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

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Date

1987

Authors

Royer, Jean-Yves

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Publisher

Institute for Geophysics

Abstract

Description

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.

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Citation

Royer, Jean-Yves. "Evolution of the Eastern Indian Ocean: New Constraints from Satellite Altimetry Data (Paleoceanographic Mapping Project Progress Report No. 29-1287)." University of Texas Institute for Geophysics Technical Report Number 80 (December 1987), 33p.