John G. Sclater

Digital isochrons of the world's ocean floor

We have created a digital age grid of the ocean floor with a grid node interval of 6 arc min using a self-consistent set of global isochrons and associated plate reconstruction poles. The age at each grid node was determined by linear interpolation between adjacent isochrons in the direction of spreading. Ages for ocean floor between the oldest identified magnetic anomalies and continental crust were interpolated by estimating the ages of passive continental margin segments from geological data and published plate models. We have constructed an age grid with error estimates for each grid cell as a function of (1) the error of ocean floor ages identified from magnetic anomalies along ship tracks and the age of the corresponding grid cells in our age grid, (2) the distance of a given grid cell to the nearest magnetic anomaly identification, and (3) the gradient of the age grid: i.e., larger errors are associated with high age gradients at fracture zones or other age discontinuities. Future applications of this digital grid include studies of the thermal and elastic structure of the lithosphere, the heat loss of the Earth, ridge-push forces through time, asymmetry of spreading, and providing constraints for seismic tomography and mantle convection models.

Evolution of the East: Central Indian Ocean, with Emphasis on the Tectonic Setting of the Ninetyeast Ridge

The meridional Ninetyeast Ridge in the eastern Indian Ocean separates the deep Central Indian Basin from the deeper Wharton Basin (or Cocos Basin–West Australian Basin) to the east. The flattish-summited ridge extends slightly east of north from near 32° S. directly to 7° S. where it appears segmented as a series of en echelon northeast-southwest–trending highs, then in a northerly direction disappears beneath the sediments of the Bengal Fan system near 9° N. Linear parallel to subparallel troughs border this linear ridge on the east side; on the west, from results of magnetic observations and preliminary deep drilling information, Ninetyeast Ridge apparently is bonded to the Indian plate. A second extensive north-south topographic rise and magnetic boundary zone, herein named the Investigator Fracture Zone, lies near 98° E. in the Wharton Basin. Easterly trending magnetic-anomaly lineations identified as numbers 5 through 16 and numbers 21 through 33b, increasing in age northward and with spreading rates variable through time, have been recognized in the Central Indian Basin. East of Ninetyeast Ridge in the Wharton Basin, anomalies 19 through 27, with spreading rates varying in concert with those of comparable age west of the ridge, have been found to increase in age toward the south. Older anomalies 28 through 33 have been identified in both basins; their divergent trends provide evidence that spreading rates decrease markedly westward during the time span they cover in the Late Cretaceous. From deep-sea drilling information supplementing and supporting magnetic, topographic, and gravity data obtained principally by research ships and PROJECT MAGNET since 1962, we interpret Ninetyeast Ridge to be an extrusive pile with a low-density shallow root, rather than a horst or an uplift resulting from the convergence of plates. The trough system that is partially buried with sediment east of the ridge and the north-south Investigator Fracture Zone several hundred kilometers farther to the east are remnants of formerly active transform faults that marked huge relative offsets between the spreading centers separating the Indian and Antarctic-Australian plates from anomaly 33b (Late Cretaceous) to anomaly 19 (Eocene) time. During the Late Cretaceous, Ninetyeast Ridge and Chagos-Laccadive Ridge had similar settings, marking paired offsets of an active spreading center around the southern tip of India. Both features terminated as active transform faults with the cessation of north-south spreading and the commencement of northeast-southwest spreading close to the time of anomaly 11 (Oligocene). The here-interpreted oceanic data is strong but not conclusive support for fitting India to Enderby Land in Antarctica in the Early Cretaceous. With presently available information, we have been unable to establish the precise time at which the spreading center in the Wharton Basin ceased to function.

