The most deformed part of Wegener Crater

1) Process of fragmentation of Wegener Crater

· What happened to the southern half of Wegener Crater?

Image: Google Earth

In a south-southeast direction from Wegener crater, at a distance of 5,200 km, there is a volcanic arc with the same dimensions as the center of Wegener Crater.

- Coordinates of the northernmost point of the volcanic arc: 11° 17’ 14” S, 167° 24' 10” E

This arc consists of the Vanuatu Islands and extends itself up to the Fiji Islands, and constitutes the New Hebrides tectonic plate.

Around the volcanic arc appears to exist a secondary ring with concentric arcs deformed and with approximately the same dimensions as the outer secondary ring of Wegener Crater – it extends itself from the Solomon Islands up to the North Island of New Zealand.

- Coordinates of the northernmost point of the secondary ring: 8° 16’ 27” S, 158° 31' 30” E

The concentric arcs may indicate two secondary rings: an inner ring with dimensions equivalent to Wegener crater’s inner secondary ring, and an outer secondary ring also with the same dimensions as its equivalent previously studied.

It is demonstrable that the Pacific Plate, specifically the Wegener Crater, passed through that region.

The evidence is clear:

The seamount chain passes under the Australian Plate – it is subducted at a point at south of Tongatapu Island and resurfaces south of Tuvalu Island.*

- Coordinates of the chain disappearance: 25° 26’ 09” S, 175° 9' 52” W

- Coordinates of the chain reappearance: 10° 40’ 50” S, 175° 10' 51” W

What evidence we have to prove that this would be the southern half of the Wegener Crater which, after fracturing from West Antarctica fraction and drifting apart of it, collided and encountered the resistance offered by the Australian Plate to deform itself with help of the strong thrust provided by the Pacific Plate?

* Review: In fact, there is no subduction. It is a coincidence. The route of the great mountain range from the western half of the Wegener central crater (tectonic plate of the Philippines Sea) coincides with the route of the smaller mountain range originating in the eastern half of the crater (tectonic plate of the New Hebrides). The information was updated in the figure on the volcanic mountain ranges of the Pacific Ocean in the Blog Presentation.

· The mysterious disappearance of the eastern outer secondary ring

This puzzle was the hardest to clarify, but there is a logical, coherent, and demonstrable explanation.

The Wegener Crater has gone through a process of fragmentation and its parts are spread in four main locations:

· The current location of about one third of the crater total area on the Philippine Sea Plate/Mariana Plate, that allowed its discovery;

· The Nazca Plate, traceable through the crater's seamount chains to their point of origin;

· The Zealandia Plate, where approximately 1/3 of the original crater is located;

· The Western Antarctic subplate, which is the largest part, with its hotspot and eastern outer secondary ring as part of the Wegener Crater.

Shortly after the impact, the Wegener Crater was fractured, leaving behind the intense hotspot and its dense eastern outer secondary ring.

After the collision with the drifting eastern part of the Antarctic continent – East Antarctica – the ring has consolidated itself into the mountains separating the two main fractions of the frozen continent.

The circular arc of these mountains exactly coincides with a circle with a diameter of 4,600 km.

Apparently, Wegener crater was fragmented shortly after the impact with its denser half (western half of the outer ring and the eastern half of the central crater) drifting away northwards with the Nazca Plate.

The Nazca Plate drifted up north following the Pacific Plate trajectory, both drifting along the intense radially driven magma flow from the impact site.

The absence of volcanic chains between the Antarctic hotspot and the Nazca Plate may be explained by the fact that they were already subdued below the Andes.

The location of the hotspot on the eastern margin of the Wegener crater, rather than at its center, may have been due to the bolide’s impact angle.

It formed a deep crater due to the explosion, with the huge lava spill that filled up the Philippine Sea Plate/Mariana Plate, but caused the crater rim near to the fracture to become volcanic ducts, active up to these days — they made the south-southeast portion of the crater plate stiffer than the rest.

