Formation and evolution of the Chain-Kairali Escarpment and the Vishnu Fracture Zone in the Western Indian Ocean

Abstract

Published models for the plate tectonic evolution of the Western Indian Ocean suggest that the Southern Mascarene Basin opened by oceanic crustal accretion between the continental margins of southwestern India and southeastern Madagascar. However, with the cessation of the Mascarene Basin spreading centre followed by a ridge jump resulting in the opening of the Carlsberg Ridge, almost all the traces of India-Madagascar divergence were carved away from the Indian Plate and attached to the African Plate. According to some recent studies, the Chain-Kairali Escarpment, a prominent feature on the southwestern continental margin of India, is possibly the only trace of India-Madagascar divergence that remained on the Indian Plate. But the exact conjugate correspondence of this feature on the Madagascar side is uncertain. Published plate tectonic reconstructions imply that the Vishnu Fracture Zone on the Indian side and the Mauritius Fracture Zone on the Madagascar side are aligned at chron C22ny (∼49.04 Ma). Based on the near collinearity of gravity anomaly trends, the Chain-Kairali Escarpment appears to be the landward extension of the Vishnu FZ. However, at chron C34ny (∼83.0 Ma), the Chain-Kairali Escarpment was in close proximity to the incipient Mahanoro Fracture Zone. In this study we investigate this incompatibility, using an up-to-date compilation of the tectonic elements from the conjugate regions of India and Madagascar and the latest available rotation parameters that describe India-Madagascar separation through a direct India-Seychelles-Madagascar plate circuit. Our revised plate reconstruction model suggests that the Chain-Kairali Escarpment was formed due to the strike-slip motion between the southeast coast of Madagascar and the then southwest coast of India during the initial stages of India-Madagascar breakup. The migration of the Chain-Kairali Escarpment from the proximity of the Mahanoro FZ and aligning with the Vishnu FZ was the result of several successive events. The first among those events was asymmetric crustal accretion in the Mascarene Basin due to ridge propagation, between chrons C34ny (83.0 Ma) to C33ny (∼73.62 Ma). The Chain-Kairali Escarpment and associated crustal weak zones offshore India appear to have facilitated subsequent initiation of the Mauritius FZ and its conjugate Vishnu FZ during a plate reorganization at about chron C33ny (∼73.62 Ma). The cessation of spreading in the Mascarene Basin and development of full extent of the Carlsberg Ridge, shortly after chron C27ny (60.92 Ma), resulted in the initiation of a long transform fault, coinciding with the Vishnu FZ, which connected the Carlsberg Ridge with the spreading centre of the Madagascar Basin. Therefore, the Vishnu FZ and the Chain-Kairali Escarpment are two independent features created during different episodes of evolution of the Western Indian Ocean and the Chain-Kairali Escarpment is not a landward extension of the Vishnu FZ.