Regional Geology of New Caledonia

Lillie, A. R.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4615-8041-6_8

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Brothers (1987) described the sillon as ‘A major late‐stage NW–SE Fault, possibly with a large right‐lateral strike‐slip component’. Brothers & Lillie (1988: fig. 15) mapped it as a ‘fracture zone’.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological disjunction along the West Caledonian fault, New Caledonia: a synthesis of molecular phylogenetics and panbiogeography

Heads

2008

Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society

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This paper documents a newly discovered pattern of biological disjunction between NW and SE New Caledonia. The disjunction occurs in 87 (mapped) taxa, including plants, moths and lizards, and correlates spatially with the West Caledonian fault. This fault is controversial; some geologists interpret it as a major structure, others deny that it exists. It may have undergone 150-200 km of lateral movement and it is suggested that this has caused the biological disjunction by pulling populations apart. The disjunction matches similar dextral disjunctions of taxa along transform faults in New Zealand, New Guinea, California and Indonesia. Major biogeographic patternswhether centres of diversity, boundaries of allopatric taxa or disjunctions -all include taxa with many different degrees of differentiation. Studies using a clock model of evolution will therefore interpret a biogeographic pattern as the result of many disparate events. However, this line of reasoning reaches the untenable conclusion that biogeographic patterns, including normal allopatry, are always caused by chance dispersal, never by vicariance. A more productive approach, avoiding the pitfalls of a fossil-based molecular clock, involves a close examination of molecular clades, comparative biogeography and tectonics. The New Caledonia example documented here shows that this can lead to novel, testable predictions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological disjunction along the West Caledonian fault, New Caledonia: a synthesis of molecular phylogenetics and panbiogeography

Heads

2008

Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society

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“…resurfaced during the late Eocene (Brothers and Lillie 1988;Willford and Brown 1994;Hall 2001;Cluzel et al 2006;Schellart et al 2006). While some authors have suggested that the extant Gondwanan component of the flora could be descended from pre-submergence ancestors that survived on emergent portions of Grande-Terre (Lee et al 2001;Ladiges and Cantrill 2007) or on geologically ephemeral nearby islands (Pelletier 2006), the emerging consensus is that the extant flora has evolved from colonists that arrived via transoceanic dispersal after the resurfacing of Grande-Terre ‫73ע‬ Mya (Aitchison et al 1995;McLoughlin 2001;Grandcolas et al 2008;Cruaud et al 2012).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Incidence, Correlates, and Origins of Dioecy in the Island Flora of New Caledonia

Schlessman

Vary

Munzinger

et al. 2014

International Journal of Plant Sciences

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Because it is an inherently risky sexual system, dioecy is globally rare. Attempts to explain unusually high incidences of dioecy on certain islands have generated a considerable literature on the relationships among dioecy, its ecological correlates, establishment after transoceanic dispersal, and postdispersal speciation. Nevertheless, few studies of dioecy on islands have included considerations of the origins and maintenance of dioecy on islands along with determinations of its incidence. Methodology. We used the literature, herbarium specimens, and fieldwork to determine the incidence of dioecy in the native angiosperm flora of New Caledonia. We inferred the number and characteristics of colonists needed to account for the extant dioecious flora. We made traditional species-based numerical assessments of associations between dioecy on New Caledonia and woodiness, plain flowers, fleshy fruit, habitat, and endemism, and we constructed a phylogenetic tree for New Caledonia's native angiosperms to investigate correlated evolution of dioecy and those associated traits. Pivotal results. This study is the first comprehensive survey of sexual systems for the flora of New Caledonia. One-fifth of New Caledonia's native angiosperms are dioecious. Dioecy is numerically overrepresented among species that are woody, have plain flowers, have fleshy fruit, occur in rainforest, or are endemic. However, we found strong evidence for correlated evolution only for dioecy and woodiness, plain flowers, and fleshy fruit. Dioecious groups with more of the widely accepted morphological correlates of dioecy tend to be more speciose. Approximately 90% of the colonists that gave rise to the extant dioecious flora were themselves dioecious. Approximately 60% of the colonists have two or more dioecious descendants, and those descendants comprise more than 90% of the extant dioecious species. Conclusions. Successful dispersal and establishment of already dioecious colonists and autochthonous speciation of dioecious lineages are primarily responsible for the high incidence of dioecy on New Caledonia. There were relatively few postdispersal transitions to dioecy. The associations of dioecy with woodiness, plain flowers, and fleshy fruit result from correlated evolution that occurred prior to dispersal to New Caledonia, while the associations of dioecy with rainforest habitat and endemism appear to result from autochthonous speciation of dioecious lineages. With ∼4% of the world's dioecious species occurring only there, New Caledonia should be a rich source of new information on the evolutionary ecology of dioecy. Realization of this potential will require both further study and concerted efforts to preserve the native flora.

