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A Survey of the Southwest Indian Ridge Axis Between Atlantis II Fracture Zone and the Indian Ocean Triple Junction: Regional Setting and Large Scale Segmentation

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Abstract

The study of very low-spreading ridges has become essential to ourunderstanding of the mid-oceanic ridge processes. The Southwest Indian Ridge(SWIR) , a major plate boundary of the world oceans, separating Africa fromAntarctica for more than 100 Ma, has such an ultra slow-spreadingrate. Its other characteristic is the fast lengthening of its axis at bothBouvet and Rodrigues triple junctions. A survey was carried out in thespring of 1993 to complete a multibeam bathymetric coverage of the axisbetween Atlantis II Fracture Zone (57° E) and the Rodrigues triplejunction (70° E). After a review of what is known about the geometry,structure and evolution of the SWIR, we present an analysis of the newalong-axis bathymetric data together with previously acquiredacross-axis profiles. Only three transform faults, represented byAtlantis II FZ, Novara FZ, and Melville FZ, offset this more than 1000 kmlong section of the SWIR, showing that the offsets are more generallyaccommodated by ridge obliquity and non-transform discontinuities. From comparison of the axial geometry, bathymetry, mantle Bouguer anomaly and central magnetic anomaly, three large sections (east of Melville FZ, between Melville FZ and about 65°30′ E, and from there to the Rodrigues triple junction) can be distinguished. The central member, east of Melville FZ, does not resemble any other known mid-oceanic ridge section: the classical signs of the accretion (mantle Bouguer anomaly, central magnetic anomaly) are only observed over three very narrow and shallow axis sections. We also apply image processing techniques to the satellite gravity anomaly map of Smith and Sandwell (1995) to determine the off-axis characteristics of the Southwest Indian Ridge domain, more especially the location of the triple junction and discontinuities traces. We conclude that the large-scale segmentation of the axis has been inherited from the evolution of the Rodrigues triple junction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Physique du Globe, CNRS UMR 7577, 4 place Jussieu, 75252, Paris Cedex 05, France

    Philippe Patriat

  2. Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de le Terre, CNRS UMR 7516, 5 rue René Descartes, 67084, Strasbourg Cedex, France

    Daniel Sauter & Marc Munschy

  3. Southampton Oceanography Centre, European Way, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK

    Lindsay Parson

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  1. Philippe Patriat
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  4. Lindsay Parson
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Patriat, P., Sauter, D., Munschy, M. et al. A Survey of the Southwest Indian Ridge Axis Between Atlantis II Fracture Zone and the Indian Ocean Triple Junction: Regional Setting and Large Scale Segmentation. Marine Geophysical Researches 19, 457–480 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004312623534

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