Everything about the Kerguelen Plateau totally explained
The
Kerguelen Plateau is an underwater
volcanic large igneous province (LIP) in the
Indian Ocean. It lies about 3,000
km to the southwest of
Australia and is nearly three times the size of
Japan. The
plateau extends for more than 2,200 km in a northwest-southeast direction and lies in deep water. The plateau was produced by the
Kerguelen hotspot, starting with or following the breakup of
Gondwanaland about 130 Mya. There is a small portion of the plateau that breaks
sea level, forming the
Kerguelen Islands,
Heard Island and the
McDonald Islands. Intermittent volcanism continues on Heard and McDonald islands. Symmetrically located across the Indian Ocean ridge and due west of Australia, is the Broken Ridge underwater
volcanic plateau which was at one time contiguous with the Kerguelen Plateau prior to rifting by the
mid-ocean ridge. To the north of Broken ridge lies the linear
Ninety East Ridge which continues almost due north into the
Bay of Bengal and is considered to be a
hotspot track.
Kerguelen continent
The Kerguelen Plateau was formed starting 110 million years ago from a series of large volcanic eruptions. The presence of soil layers in the basalt with included
charcoal and
conglomerate fragments of
gneiss indicate that much of the plateau was above sea level as what is termed a
microcontinent for three periods between 100 million years ago and 20 million years ago. The so-called Kerguelen continent might have had
tropical flora and
fauna about 50 million years ago. The Kerguelen continent finally sank 20 million years ago and is now 1 - 2 km below sea level. It has
sedimentary rocks similar to the ones found in
Australia and
India, suggesting they were once connected.
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