Abstract
THE accreting margin between the African and Antarctic plates is now well understood between the Bouvet triple junction and Marion Island (Fig. 1). Published data obtained from the ridge axis near 1°W1, 15°E2, and 36°E3 can be combined to yield a relative rotation pole at 11°N, 41°W with an equatorial half spreading rate of 0.8 cm yr−1. Away from the spreading axis, very little is known apart from a narrow region to the north in the Mozambique Basin where Bergh and Norton3 have shown that the present spreading regime commenced at least as far back as the Late Cretaceous. This is the only region where transform fault traces have been extended for more than 100 km from the spreading centre and where magnetic lineations have been related to the present tectonic pattern. I describe here a group of lineations recently mapped in the Antarctic Basin off Dronning Maud Land, interpreted as being due to sea floor generated at the South-west Indian Ocean Ridge in the Early Cretaceous.
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References
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BERGH, H. Mesozoic sea floor off Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. Nature 269, 686–687 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/269686a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/269686a0
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