Tension between the continental blocs has accumulated and in a moment not far from impact, the Nazca Plate has separated itself from West Antarctica – carrying with it the outer secondary ring and part of the eastern inner area of ​​the Wegener Crater.

This eastern secondary ring, now subducted below the Andes, possibly had islands that now constitute the Peru Orogeny, the Altiplano Plate and the Puna-Sierras-Pampeanas Orogeny.

At the time, this region that would become West Antarctica possibly was still independent of Eastern Antarctica, since the impact have not destroyed all life on that part of the continent.

The fracture occurred diametrically in the central crater and continued following the outline of the central crater; the eastern half remained integrated with the western outer secondary ring in the northern, western and southeastern sections, currently consisting of half of Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines.

The wedge represented by the eastern half of the central crater and the southern part of the outer secondary ring, which now is constituted of the islands that form New Zealand and neighbouring minor island countries, remained attached to the Antarctic bloc while the more noticeable part of the Wegener Crater continued up north along with the Nazca Plate – and sometime after this it would drift westward along the Pacific Plate.

Upon encountering the opposition of the Australian Plate, the Zealandia Plate was retained and this began to deform the volcanic arc and the outer ring with the consequent rotation of the New Zealand Islands.

The country is primarily constituted of the North and South Islands — and the existence of the Alpine Fault along the South Island, and its shifting to the eastern coast of the North Island, may eventually indicate a reversal of their initial positions by the thrust of the Pacific Plate.

The presence of Tonga and Kermadec Trenches is related to the subduction of the outer secondary ring when the Pacific Plate was subducted under the set of Zealandia and Australian Plates.

2.2 What happened to the outer secondary ring of Wegener Crater?

2.2.1 Japan, Taiwan, Philippines and New Zealand: 
Formed on the  largest impact crater of the Solar System

As seen, nowadays just part of the western secondary ring external is visible.

This is constituted of the entire Philippine archipelago, the island of Taiwan and part of the Japanese archipelago (south and central areas of the island of Honshu and Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa islands – all with their geology compatible with the fracture/tectonic fault line indicated by the northern boundary of the Wegener crater.

· The case of Japan

The possibility that the islands in the northern half of the Japanese archipelago may also integrate the external secondary arc seems out of place because of the non-compliance of geological profiles, but studies need to definitively rule out this possibility.

The fact that the northern half could actually be formed in Asia may explain the apparent disagreement of the findings of this study with respect to the current knowledge of the archipelago's geological history.

The main argument against the Asian origin of the entire archipelago is as follows:

· How could Japan break away from the Eurasian Plate and overcome the Pacific Plate thrust northwestwards?

· What force could oppose itself to the Pacific Plate and force the archipelago to drift against this enormous mass?

· Where is the evidence of geological deformation that such a process would certainly cause?

The coasts’ cut-off profiles are not perfect for such a recent separation as proposed (15 Ma).[1]

We find better examples of coast separation in the Red Sea, and between Madagascar and Africa, as well as between South America and Africa, much older events.

· The case of Taiwan

The island of Taiwan is integrated with the Luzon Volcanic Arc in the Philippines, and it lies in a boundary area between the Philippine Sea Plate/Mariana Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The oldest rocks found there date back to the Permian period.

· The case of Philippines

Evidence that the Philippine archipelago was created from an impact is found in the analysis of Mindoro Island rocks, dated precisely at 251.0 ± 2.6 million years ago.[2]

This date exactly coincides with the age attributed to the great extinction that ended the Permian period.

What are the chances of this coincidence being the result of mere chance?

This is the best geological evidence that associates the Wegener Crater to the Permian Extinction.

· The case of Papua New Guinea

Could Papua New Guinea also integrate the secondary ring?

The island of Papua New Guinea appears to integrate the western outer secondary ring, but this perception can be misleading.

Its proportions and geological structure appear differentiated relative to those of the countries mentioned above, then apparently its origin really is the Australian Plate.

There is a lack of geological evidences to prove its origin as a component of the outer secondary ring, but future studies may reveal that its north region could be part of the ring.

