Diamantina Fracture Zone
The Diamantina Fracture Zone is an area of the south-eastern Indian Ocean seafloor. It has a range of ridges and trenches[1]. Being parallel to the Southeast Indian Ridge, it is not a real fracture zone in the sense of plate tectonics[2], but rather an escarpment, separating two oceanic plateaus. In fact its extension to the west is called Diamantina Escarpment.
Diamantina Fracture Zone was first detected by RV Vema and RV Argo in 1960. It is named after HMAS Diamantina (K377), which did further exploration in 1961.
It lies to the south of the mideastern Indian Ocean features of the Wharton Basin and Perth Basin, and to the south west of the Naturaliste Plateau.
The Diamantina Deep is the zone's deepest location, located about 1 125 km West-South-West of Perth, Western Australia, at 35°S 104°E / 35°S 104°E. This is however not the deepest point in the Indian Ocean: the CIA's Physical Map of the World lists the Java Trench as such[3]. On the western side of the Diamantina Fracture Zone at 33°30′S 101°20′E / 33.5°S 101.333°E is another pit, named Dordrecht Hole. Dordrecht was the name of a vessel of the Dutch East India Company, which explored the Australian west coast in 1619 and discovered the Houtman Abrolhos.
The shallowest point in the area is the 1125 metre point in the Broken Ridge close to Ninety East Ridge[4].
[edit] References
- ^ Key ecological features of the South-west Marine Region
- ^ "IHO-IOC GEBCO Gazetteer of Undersea Feature Names, March 2011 version; www.gebco.net" GEBCO http://www.gebco.net/data_and_products/undersea_feature_names/documents/gebco_gazeteer_march_2011.xls. Retrieved 2011-11-16
- ^ (2009) Physical Map of the World, CIA.
- ^ Stow, D. A. V. (2006) Oceans : an illustrated reference Chicago : University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0226776646 - page 127 for map of Indian Ocean and ridges
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
Coordinates: 35°S 104°E / 35°S 104°E
 |
This article about a specific oceanic location or ocean current is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
