Abstract
Rocks significantly older than their theoretically predicted age have been recovered in the vicinity of some Atlantic Transform Zones. Rocks of Palaeocene (55–58 Myr) and possibly even of Cretaceous age are found near the Vema Transform, on tectonically uplifted crust which should not be older than 30 Myr. We present here a model which might explain the presence of uplifted, anomalously old crust near the Vema Transform Zone (TZ). The proposed model involves axial rift propagation and reorientation and migration of the transform as a result of a change in the regional stress field. During transform migration a crustal wedge, formerly part of the African plate, is transferred to the South American plate. The ensuing oscillatory spreading can explain the anomalous age of the uplifted crustal block. Compression resulting from rift propagation and transform migration provides a mechanism for crustal uplift.
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Bonatti, E., Crane, K. Oscillatory spreading explanation of anomalously old uplifted crust near oceanic transforms. Nature 300, 343–345 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/300343a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/300343a0
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