Reconstruction for Chron 27 (61.1 Ma) (additional figures follow abstract)
Abstract.
The aim of our study is to chronicle the development of plate boundaries in the Southwest
Pacific Ocean during early Tertiary time. This region has been the subject of numerous and often
conflicting studies that have attempted to construct the history of plate motion and plate
boundary evolution as the Australia and Pacific plates separated from Antarctica. Our novel
approach entails reconstructing gravity fields from satellite altimeter gravity by first removing
anomalies overlying seafloor younger than a selected age, and then rotating the remaining
anomalies through appropriate finite rotations. Our reconstructions reveal 1) an extensional plate
boundary (the Iselin rift) existed between West and East Antarctica prior to A24 time, 2) the
arrival of the Southeast Indian ridge (SEIR) at the Tasman ridge (prior to A24) led to the
extinction of the Iselin rift as well as the conversion of the easternmost portion of the Tasman
plate boundary (between the SEIR and the Iselin rift) into a transform fault on the Pacific-Antarctic ridge, and 3) an early (A24 or younger) inception of the Australia-Pacific plate
boundary. Our scenario for the opening of the Southwest Pacific Ocean can explain the present-day gravity anomalies and magnetic isochrons observed in the northwest Ross Sea. We find that
East Antarctic seafloor northeast of the Iselin Bank was generated by spreading on the Tasman
ridge prior to A24 time.
Reconstruction for Chron 24 (53.35 Ma)
Reconstruction for Chron 21 (47.91 Ma)
Present-day gravity anomalies
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