New Hebrides Trench

The New Hebrides Trench is an oceanic trench which extends to over 7.6 km deep in the southern Pacific Ocean. It lies to the northeast of New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands, to the southwest of Vanuatu, west of Australia, and south of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The trench was formed as a result of the subduction zone. The Australian plate is being subducted under the New Hebrides Plate causing volcanism which produced the Vanuatu island chain.

Map of the New Herbrides Trench and surrounding tectonic plates

The trench was first explored in 2013 by the University of Aberdeen's Oceanlab team. They found cusk-eels, prawns, and other eels, and crustaceans. This is significantly different from other deep sea trenches that have been studied.[1]

Tectonics

At the New Hebrides Trench, the Australian plate is being subducted underneath the New Hebrides microplate. The convergence rate ranges from 120 mm (4.7 in)/yr in the south, to 40 mm (1.6 in)/yr in the central section, to 170 mm (6.7 in)/yr in the north. The anomalous lack of convergence in the central section is caused by the subduction of the d'Entrecasteaux Ridge.

Associated seismicity

Major earthquakes associated with the subduction zone:[2][3]

Article	Date	Location	Magnitude
-	March 28, 1875	Loyalty Islands	8.1-8.2
-	August 9, 1901	Tadine, New Caledonia	7.9
-	June 16, 1910	Isangel, Vanuatu	7.8
-	September 20, 1920	Isangel, Vanuatu	8.1
-	December 2, 1950	Port-Vila, Vanuatu	7.9
-	December 17, 1957	Sola, Vanuatu	7.8
-	December 31, 1966	Lata, Solomon Islands	7.8
-	July 17, 1980	Lata, Solomon Islands	7.9
2009 Vanuatu earthquakes	October 7, 2009	Sola, Vanuatu	7.8
2013 Solomon Islands earthquake	February 6, 2013	Lata, Solomon Islands	8.0
2021 Loyalty Islands earthquake	February 10, 2021	Southeast of the Loyalty Islands	7.7

References

Morelle, Rebecca (3 March 2014). "New Hebrides trench: First look at unexplored deep sea". BBC News. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
"Map of Magnitude 7.5+ along the New Hebrides Trench and Surrounding Areas". USGS. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
Ioualalen, Mansour (May 2017). "Investigating the March 28th 1875 and the September 20th 1920 earthquakes/tsunamis of the Southern Vanuatu arc, offshore Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia". Tectonophysics. 709: 20. Bibcode:2017Tectp.709...20I. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2017.05.006.

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[1] Morelle, Rebecca (3 March 2014). "New Hebrides trench: First look at unexplored deep sea". BBC News. Retrieved 25 January 2022.

[Map_of_Magnitude_7.5+_earthquakes_in_the_Area-2] "Map of Magnitude 7.5+ along the New Hebrides Trench and Surrounding Areas". USGS. Retrieved 25 January 2022.

[3] Ioualalen, Mansour (May 2017). "Investigating the March 28th 1875 and the September 20th 1920 earthquakes/tsunamis of the Southern Vanuatu arc, offshore Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia". Tectonophysics. 709: 20. Bibcode:2017Tectp.709...20I. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2017.05.006.