Evolution of the Eastern Indian Ocean: New Constraints from Satellite Altimetry Data (Paleoceanographic Mapping Project Progress Report No. 29-1287)

• Main Author: Royer, Jean-Yves
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Institute for Geophysics 1987
• Subjects: plate tectonics; plate reconstruction; Indian Ocean; satellite altimetry data; Antarctic; East Antarctica; Indian; Hayes; Southeast Indian Ridge; Wharton; Australian Antarctic Basin; Australian-Antarctic Basin; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2152/67589; https://doi.org/10.15781/T2610W99D

The opening of the Eastern Indian Ocean resulted in the dispersal of the three main pieces of Eastern Gondwana: India, Australia and East Antarctica. Based on the seafloor magnetic anomaly pattern recognized in the Central Indian Basin, the Crozet Basin, the Wharton .Basin and the Australian-Antarctic Basin (Fig. 1), the evolution of the Eastern Indian Ocean can be summarized in three main phases: - from Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous: early separation of Antarctica+Australia from Greater India and creation of the Mesozoic Basins along the western Australian margin [Markl, 1974, 1978; Larson et al., 1979; Veevers et al., 1985]; - from Early Cretaceous to Middle Eocene: fast northward drift of India corresponding to the creation of the symmetric Central Indian Basin and Crozet Basin [McKenzie and Sclater, 1971; Schlich, 1982] , opening of the Wharton Basin [Sclater and Fisher, 1974; Liu et al, 1983] and initiation of spreading between Australia and Antarctica [Cande and Mutter, 1982]; - and from Eocene to present: opening of the Australian-Antarctic Basin [Weisse! and Hayes, 1972] and of the northern Crozet and southern Central Indian Basins [Schlich, 1975; Sclater et al., 1976] along the Southeast Indian Ridge. UT Institute for Geophysics Paleoceanographic Mapping Project (POMP) Institute for Geophysics