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Sediment mass accumulation rate (MAR) is a proxy for paleoceanographic conditions, especially if biological productivity generated most of the sediment. We determine MAR records from pelagic calcareous sediments in Tasman Sea based on analysis of 11 boreholes and >3 million seismic reflection horizon picks. Seismic data from regions of 10,000–30,000 km2 around each borehole were analyzed using data from International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 371 and other boreholes. Local MAR was affected by deepwater currents that winnowed, eroded, or deposited seafloor sediment. Therefore, it is necessary to average MARs across regions to test paleoceanographic and productivity models. MARs during the Miocene Climate optimum (18–14 Ma) were slightly lower than Quaternary values but increased on southern Lord Howe Rise at 14–13 Ma, when global climate became colder. Intensification of the Indian and East Asian monsoons at ∼8 Ma and ∼3.6 Ma approximately corresponds to the start and end, respectively, of the Biogenic Bloom, which had MARs at least double Quaternary values. On northern Lord Howe Rise, we recognize peak MARs at∼7 Ma and ∼5 Ma. There is no correlation between Neogene MAR and ocean pH or atmospheric CO2 concentration. Neogene MARs are on average higher than Quaternary values. We posit that future long-term productivity in the southwest Pacific could be higher than Quaternary values, but new computer models that can fit our observations are required to test this hypothesis.

Y Rapid onset of subduction tectonics across the western Pacific convergent margins in the early Eocene was followed by a slower phase of margin growth of the proto Tonga-Kermadec subduction system north of Zealandia during a middle Eocene phase to tectonic adjustment. We present new age constraints from International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 371 borehole data on deformation events in northern Zealandian sediments that document the formation of the convergent margin boundary northwest of New Zealand. The deformation shows a shortening event that lasted up to 20 myr and acted over distances of ∼1000 km inboard of the evolving plate margin, just northwest of New Zealand. Multichannel seismic profiles tied to our new borehole sites show shortening occurred predominantly between 45 Ma and 35 Ma with some deformation related to slope failure continuing into the Oligocene. The termination of shortening is linked to opening of the backarc basins of the southwest Pacific and the migration of the Tonga-Kermadec Trench to the east which may have removed the structural evidence of the Eocene plate margin. Paleogene deformation observed inboard of the evolving proto Tonga-Kermadec subduction system indicates that the lithosphere of northern Zealandia, a region of thin continental crust, was strong enough to act as a stress guide. Compressive stresses that caused intra plate folding and faulting developed behind the initiating subduction system with the finite period of deformation indicating the time frame over which an active convergent margin lay along the northern margin of Zealandia.

Data from International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 371 reveal vertical movements of 1-3 km in northern Zealandia during early Cenozoic subduction initiation in the western Pacific Ocean. Lord Howe Rise rose from deep (∼1 km) water to sea level and subsided back, with peak uplift at 50 Ma in the north and between 41 and 32 Ma in the south. The New Caledonia Trough subsided 2-3 km between 55 and 45 Ma. We suggest these elevation changes resulted from crust delamination and mantle flow that led to slab formation. We propose a "subduction resurrection" model in which (1) a subduction rupture event activated lithospheric-scale faults across a broad region during less than ∼5 m.y., and (2) tectonic forces evolved over a further 4-8 m.y. as subducted slabs grew in size and drove plate-motion change. Such a subduction rupture event may have involved nucleation and lateral propagation of slip-weakening rupture along an interconnected set of preexisting weaknesses adjacent to density anomalies.