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“…A particularly important feature of the Miocene was rapid uplift of the Northern and Central parts of New Caledonia and the subsequent erosion and development of nickeliferous laterites (summarised in Brothers and Lillie, 1988). If the ultramafic sheet covered the whole of the island, as the present distribution of massifs along the West Coast suggests, then the general absence of ultramafics in the north and in the Central Chain is evidence of differential vertical movement along the fault and further emphasises the importance of the West Caledonian Fault on both the physiography and geology of New Caledonia.…”

Section: Neogene Tectonic and Magmatic Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Major lithostratigraphic units of New Caledonian geology are shown in Figure 2. There are four main structural units (paris, 1981;Brothers and Lillie, 1988) -the Central Chain "core" of pre-Cretaceous rocks; the northern belt of Late Cretaceous to Eocene sediments high pressure metamorphosed by a Late Eocene event; the "formation of basalts" and Eocene sediments which extend along the west coast; and an obducted sheet of ultramafic rocks which covers a major portion of the southern part of the main island.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2): 1) an E-W trending "melange zone" which separates the high pressure metamorphic belt from rocks of the Central Chain. The melange zone has been interpreted as the site of a subduction zone (Brothers and Blake, 1973) and a transform suture system (Brothers and Lillie, 1988). 2) the NW-SE trending West Caledonian Fault (paris, 1981) which is believed to have had a major dextral transcurrent movement and to dislocate the ultramafic sheet (Brothers and Blake, 1973).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tectonism, magmatism and sedimentary basin development, Paleozoic to Paleogene, New Caledonia

Black¹

1993

BGSM

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Three pre-Cretaceous basement terranes are recognised in New Caledonia: 1. Karagreu-Boghen Terrane-an old accretionary complex, metamorphosed to greenschist facies, of uncertain age but probably Early Permian or older and tentatively correlated with Mid-Late Paleozoic complexes of New England Fold Belt. 2. Mt. Canala-Teremba Terrane-arc type volcanics and volcaniclastics of Upper Permian to Early Jurassic age and correlated with the Brook Street Terrane of New Zealand. 3. Ponerihouen-Baie St. Vincent Terrane-volcaniclastic and terrigenous sandstones and argillites of Mid Triassic to Jurassic age and correlated with the Murihiku and Waipapa Terranes of New Zealand. The Karagreu-Boghen and Mt. Canala-Teremba Terranes were probably juxtaposed by the Late Triassic. The three basement terranes were stitched together by late Mesozoic intrusives and Rangitata (Early Cretaceous) metamorphism and deformation. Late Cretaceous-Paleocene extensional sedimentary basins with bimodal volcanism were developed to the N (Diahot Basin) and S (Noumea Basin). The Cretaceous basalts of the Diahot basin are ocean floor type while those of the Noumea Basin are arc type and represent the final extensional stage of Mesozoic subduction. The allochthonous Cretaceous-Eocene West Coast basalts, believed to be New Caledonia Basin ocean floor, are normal MORB-type tholeiites with some arc affinities. The West Caledonian Fault post dates Early Oligocene obduction of the New Caledonian ultramafic sheet and has 55 km of right lateral transcurrent movement. Vertical movement on this fault has also played a major role in Miocene uplift particularly in the north of the island.

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Regional Geology of New Caledonia

Cited by 10 publications

References 32 publications

Biological disjunction along the West Caledonian fault, New Caledonia: a synthesis of molecular phylogenetics and panbiogeography

Biological disjunction along the West Caledonian fault, New Caledonia: a synthesis of molecular phylogenetics and panbiogeography

Incidence, Correlates, and Origins of Dioecy in the Island Flora of New Caledonia

Tectonism, magmatism and sedimentary basin development, Paleozoic to Paleogene, New Caledonia

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