Deciphering detailed plate kinematics of the Indian Ocean and developing a unified model for East Gondwanaland reconstruction: An Indian-Australian-French initiative

Abstract

The Indian Ocean formed as a result of the fragmentation and dispersal of Gondwanaland since the Jurassic. The deep ocean basins in the Indian Ocean contain the imprints of this plate tectonic history, which is related with several major tectonic events. A broad model for evolution of the Indian Ocean was proposed in the early 1980s. Subsequently, Indian, French and Australian scientists acquired large amount of sea-surface magnetic data in different sectors of the Indian Ocean and their independent magnetic anomaly investigations provided better plate tectonic evolution models for different sectors of the Indian Ocean. Indian and French scientists, under two Indo-French collaborative projects, carried out detailed magnetic investigations in the northwestern and central Indian Ocean by combining the available magnetic data from conjugate regions and provided a detailed understanding of plate tectonic evolution of Indian-Antarctic and Indian-African plate boundaries. Those projects were complemented by additional area-specific studies in the Mascarene, Wharton, Laxmi and Gop basins, which are characterized by extinct spreading centres. During the same period, Australian scientists carried out investigations in the southeastern part of the Indian Ocean and provided an improved understanding of the plate tectonic evolution of the Indian-Australian and the Antarctic-Australian plate boundaries. Any improved model of plate kinematics of the Indian Ocean region should be compatible with the motions that are evident at all the above-mentioned plate boundaries and should also be able to explain the identified complexities. With an aim to develop such a unified model for the plate tectonic evolution of the Indian Ocean in high resolution, a project was initiated, under the auspices of an Indian-Australian-French collaboration, for the synthesis of all data available with the Indian, Australian and French scientists and work towards a unified high resolution plate tectonic model of the Indian Ocean.