Hjort Trench (Oceania)
Map of Hjort Trench (blue). The Emerald Fracture Zone mentioned in the text to its south east is shown as red shading and to the north is a section of the Macquarie Fault Zone (red). Clicking on map enables mouse over, which shows a purple dot as the location of the Macquarie Triple Junction where three plate boundaries (white) intersect.
The Hjort Trench is a linear topographic depression south of Macquarie Island in the southwest Pacific Ocean.[1][2] Geologically, the depression is considered to be the seafloor expression of an ocean-ocean subduction zone, where the Australian Plate is thrusting beneath the Pacific Plate.[3] As the southernmost portion of the Macquarie Ridge Complex, the Hjort Trench lies in an area of diagonal convergence produced by the transform fault evolution of the Emerald Fracture Zone. Frequent seismic events, most less than 20 km (12 mi) deep, characterize the transpression along this plate boundary.[4]
The trench is named in honour of the Norwegian oceanographer Johan Hjort.
- ^ Cazenave, Anny; Ruff, Larry (1985). "SEASAT geoid anomalies and the Macquarie Ridge complex [1985]". agris.fao.org. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
- ^ "Seafloor Mapping of the South-east Region and Adjacent Waters : AUSTREA-2 Cruise Report: South-east of Tasmania and Southern Macquarie Ridge". data.gov.au. Government of Australia.
- ^ Meckel, T.A.; Coffin, M.F.; Mosher, S; Symonds, P; Bernardel, G; Mann, P (6 December 2003). "Underthrusting at the Hjort Trench, Australian‐Pacific plate boundary: Incipient subduction?". Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. 4 (12): 1099. Bibcode:2003GGG.....4.1099M. doi:10.1029/2002GC000498.
- ^ Lodolo, E. and F. Coren (1994). "The Westernmost Pacific Antarctic plate boundary in the vicinity of the Macquarie triple junction." (In C.A. Ricci, ed. Terra Antarctica, vol.1). pp. 158–161