Open AccessEarliest sea‐floor spreading magnetic anomalies in the north Arabian Sea and the ocean‐continent transition
Author(s) -
Miles Peter R.,
Roest Walter R.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
geophysical journal international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.302
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1365-246X
pISSN - 0956-540X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-246x.1993.tb01507.x
Subject(s) - geology , oceanic crust , magnetic anomaly , ridge , crust , rift , gravity anomaly , plateau (mathematics) , paleontology , continental crust , mid ocean ridge , volcano , seismology , tectonics , subduction , mathematical analysis , mathematics , oil field
Magnetic and gravity data collected during a GLORIA survey of the Indus Fan provide new information on the earliest sea‐floor spreading history of the Arabian Sea. A negative gravity anomaly correlates with the buried Laxmi Ridge. This ridge is interpreted here to be a sliver of continental crust adjacent to the oceancontinent transition which bounds thinned, probably intruded, transitional crust to the NE. The oldest sea‐floor spreading anomaly is anomaly 28 (65‐66 Ma), breakup occurring at the time of the Deccan Traps volcanic event. The earliest oceanic crust formed from two phases of rift propagation which accommodates the angular disparity between the E‐W trending anomalies in the western Arabian Sea and the NE‐SW trending western part of the Laxmi Ridge. Flow‐line projection shows that the Laxmi ridge forms the conjugate structure to the northern Mascarene Plateau margin.