Topography and evolution of the East Pacific Rise between 5°S and 20°S |
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| Authors: | Roger N AndersonJohn G Sclater |
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| Institution: | University of California, San Diego, Marine Physical Laboratory of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California 92037, USA |
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| Abstract: | In the absence of convincing magnetic anomaly information, topographic profiles have been used to infer the tectonic history of the East Pacific Rise between 5°S and 20°S. Profiles projected at right angles to the rise crest show a sharp drop in elevation at roughly the same distance on either side of the crest. Profiles to the east of the rise also show a second topographic high at 95°W. Comparison of these profiles with empirical depth versus age curves for the North Pacific suggests that this rise, the Galapagos Rise, is the fossil East Pacific Rise which terminated close to 6 mybp by the spreading center jumping 900 km to the west. The extreme youthfulness of the present East Pacific Rise, the step structure of its flanks, and the similarity in age of the top of this step and the crest of the Galapagos Rise substantiate this interpretation. This jump coincided with a similar readjustment involving the Mathematicians ridge at 5° to 20°N and the opening of the Gulf of California. |
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