Skip to main content

Volume 59 Supplement 7

Special Issue: Perspectives of Geomagnetism: Geodynamo, Paleomagnetism, and Rock magnetism—Tribute to Prof. Masaru Kono

New K-Ar ages of the Society Islands, French Polynesia, and implications for the Society hotspot feature

Abstract

We report 52 new K-Ar age determinations of volcanic rocks from the Society Islands in French Polynesia. The newly obtained ages range from 0.51 to 4.61 Ma, which are consistent with previously reported ones. The magnetostratigraphy based on 45 data sets combining K-Ar ages and paleomagnetic polarity agrees with the geomagnetic polarity time scale at the 2s level, except for a few age data. Assuming the absolute motion of the Pacific plate, paleopositions of the dated rocks are estimated from the K-Ar ages, showing a narrow distribution in the western part of the easternmost volcano of the active hotspot region. This suggests that a hotspot of a few tens of kilometers in diameter might have been fixed nearly at the eastern margin of the presently active region in the Society archipelago and that the volcanism of each island might have persisted for about 1 myr.

References

  • Ando, A., H. Kurasawa, T. Ohmori, and E. Takeda, 1971 compilation of data on rock standards JG-1 and JB-1 issued from the Geological Survey of Japan, Geochem. J., 5, 151–164, 1971.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Binard, N., R. Hekinian, J. L. Cheminee, R. C. Searle, and P. Stoffers, Morphological and structural studies of the Society and Austral hotspot regions in the South Pacific, Tectonophys., 186, 293–312, 1991.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Binard, N., R. C. Maury, G. Guille, J. Talandier, P. Y. Gillot, and J. Cotton, Mehetia Island, South Pacific: geology and petrology of the emerged part of the Society hot spot, J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res., 55, 239–260, 1993.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blais, S., G. Guille, R. C. Maury, H. Guillou, D. Miau, and J. Cotten, Geology and petrology of Raiatea Island (Society Islands, French Polynesia), C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, serie IIa, 324, 435–442, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blais, S., G. Guille, H. Guillou, L, R. C. Maury, and M. Caroff, Geology, geochemistry and geochronology of Bora Bora island (Society Islands, French Polynesia), C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Earth Planet. Sci., 331, 579–585, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blais, S., G. Guille, H. Guillou, C. Chauvel, R. C. Maury, G. Pernet, and J. Cotten, The island of Maupiti: the oldest emergent volcano in the Society hot spot chain (French Polynesia), Bull. Soc. Geol. Fr., 173, 45–55, 2002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cande, S. C. and D. V. Kent, Revised calibration of the geomagnetic polarity timescale for the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic, J. Geophys. Res., 100, 6093–6095, 1995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chauvin, A., P. Roperch, and R. A. Duncan, Records of geomagnetic reversals from volcanic islands of French Polynesia 2. Paleomagnetic study of flow sequence (1.2–0.6 Ma) from the Island of Tahiti and discussion of reversal models, J. Geophys. Res., 95, 2727–2752, 1990.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheminée, J. L., R. Hékinian, J. Talandier, F Albarède, C. W. Devey, J. Francheteau, and Y. Lancelot, Geology of an active hot spot: Teahitia-Mehetia region in the South Central Pacific, Mar. Geophys. Res., 11, 27–50, 1989.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, R. A., Paleosecular variation at the Society Islands, French Polynesia, Geophys. J. R. Astr. Soc, 41, 245–254, 1975.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, R. A. and I. McDougall, Linear volcanism in French Polynesia, J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res., 1, 197–227, 1976.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, R. A., M. R. Fisk, W. M. White, and R. L. Nielsen, Tahiti: Geochemical evolution of a French Polynesian volcano, J. Geophys. Res., 99, 24341–24357, 1994.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dymond, J., K-Ar ages of Tahiti and Moorea, Society Islands, and implications for the hot-spot model, Geology, 3, 236–240, 1975.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gripp, A. E. and R. G. Gordon, Current plate velocities relative to the hotspots incorporating the NUVEL-1 global plate motion model, Geophys. Res. Let., 17, 1109–1112, 1990.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guillou, H., S. Blais, G. Guille, R. C. Maury, A. Le Dez, and J. Cotten, Age (K-Ar) and duration of the subaerial build-up of Moorea, Raiatea and Maupiti (Society Islands, French Polynesia), Geol. Fr., 3, 29–36, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guillou, H., R. C. Maury, S. Blais, J. Cotten, C. Legendre, G. Guille, and M. Caroff, Age progression along the Society hotspot chain (French Polynesia) based on new unspiked K-Ar ages, Bull. Soc. Geol. Fr, 176, 135–150, 2005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hildenbrand, A., P. Y. Gillot, and I. Le Roy, Volcano-tectonic and geochemical evolution of an oceanic intra-plate volcano: Tahiti-Nui (French Polynesia), Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 217, 349–365, 2004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kogiso, T., Y. Tatsumi, G. Shimoda, and H. G. Barsczus, High β (HIMU) ocean island basalts in southern Polynesia: New evidence for whole mantle scale recycling of subducted oceanic crust, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 8085–8103, 1997.