Unravelling Tectonic Evolution

🔆 Unravelling Tectonic Evolution

✅ The tectonic evolution and the nature of the Greater Maldive Ridge have been traced by a group of researchers from the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism which is an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology. 

♻️ About the study:

✅ The important geodynamic features in the western Indian Ocean have been a part of several scientific debates. 

✅ The Maldive ridge is an aseismic ridge that is not involved with earthquake activities. 

✅ The ridge is located in the western Indian Ocean, southwest of India.

✅ This was for the first time that a study was carried out by a group of Indian researchers in the region.

✅ The Greater Maldive Ridge was mapped using high-resolution satellite driven gravity data.

✅ It has been postulated that the Maldive Ridge might have been subducted by an oceanic crust. 

✅ The study systematically mapped the depth to the boundary between the earth’s crust and the mantle which demarcates a discontinuity known as the Mohorovicic discontinuity. 

♻️ Observation:

✅ It was observed that the Moho discontinuity is deeper over the Maldive Ridge segment and shallows southwards in the Deep Sea Channel region. 

✅ The effective elastic thickness (a determining factor for the strength of the Lithosphere), denoted as Te, was lower in the Maldive Ridge compared to the Deep Sea Channel Region. 

✅ Effective Elastic Thickness –  It is the estimated thickness of the elastic plate that would respond to applied loads in a manner similar to that of the heterogeneous lithospheric plate.  

♻️ Inference:

✅ The researcher found a probability that the Maldive Ridge and the Deep Sea Channel region is oceanic in nature with the presence of underplated materials associated with the Reunion hotspot volcanism. 

✅ It is suggested that the Maldive Ridge was formed closer to the Mid Oceanic Ridge which is a new ocean floor created due to the divergence of continental plates. 

✅ The Deep Sea Channel Region was under a long transform fault which neither created nor destroyed any part of the lithosphere. 

✅ The hindered melt production gave rise to a gap between Chagos and Maldive Ridge during the plume ridge interaction. 

✅ This could be a possible reason for the aseismic characteristic of the Maldives Ridge.

♻️ Significance of the study:

✅ The study provides a better understanding of crustal architecture, isostatic compensation mechanism and the tectonic evolution of the region studied. 

✅ It also facilitates a clearer understanding of the evolution of ocean basins. 

✅ This study will be an enabler to reconstruct the original Gondwanaland break up and dispersal that resulted in the present-day configuration of the earth that we witness today.