Elliptical boundary of an intraplate volcanic field, Auckland, New Zealand

The outer vents in the Auckland Volcanic Field lie within 19 to 559 m (mean 224.75 m) of a `best-fitʹ ellipse with a 28.9-km-long major axis trending almost north–south, and a minor axis 16.5 km long. The ellipse has formed the outer boundary of the field since the inception of volcanism 140,000 years ago. We present the following testable hypotheses as an explanation of this pattern: The boundary is the expression of a corresponding elliptical source area at depth in the lithospheric mantle (possibly asthenosphere material trapped at this level). The ellipse may represent a depth contour on a very small upper mantle dome or of a lens intruding into a neck of an extensional structure. Alternatively it could be the boundary of a flat elliptical area where tensional stresses allow decompressional melting. The elliptical tensional region may either have developed in a releasing bend during strike-slip faulting along a fundamental lithosphere structure inherited from Mesozoic tectonics, associated with the NNW-trending Dun Mountain ophiolite belt, or may represent the tip of a fracture along which the Auckland Volcanic Province is propagating northward.