Publications

Localized rifting at Chagos Bank in the India-Capricorn plate boundary zone

Chagos Bank is a region of thick crust in the central Indian Ocean where a concentration of seismicity indicates that extension is ongoing. We have modeled bathymetry and gravity data to show that the crust-mantle boundary shallows near a seabed trough, consistent with a total extension of similar to15 km over a zone similar to50 km broad. This estimate is consistent with 5-10 m.y. of deformation at the present rate of relative India-Capricorn motion; the similar to15 km of extension is toward the lower limit of the total extension expected from magnetic anomaly reconstructions, but would be accumulated in 1-3 m.y. in a regime having the present-day seismicity. We attribute the localization of seismicity beneath Chagos Bank to a weak rheology caused by its thick crust.

Authors

Henstock T , Minshull T .

Year

1

DOI

10.1130/G19850.1

ISBN-13

0

Keywords

extensional tectonics, Indian Ocean, plate boundaries, interplate tectonics, seismicity

Link

http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/content/32/3/237.abstract