Sunda Trench an underwater ridge, and much of the trench is at least partially filled with sediments. Mappings after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake of the plate boundary showed resemblance to suspension bridge cables, with peaks and sags, indicative of asperity and locked faults, instead of the traditional wedge shape expected. Some of the earliest exploration of the Trench occurred in the late 1950s when Robert Fisher, Research Geologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, investigated the trench as part of a worldwide scientific field exploration of the world's ocean floor and sub-oceanic crustal-structure. Bomb-sounding, echo-train analysis and manometer were some of
Kermadec Trench is 72–80 Ma near the Louisville seamounts at the northern end and more than 100 Ma near Hikurangi Plateau at the southern end. There are no seamounts on the sea-floor near the Kermadec Trench except one sitting on the trench slope at which has been dated to 54.8±1.9 Ma. The Hikurangi Plateau formed part of the Ontong-Java-Manihiki-Hikurangi large igneous province (LIP) during the so-called Greater Ontong Java Event 120 . The Manihiki Plateau is currently subducting under the southern part of the Kermadec Arc but most of it has already been subducted. The LIP-arc collision occurred north of its present