Monsoon-induced partial carbonate platform drowning (Maldives, Indian Ocean)

Multibeam maps and high-resolution seismic images from the Maldives reveal that a late Miocene to early Pliocene partial drowning of the platform was linked to strong sea-bottom currents. In the upper Miocene to Holocene, currents shaped the drowned banks, the current moats along the bank edges, and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geology (Boulder) 2009-10, Vol.37 (10), p.867-870
Main Authors: Betzler, Christian, Hübscher, Christian, Lindhorst, Sebastian, Reijmer, John J. G, Römer, Miriam, Droxler, André W, Fürstenau, Jörn, Lüdmann, Thomas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
applied (geophysical surveys & methods)
bottom currents
carbonate platforms
Cenozoic
currents
drowning
echo sounding
geophysical methods
geophysical profiles
geophysical surveys
Geophysics
high-resolution methods
Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean Islands
lower Pliocene
Maldive Islands
Marine
marine sediments
Miocene
monsoons
Neogene
Ocean currents
Oceanography
Oceans
paleo-oceanography
paleoclimatology
Pliocene
Salt
sea-level changes
sediments
seismic methods
seismic profiles
Stratigraphy
surveys
Tertiary
upper Miocene
upwelling
Wind
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Summary:Multibeam maps and high-resolution seismic images from the Maldives reveal that a late Miocene to early Pliocene partial drowning of the platform was linked to strong sea-bottom currents. In the upper Miocene to Holocene, currents shaped the drowned banks, the current moats along the bank edges, and the submarine dune fields. Bottom currents in the Maldives are driven by the monsoon. It is proposed that the onset and the intensification of the monsoon during the Neogene provoked platform drowning through injection of nutrients into surface waters. Since the late Miocene, topographically triggered nutrient upwelling and vigorous currents switched the Maldives atolls into an aggradational to backstepping mode, which is a growth pattern usually attributed to episodes of rising sea level.
ISSN:0091-7613
1943-2682
DOI:10.1130/G25702A.1