Tethyan Trench Tethyan Trench The Tethyan Trench was an ancient oceanic trench that existed in the northern part of the Tethys Ocean during the middle Mesozoic to early Cenozoic eras. The Tethyan Trench formed when the Cimmerian Plate was subducting under eastern Laurasia, around 200 million years ago, in the Early Jurassic. The Tethyan Trench extended at its greatest during Late Cretaceous to Paleocene, from what is now Greece to the Western Pacific Ocean. Subduction at the Tethyan Trench probably caused the continents Africa and India to move towards Eurasia, which resulted in the opening of the Indian Ocean. When the Arabian
Ontong Java Plateau Ontong Java Plateau The Ontong Java Plateau (OJP) is a huge oceanic plateau located in the south-west Pacific Ocean, north of the Solomon Islands. The OJP was emplaced 120 Ma with a much smaller volcanic event 90 Ma. Two other south-west Pacific plateaus, Manihiki and Hikurangi, now separated from the OJP by Cretaceous ocean basins, are of similar age and composition and probably formed as a single plateau and a contiguous large igneous province together with the OJP. When emplaced this Ontong Java-Manihiki-Hikurangi plateau covered 1% of Earth's surface and represented a volume of of basaltic magma. This "Ontong Java