West Philippine Basin

Not to be confused with West Philippine Sea.

The West Philippine Basin, is the oceanic crust located underneath the western part of the Philippine Sea. It was formed during the early Oligocene epoch.[1] To its southwest is the Philippine Trench, and to its east is the Kyushu–Palau Ridge.[2] The West Philippine Basin is deeper and older than the eastern basins and has crustal heat-flow values approaching that of old oceanic crust.[3][4] It is roughly bisected by the Central Basin Fault zone which comprises a band of high relief running from the northwest corner to the Kyushu–Palau Ridge near 14°N. Characterized by the presence of several submarine plateaus (Benham Rise and Anami and Oki-Daito Ridges).

  1. ^ Dennis Brown; Paul D. Ryan (29 June 2011). Arc-Continent Collision. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 433. ISBN 978-3-540-88558-0.
  2. ^ R. R. Hillis; R. D. Müller (1 January 2003). Evolution and Dynamics of the Australian Plate. Geological Society of America. p. 362. ISBN 978-0-8137-2372-3.
  3. ^ Watanabe, T., Epp, D., Uyeda, S., Langseth, M., and Yasui, M., 1970. Heat flow in the Philippine Sea: Tectonophysics,v. 10, p. 205–22
  4. ^ Sclater, J. G., 1972. Heat flow and elevation of the marginal basins of the western Pacific: J. Geophys. Res., v. 77, p. 5705–5719.