New, Early Tertiary, Ages for Basal Pelagites, Northeast Santa Isabel, Solomon Islands (Central Southwest Flank, Ontong Java Plateau)

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Abstract
Basal pelagites deposited within the sequence of basal basic pillowed lavas are found in river sections on northeastern Santa lsabel. These deep-water carbonates are tough and lightly metamorphosed, and have to be studied in thin-section. Thin section determination of the planktic foraminifera indicate the presence of pelagites ranging in age from Late Paleocene through to Early Oligocene; younger tuffaceous sediments lie above. The lavas, pelagites and other sediments can be correlated with Malaitan sequences to the east and south-east and support the notion that northeastern lsabel is also a part of the central south-west flank of the Ontong Java Plateau. The ages of the pelagites are especially significant to the basal ages obtained in DSDP Sites 288 and 289: it appears that the plateau was created by spreading and that it is more youthful from north to south, that is, it youngs to the south.