The Paleobathymetry of the Atlantic Ocean from the Jurassic to the Present

Assuming seven rigid plates and a relation between depth and age we have reconstructed the bathymetry of the Atlantic Ocean at twelve specific times between the Jurassic and the present. The reconstructions are based on published tectonic histories for the region south of 35°N and on a tectonic history outlined in this paper for the North Atlantic. The purpose of the twelve charts is to examine the relation between the position of the continents, the bathymetry of the ocean floor, and the opening of the major seaways bordering and within the Atlantic. The charts shall provide a basic framework for the study of the sedimentary history of the ocean.

Evolution of the Central Indian Ridge, Western Indian Ocean

Topographic, magnetic, and earthquake epicenter data from the wholly submerged Central Indian Ridge were interpreted, using the Theory of Plate Tectonics. The pole of relative motion between the Indian and Somalian plates, lying at 16.0° N., 48.3° E. and with opening at 6.2 × 10−7 deg/yr, was obtained from the strike of fracture zones taken as transform faults and the spreading rates based on magnetic anomaly patterns. Since this pole appears to have moved little since the Miocene, the plate positions at that past time can be obtained by finite rotation about the present rotation pole. Such a reconstruction shows that the complicated nature of the present plate margins results from Miocene to Recent opening along a north-south fracture zone that existed in this area during an interval of rapid spreading in the late Cretaceous and early Tertiary.

The formation of the intra-Carpathian basins as determined from subsidence data

The Carpathian arc is the result of continental collision during subduction of the European plate beneath a Pannonian continental block. In the Early/Middle Miocene, during and after the last stages of thrusting in the Outer Carpathians, several “back-arc” basins started to form within the Carpathian loop. These basins are of two types: (1) those lying in the peripheral regions of the intra-Carpathian lowlands (Vienna, West Danube, Transcarpathian and Transylvanian), and (2) those lying in the central intra-Carpathian region (East Danube, Little Hungarian and Great Hungarian (Pannonian)). Though both groups of basins have thin crust, the subsidence history and the present heat flow are different. The peripheral basins exhibit a rapid initial subsidence followed by a much slower general increase in depth. Their heat flow is close to the average for continental areas. In contrast the central basins have no initial subsidence but do show a fast linear increase in depth which has continued until the present. The heat flow is nearly twice the average for continents. We believe that the basins are thermal in origin and are the direct result of the continental collision which formed the Carpathian arc. The peripheral basins appear to be the result of uniform stretching of the lithosphere by about a factor of two. The rapid initial subsidence is an immediate isostatic adjustment to the stretching, the slower linear subsidence is due to conductive cooling of the thinned lithosphere. In the central basins, uniform stretching by about a factor of 3 could explain the thermal subsidence and the high heat flow. Unfortunately such a simple explanation is not supported by either the geology or the absence of a clearly defined initial subsidence. Alternative explanation involve crustal stretching with additional subcrustal thinning or, alternatively, attenuation of the whole subcrustal lithosphere and part of the crust by melting and erosion. Both explanations create a very thin lithosphere, reduce the initial subsidence to a minimum but still give a rapid thermal subsidence and high heat flow. The subsidence history gives quantitative information concerning the evolution of the inter-Carpathian basins. In other areas, it may place equally important constraints on the development of intercontinental basins and continental shelves.

Depositional History of the South Atlantic Ocean during the Last 125 Million Years

This study is based on a reconstruction of the paleogeographic and paleobathymetric history of the South Atlantic and on a standardized set of sediment and biostratigraphic data from all Deep Sea Drilling Project sites. Standard data sets used are the lithologic description, biostratigraphic age,

Crustal Extension between the Tonga and Lau Ridges: Petrologic and Geophysical Evidence

