Spatial variations in the effective elastic thickness of the Indian Ocean lithosphere

Abstract

The Indian Ocean lithosphere is a complex assemblage of large igneous provinces, seamounts, plateaus and ridges of different loading ages and tectono-thermal evolution. As a proxy for the strength of tectonic plates, effective elastic thickness (Te) illustrates the relationship between surface deformation and lithospheric rheology of the diverse provinces in response to long-term tectonic processes. Mapping the spatial variations in lithospheric rheology can aid in understanding the detailed tectono-thermal history of the Indian Ocean. In this paper, we perform an assessment of the spatial variation of Te for the Indian Ocean from the inversion of the real free-air admittance between free-air gravity anomalies and bathymetry corrected for the effect of density variations within sediments using a continuous wavelet spectral analysis. Incorporating the effect of sediments substantially reduces Te estimates and better corresponds with the tectonic units in the study region. The results show low overall Te over the Indian Ocean attributed to magmatism and temperature during a multistage opening process. We further demonstrate that temperature controls the strength of warm and young oceanic lithosphere, evidenced by the positive correlation between Te and geothermal proxies. Finally, moderately low Te values at the Southwest Indian Ridge suggest a relatively cold ultraslow lithosphere with sparse magmatism compared to typical mid-ocean ridges.