The Ontong Java Plateau, a volcanically-formed underwater plateau located in the Pacific Ocean north of the Solomon Islands, is younger and its eruption was more protracted than previously thought, new research led by Oregon State University suggests.
The Ontong Java Plateau, a volcanically-formed underwater plateau located in the Pacific Ocean north of the Solomon Islands, is younger and its eruption was more protracted than previously thought, new research led by Oregon State University suggests.
The findings, just published in Science, also cast doubt on long-held assumptions that the formation of the plateau, which is roughly the size of Alaska, was the cause of a global deposit of black shale throughout the world’s oceans.
“This type of shale is formed when there is very limited oxygen in the ocean. This layer was formed about 120 million years ago and can be found preserved everywhere around the world in geological formations,” said Anthony Koppers, a professor of marine geology in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and a co-author of the study.
Read more at: Oregon State University
