The structural analysis of the metamorphic belt and allochthonous terranes, which represent the lower and upper plates of the Eocene subduction/obduction complex of New Caledonia respectively, unravels a multi-step evolution. At subduction inception, the originally N-S trending northern Norfolk/New Caledonia Ridge was moving northward as recorded by sheared lower Eocene dykes of the Peridotite Nappe. Fast exhumation of the fore-arc mantle in transtensional conditions was recorded by the injection of fore-arc magmas through fast-cooling peridotites, followed by the occurrence of antigorite- and tremolite-bearing crack seals in small-scale transcurrent or oblique-slip faults. Meanwhile, slices of the oceanic crust of the lower plate were scrapped off and accumulated in the fore-arc region while some elements were dragged down into the subduction zone and contributed to the formation of eclogite facies mélange. When the tip of the New Caledonia Ridge reached the trench, it progressively jammed the subduction. Meanwhile, the oblique slip and coeval rotation of the arc due to the opening of the north Loyalty back-arc basin provoked the dextral transcurrent folding of already accreted ocean crust slices and metamorphic units on the course of exhumation. Bulk counterclockwise rotation of 56° ± 5° was recorded in the foreland basin by paleomagnetic data of sediments from the 45–35 Ma time interval. The final obduction of fore-arc peridotites occurred with top-to-the-SW kinematics when the island had already reached its present orientation.

变质带和异源地层的结构分析分别代表了新喀里多尼亚始新世俯冲/俯冲复合体的下板和上板，揭示了一个多步骤的演化过程。俯冲开始时，原本为北向的诺福克/新喀里多尼亚海岭向北移动，这是由橄榄岩岩浆岩的始新世低剪切的新生代大堤所记录的。通过快速冷却的橄榄岩注入前弧岩浆，记录了在张性条件下前弧幔的快速掘出，随后在小规模的横流或斜滑断层中出现了带防蛇纹石和透闪石的裂缝密封。同时，刮下下部板块的洋壳切片并积聚在前弧区域，同时一些元素被拖入俯冲带并有助于形成榴辉岩相混杂岩。当新喀里多尼亚山脊的尖端到达海沟时，它逐渐堵塞了俯冲。同时，由于北部忠实后弧盆地的开放而引起的弧线的倾斜滑移和近代旋转在发掘过程中激起了已经积聚的洋壳切片和变质单元的右旋横流折叠。前陆盆地通过45–35 Ma时间间隔内的沉积物古磁数据记录了逆时针大体旋转56°±5°。