CaCO_{3}

Gravity, bathymetry and convection in the earth

content, carbonate and carbonate-free sedimentation rates corrected for compaction, and hiatus distribution. For each site the subsidence history has been determined. Paleoceanographic variables used are the spatial and temporal lithofacies distribution, history of calcite compensation depth, surface fertility and lyocline, erosional events, and special lithologies (black shales). During its early history the South Atlantic consisted of a narrow rift divided by the Rio Grande Rise-Walvis Ridge barrier into a restricted northern and an open (to the southern ocean) southern basin. In the northern basin, evaporites are the earliest known marine sediments (Aptian) while more normal pelagic deposits formed in the southern basin. Free circulation of surface water between the southern ocean and the North Atlantic became possible late in the Mesozoic or in the early Cenozoic, and deep circulation (below 3 km depth) paths were open from north to south by the early Cenozoic. During the early and middle Mesozoic the South Atlantic had its own oceanographic character with dominantly terrigenous sedimentation and two anoxic black mudstone phases (Albian and Santonian) probably resulting from a strong oxygen minimum in mid-water caused by either excess surface fertility or old, slow moving bottom water. In the late Cretaceous the South Atlantic became part of the world ocean system and global events have overshadowed local ones since that time. After the early phase of rapid sedimentation of terrigenous material, the depositional history has been influenced mainly by the increasing width and water depth of the basin and by fluctuations of the level and intensity of carbonate dissolution. At the Eocene/Oligocene boundary, the onset of a deep water circulation dominated by a cold circum-polar source of surface water is clearly marked by erosional events, a sharp drop of the calcite compensation depth and the arrival of biogenic siliceous oozes in the Argentine Basin.

The subsidence of aseismic ridges

The Lau Basin, which lies between the Tonga and Lau Ridges, is characterized by an absence of sediment, high but variable heat flow, and a confused magnetic anomaly pattern. A ridge 300 km long and 40 km wide runs northwest-southeast through the western part of the basin. This ridge is composed of fresh tholeiitic basalt and is associated with a linear band of shallow-focus earthquakes ( The geophysical and geological data are interpreted within the framework of the theory of plate tectonics. It is suggested that the ridge and related earthquake epicenters mark the boundary between the India plate and a much smaller plate, the Tonga plate, which lies between the India plate and the Tonga Trench. The boundary is a transform fault marking the direction of motion of the two plates. A revised crustal consumption rate of 11 cm/yr for the Tonga Trench is required if the Tonga-India plate separation is added to the India-Pacific plate convergence. Continued NW-SE dilation and basalt intrusion during the past 10 m.y. has separated the Tonga and Lau Ridges and can explain the fresh basalt, the absence of sediment, and the high heat flow in the Lau Basin. This basin, although lying below the ridges on either side, has an average elevation more than 3,000 m above that of the deep Pacific. Intrusion of hot material at the center of the basin can account for this increase in elevation. The classic concept of the “andesite line,” separating oceanic and continental crust, clearly has no meaning as an indication of crustal type, as oceanic crust can be generated behind island arcs.

Topography and evolution of the East Pacific Rise between 5°S and 20°S

Abstract All active midocean ridges show a uniform relationship between depth and age of the oceanic crust. Recently, it has been shown by numerical methods that convective flow in a Newtonian fluid will have a positive gravity anomaly and an upward surface deformation associated with an ascending limb. If there is thermal convection in the upper mantle, these calculations predict that there may be a correlation between free air gravity anomalies and differences from the uniform relationship between oceanic depth and age. To investigate such a correlation, we considered the crestal elevation and free air gravity anomaly over the crest of the midocean ridges. It has been suggested that the differences from the depth versus age relationship are related to spreading rate. Thus, we also considered a correlation between crestal elevation and changes in rate along the ridge axis. We found a positive correlation between free air gravity and differences in crestal depth of the midocean ridge system. We found no correlation between spreading rate and gravity and no uniform relationship which holds in all the oceans between spreading rate and observed crestal depths. The long wavelength gravity anomalies which are correlated with the differences in crestal depth cannot be supported by an 80 km thick lithosphere. Thus, they are considered evidence of flow within the aesthenosphere. Further, the correlation between gravity anomaly and differences in crestal depth has the same sign and gradient as predicted by the investigations of convection in a Newtonian fluid.