Marginal Fracture Zones as Structural Framework of Continental Margins in South Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

Abstract A plate tectonic model of the early opening of the South Atlantic is used to describe the structural framework of the continental margins and adjacent oceanic and coastal areas on both sides of the ocean. It is proposed that major offsets of the continental margins necessarily induce the subsidence of coastal basins where fracture zones intersect the continents. The configuration of the accreting plate-margin boundary gradually developed throughout the opening of the ocean after Late Jurassic time.