Authors
Douglas A Wiens, Charles DeMets, Richard G Gordon, Seth Stein, Don Argus, Joseph F Engeln, Paul Lundgren, Dan Quible, Carol Stein, Stuart Weinstein, Dale F Woods
Publication date
1985/7
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Volume
12
Issue
7
Pages
429-432
Description
Australia and India are conventionally thought to be contained in a single plate divided from an Arabian plate by the Owen Fracture Zone. We propose instead that motion along the nearly aseismic Owen Fracture Zone is negligible and that Arabia and India are contained within a single Indo‐Arabian plate, divided from the Australian plate by a diffuse boundary. This boundary, which trends E‐W from the Central Indian Ridge near Chagos Bank to the Ninetyeast Ridge, and north along the Ninetyeast Ridge to the Sumatra Trench, is a zone of concentrated seismicity and deformation heretofore characterized as “intraplate”. Plate motion inversions and an F‐ratio test show that relative motion data along the Carlsberg Ridge are fit significantly better by the new model. The misclosure of the Indian Ocean triple junction is reduced by 40%. The rotation vector of Australia relative to Indo‐Arabia is consistent with the …
Total citations
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Scholar articles
DA Wiens, C DeMets, RG Gordon, S Stein, D Argus… - Geophysical Research Letters, 1985