Late Tertiary tectonic subsidence on the northeast Australian passive margin: response to dynamic topography?

Origin of anomalous subsidence along the Northern South China Sea margin and its relationship to dynamic topography

“…Dynamic topography has been invoked to explain subsidence and uplift of continents (Lithgow-Bertelloni and Burgess et al, 1997;Gurnis et al, 1998), as well as passive margins such as the Northeast Australian margin (Mu¨ller et al, 2000) and the South Australian margin (Brown et al, 2001). Tectonic subsidence along the northern South China Sea margin may be related to dynamically driven topography, but this process has remained a matter of controversy White, 2000, 2002).…”

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“…Subsidence anomalies along the NWS are ideal targets for investigation of dynamic topography, as the region lies across the gradient of the degree 2 geoid anomaly and on the fastest moving continent since the Eocene (about >35 Ma). These subsidence anomalies have long been known (Müller et al, 2000;Kennard et al, 2003) and can be ascribed to dynamic topography because both thermal subsidence and flexural effects are minimal (Czarnota et al, 2013).…”

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“…Subsidence anomalies along the NWS are ideal targets for the investigation of dynamic topography because the region lies across the gradient of the degree 2 geoid anomaly and on the fastest moving continent since the Eocene (about >35 Ma). These subsidence anomalies have long been known (Müller et al, 2000;Kennard et al, 2003) and can be ascribed to dynamic topography because both thermal subsidence and flexural effects are minimal (Czarnota et al, 2013). Advancements in computer modeling (DiCaprio et al, 2011) have attributed subsidence anomalies along the NWS to dynamic drawdown of the Earth's surface driven by Australia's rapid northward motion over a generally stationary accumulation of subducted slabs within the mantle beneath southeast Asia (e.g., Lithgow-Bertelloni and Gurnis, 1997;Heine et al, 2010).…”