Abstract

Similarities in the styles and relative timings of tectonic events in the Outeniqua Basin, South Africa and the North Falkland Basin suggest that basin formation in both regions may have preceded rotation of the Falklands microplate. Contrary to previous models for the break-up of Gondwana, which suggest Jurassic rotation, the data implies Valanginian rotation, contemporaneous with the first recorded motion on the Agulhas Falkland Fracture Zone and South Atlantic rifting. The data also suggests that the formation of the Falkland Plateau Basin may also be a Cretaceous event as opposed to the previously assumed Jurassic age. Such a model is consistent with new offshore seismic evidence while the inconclusive nature of the supportive evidence for Jurassic rotation does not exclude later rotation as a possibility.

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