The present configuration of the Bouvet triple junction


Mitchell, N. C., and R. A. Livermore

New Hawaii-MR1 sonar data show that the southernmost Mid-Atlantic Ridge joins the South American-Antarctic Ridge by an obliquely opening rift and overlaps Spiess Ridge, the westernmost segment of the Southwest Indian Ridge, with no evidence for a transform fault. The junction is therefore neither ridge-ridge-ridge nor fault-fault-fault. We speculate that growth of Spiess Ridge adjacent to the triple junction has caused this complexity and discuss more generally the origins of distributed deformation at oceanic triple junctions.

Mitchell, N. C., and R. A. Livermore, The present configuration of the Bouvet triple junction, Geology, 26, 267-270, 1998.


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