· The case of New Zealand

 This is a more complex story; it will be presented in detail in various topics below.

2.2.2    Evidence of collision of Wegener Crater with Australian Plate

Looking at the maps of the underwater relief, it is practically possible to see how, due to the resistance offered by the Australian Plate, the New Zealand Islands were forced to rotate counterclockwise or at least the South Island was forced to drift southwards along the North Island’s coast.

The Islands occupied the southern portion of the western outer secondary ring and are now placed orthogonally to the central volcanic arc – the center of the crater – and to the drifting direction of the Pacific Plate.

The undersea relief possibly shows the spill of magma left behind as the Islands rotated around the axis of that fraction of the plate.

The Pacific Plate thrust deformed the southern half of the Wegener Crater’s outer secondary ring, and pushed it to the vicinity of the volcanic arc of the central crater.

After millions of years, the broke-up fraction of the western half of the outer secondary ring and eastern half of the central crater proceeded along with the Pacific Plate, free of resistance, but spilling the enormous amount of magma that created the gigantic lava spill spread throughout the Philippine Sea Plate/Mariana Plate.

1) Coincidence of volcanic arcs

Except for the case in point and the huge volcanic arc of the Aleutians, all the great volcanic arcs on the planet seem to be always arranged in the same direction, with their openings facing to west:

· Mariana Volcanic Arc (Wegener Crater)

· Volcanic Arc of Banda

· Caribbean Volcanic Arc

· South Sandwich Islands Volcanic Arc

The reason for this preference must be clarified, but it may be related to the Earth's direction of rotation — or the direction of impact, according to other study by the author.

2) Geological coincidences and exceptionalities in the outer secondary ring

What evidence do we have that the submerged part of the Zealandia tectonic plate has anything to do with the secondary rings of the Wegener Crater?

In addition to the evidence presented in the previous segment, there are the following coincidences with the northernmost members of the ring:

The basal terrain of the central ridge of New Zealand’s two main islands is constituted of magmatic rocks formed between the Permian and the Cretaceous — that is, of contemporary or post-extinction ages.

The basal terrain of the central ridge of the two main islands of southern Japan is constituted of magmatic rocks formed between the Permian and the Cretaceous – that is, of contemporary or post-extinction ages.

The distance between the mainland and the islands of New Zealand is too large to be explained by the Tectonic Theory.

New Zealand's two main islands are very close in size and proportion to the Honshu and Shikoku Islands in Japan, as well to those of the Philippine Archipelago as a whole.

The geology of all these islands, so far and so like, is very similar – all show intense volcanic activity, constant seismic activity, several hot springs and, last but not least, the aforementioned central ridges consist of magmatic rocks formed between the Permian and the Cretaceous periods.

3) Non conformity of coastal profiles

In both archipelagos, the profile of the coast nearby to the continent from which the islands supposedly broke up does not fit the contour of the continental coast.

There is no profile match between the west coast of New Zealand and any part of the coast of Australia.

There is no profile match between the north coast of the Honshu and Shokaku Islands and any part of the adjacent coast in Asia.

There is no profile match between the south coast of Papua New Guinea and any part of the coast of Australia.

The proximity and similarity of the volcanic arcs remnants of the eastern and western halves of the Wegener Crater’s central crater exceeds the limits of mere coincidence.

Perhaps the best evidence to support this theory is based on an analysis of why New Zealand's natural wildlife is unique in the world – despite of Australia also having unique exotic plants and animals, New Zealand's flora and fauna do get to be largely differentiated.

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[1] Barnes, Gina L. (2003). "Origins of the Japanese Islands: The New "Big Picture"" (PDF). University of Durham. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 28, 2011. Retrieved August 11, 2009.

[2] Permian arc magmatism in Mindoro, Philippines: An early Indonesian event in the Palawan Continental Terrane; Ulrich Knittel, Chien-HuiHung, Tsanyao Frank Yang, Yoshiyuki Iizuka, Tectonophysics Volume 493, Issues 1–2, 8 October 2010, Pages 113 -117

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