Abstract
The recognition of Mesozoic magnetic anomalies M0-M12 within the submarine Natal Valley (south-west Indian Ocean) provides a further constraint on the relative motion between South America (Falkland Plateau) and Africa during the early opening phase of West Gondwanaland (Fig. 1). Colinear with M12, magnetic anomaly G (ref. 1) is delineated north of the South Tugela Ridge2, an acoustic basement high which is suspected to have been emplaced within continental crust immediately north of the continental–oceanic crust boundary (COB) during the initial rifting phase. Starting from a revised West Gondwana reconstruction3 and using palaeo-poles of rotation1,3, the Falkland Plateau can be rotated into the Natal Valley superposing the corresponding Georgia Basin and Natal Valley magnetic anomalies. This achieves an optimum continuity of inter-continental structural lineaments3 by overlapping of an anomaly intermediate to M10 and M11 (∑M10N4). This suggests that the Natal Valley COB is located between anomalies M10 and M11, implying that in this zone of south-west Gondwana, seafloor spreading commenced at ∼125 Myr.
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Goodlad, S., Martin, A. & Hartnady, C. Mesozoic magnetic anomalies in the southern Natal Valley. Nature 295, 686–688 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/295686a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/295686a0
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