, and geophysical characteristics of continental fragments of East Gondwana and adjacent oceanic lithosphere define a long-lived, low-volume, diffuse alkaline magmatic province (DAMP) encompassing the easternmost part of the Indo-Australian Plate, West Antarctica, and the southwest portion of the Pacific Plate. A key to generating the Cenozoic magmatism is the combination of metasomatized lithosphere underlain by mantle at only slightly elevated temperatures, in contrast to large igneous provinces where mantle temperatures are presumed to be high. The SW Pacific DAMP magmatism has been conjecturally linked to rifting, strike-slip faulting, mantle plumes, or hundreds of hot spots, but all of these associations have flaws. We suggest instead that sudden detachment and sinking of subducted slabs in the late Cretaceous induced Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities along the former Gondwana margin that in turn triggered lateral and vertical flow of warm Pacific mantle. The interaction of the warm mantle with metasomatized subcontinental lithosphere that characterizes much of the SW Pacific DAMP concentrates magmatism along zones of weakness. The model may also provide a mechanism for warming south Pacific mantle and resulting Cenozoic alkaline magmatism, where the oceanic areas are characterized primarily, but not exclusively, by short-lived hot spot tracks not readily explained by conventional mantle plume theory. This proposed south Pacific DAMP is much larger and longer-lived than previously considered.