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Nicole Parsiegla, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (Germany)
Karsten Gohl, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (Germany)
Gabriele Uenzelmann-Neben, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (Germany)
Jacek Stankiewicz, GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (Germany)
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The southern African continental transform margin is of great interest for the understanding of processes related to continental breakup, transform fault formation and vertical plate motion. Open questions include the cause and consequences for the high topography of southern Africa, neotectonic activity along the Agulhas-Falkland Fracture Zone and the formation of the Outeniqua Basin. As a component of the project Inkaba yeAfrica, the 900 km long Agulhas-Karoo Geoscience Transect was carried out in order to shed light on the tectonic structure, evolution and processes along this margin. Two onshore-offshore seismic refraction/wide-angle reflection profiles are part of this transect, which extends from the Karoo Province, across the Cape Fold Belt, the Outeniqua Basin and the Agulhas-Falkland Fracture Zone to the Agulhas Plateau. Thinning of the continental crust begins landward of the coast line and continues beneath the shelf which has a thickness of 28-30 km. The transition from stretched continental to normal oceanic crust in the Agulhas Passage occurs at the Agulhas-Falkland Fracture Zone. The oceanic crust south of the Agulhas Passage is significantly thickened to 24 km, forming the Agulhas Plateau where high seismic velocities of greater than 7 km/s are modelled for the lower 50 % of the crust.
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