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lanphere, M. A. and H. Baadsgaard, Precise K-Ar, 40Ar/39Ar, Rb-Sr and U/Pb mineral ages from the 27.5 Ma Fish Canyon Tuff reference standar, Chem. Geol., 175, 653–671, 2001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Legendre, C, R. C. Maury, H. Guillou, J. Cotten, C. Chauvel, M. Caroff, S. Blais, and G. Guille, Evolution géologique et péterogique de l’île de Huahine (archipel de la Société (Polynésie francaise): un volcan-bouclier intraocéanique original, Bull. Soc. Geol. Fr., 174, 15–124, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matsumoto, A., Improvement for determination of potassium in K-Ar dating, Bull. Geol. Surv. Jpn., 40, 65–70, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matsumoto, A., K. Uto, and K. Shibata, K-Ar dating by peak comparison method—New technique applicable to rocks younger than 0.5 Ma, Bull. Geol. Surv. Jpn., 40(10), 565–579, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  • Renne, P. R., C. C. Swisher, A. L. Deino, D. B. Karner, T. L. Owens, and D. L. DePaolo, Intercalibration of Standards, Absolute Ages and Uncertainties in 40Ar/39Ar Dating, Chemical Geology, 145, 117–152, 1998.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roperch, P. and R. A. Duncan, Records of geomagnetic reversals from volcanic islands of French Polynesia 1. Paleomagnetic study of a polarity transition in a lava sequence from the island of Huahine, J. Geophys. Res., 95, 2713–2726, 1990.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shibata, K., K-Ar age determinations on granitic and metamorphic rocks in Japan, Geol. Surv. Jpn. Rep., 227, 1–73, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singer, B. S., K. A. Hoffman, A. Chauvin, R. S. Coe, and M. S. Pringle, Dating transitionally magnetized lavas of the late Matuyama Chron: Toward a new 40Ar/39Ar timescale of reversals and events, J. Geophys. Res., 104, 679–693, 1999.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steiger, R. H. and E. Jäger, Subcomission on geochronology: Convention on the use of decay constants in geo- and cosmochronology, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 36, 359–362, 1977.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Talandier, J. and E. Okal, The volcanoseismic swarms of 1981–1983 in the Tahiti-Mehetia Area, French Polynesia, J. Geophys. Res., 89, 11216–11234, 1984.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uto, K., R. M. Conrey, T. Hirata, and S. Uchiumi, Improvements of the K-Ar dating system at Geological Survey of Japan—Introduction of computer-controlled mass-spectrometry and pipette spike reservoir, Bull. Geol. Surv. Jpn., 46, 239–249, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Uto, K., O. Ishizuka, A. Matsumoto, H. Kamioka, and K. Togashi, Laser-heating 40Ar/39Ar dating system of the Geological Survey of Japan: system outline and preliminary results, Bull. Geol. Surv. Jpn., 48, 23–46, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, W. M. and R. A. Duncan, Geochemistry and Geochronology of the Society Islands: New evidence for deep mantle recycling, in Earth Processes: Reading the Isotopic Code, Geophys. Monogr. Ser., vol. 95, edited by A. Basu and S. Hart, pp. 183–206, AGU, Washington D.C., 1996.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Yamamoto, Y and H. Tsunakawa, Geomagneic field intensity during the last 5 Myr: LTD-DHT Shaw palaeointensities from volcanic rocks of the Society Islands, French Polynesia, Geophys. J. Int., 162, 79–114, 2005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yamamoto, Y, O. Ishizuka, M. Sudo, and K. Uto, 40Ar/39Ar ages and pa-leomagnetism of transitionally magnetized volcanic rocks in the Society Islands, French Polynesia: Raiatea excursion in the upper-Gauss Chron, Geophys. J. Int., 169, 41–59, 2007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yamamoto, Y, K. Shimura, H. Tsunakawa, T. Kogiso, K. Uto, H. G. Barsczus, H. Oda, T. Yamazaki, and E. Kikawa, Geomagnetic paleosecular variation for the past 5 Ma in the Society Islands, French Polynesia, Earth Planets Space, 54, 797–802, 2002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to H. Tsunakawa.

Rights and permissions

Open Access  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Uto, K., Yamamoto, Y., Sudo, M. et al. New K-Ar ages of the Society Islands, French Polynesia, and implications for the Society hotspot feature. Earth Planet Sp 59, 879–885 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352750

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352750

Key-words