Elsevier

Marine Geology

Volume 26, Issues 1–2, January–February 1978, Pages 41-48
Marine Geology

Further evidence for the Early Cretaceous breakup of Gondwanaland off southwestern Australia

https://doi.org/10.1016/0025-3227(78)90044-0Get rights and content

Abstract

Magnetic anomalies adjacent to the northwest margin of the Naturaliste Plateau are identified as Early Cretaceous reversals M-0 through M-4. These lineations indicate that northwest—southeast sea-floor spreading began off the present Naturaliste Plateau circa 118 m.y. B.P., 8 m.y. later than along the adjacent continental margin off Perth. The Naturaliste and Perth lineation sequences are offset 130 km dextrally by a fracture zone which passes near DSDP Site 257. The data indicate that an intracratonic small ocean basin existed seaward of Perth from about 126 to 118 m.y. B.P.

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      Seafloor spreading began on the Cuvier and Perth Abyssal Plains and western Australian margins to the north of the Naturaliste Plateau during the late Valanginian, and propagated westwards through the Hauterivian (Fig. 2A). The spreading ridge in the Perth Abyssal Plain established the western edge of the plateau during the early Barremian, which marked the final separation between Greater India and Australia-Antarctica (Colwell et al., 1994; Direen et al., 2008; Gaina et al., 2007; Gibbons et al., 2012, 2013; Markl, 1978; Olierook et al., 2015a; Veevers and Li, 1991; Williams et al., 2013). The late rifting stage was accompanied by volcanic eruptions on sections of the conjugate continental margins around the periphery of the eastern Indian Ocean, as well as on continental blocks and oceanic plateaus (Fig. 2; Colwell et al., 1994; Direen et al., 2008; Olierook et al., 2015a, 2017; Symonds et al., 1998; Whittaker et al., 2016; Zhu et al., 2009).

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      This spreading center propagated southwestward (Johnson et al. 1980) to the Cuvier Basin by M14 time (Veevers et al. 1985; Mihut and Muller 1998). Initiation of seafloor spreading in the Perth Basin occurred by M9 (Markl 1978; Gibbons et al. 2012) or M10 (Williams et al. 2013; Watson et al. 2016). Further, this spreading center resulted in the breakup of Antarctica from India and formation of the Bay of Bengal and the Enderby Basin, East Antarctica (Powell et al. 1988; Royer and Sandwell, 1989).

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      Direen et al. (2008) and Robb et al. (2005) also concluded that breakup was diachronous, rather than geologically instantaneous, with the emplacement of oldest oceanic crust between anomaly M7 and M4, spanning mid Hauterivian to Barremian time (~ 134-130 Ma: Ogg and Smith, 2004). In the Perth margin, emplacement of oldest oceanic crust is debated, but may coincide with anomaly M11 (Markl, 1978) or M10o (Veevers and Li, 1991) (Valanginian to mid Hauterivian: 136.8 -133.8 Ma; Ogg and Smith, 2004) (Fig. 1). This is correlated with a regional, borehole-tied latest Valanginian–Hauterivian breakup unconformity in the Perth (Bradshaw et al., 2003) and Mentelle (Maloney et al., 2011) basins, suggesting that breakup in the Perth margin may be slightly earlier than the adjacent rift compartment to the north.

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