Abstract
Transfonn continental margins have been subject of recent attention for two reasons. Firstly, transfonn faults represent the third category of major plate boundaries and are less understood than the two other major plate boundaries, (divergent and convergent). Secondly, the precise study of transfonn margins can help in better constraining the structure and evolution of the ocean-continent transfonn boundary, particularly the history of the defonnations, vertical movements and their effects on the sedimentary records.
We briefly present and discuss a set of multichannel seismic reflexion and wide-angle seismic refraction data that were recently gathered over the Cote d’Ivoire - Ghana transfonn margin. These data substantiate that this continental margin includes two segments. A divergent segment is characterized by a gradually stretching continental crust and accompanying rifting structures; a transfonn segment is chiefly underlined by a prominent bathymetric marginal ridge located along the Ocean Continent Boundary. Between the 20 km-thick marginal ridge and an abnonnally thin oceanic crust, the Ocean Continent transition is remarkably sharp, in the order of a few km. Such a sharp transition is also well supported by gravity modelling.
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Mascle, J., Basile, C., Pontoise, B., Sage, F. (1995). The Cote D’Ivoire — Ghana Transform Margin: An Example of an Ocean-Continent Transform Boundary. In: Banda, E., Torné, M., Talwani, M. (eds) Rifted Ocean-Continent Boundaries. NATO ASI Series, vol 463. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0043-4_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0043-4_18
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