Coordinates: 53°S 27°E

Prince Edward Fracture Zone

The Prince Edward Fracture Zone (PEFZ) is one of the fracture
zones located on the Southwest Indian Ridge in the Indian Ocean
between Africa and Antarctica. The PEFZ is located west of Prince
Edward Islands.

The history of seafloor spreading between Africa and Antarctica

since the breakup of Gondwana can be traced using magnetic
anomaly lineations between the Mozambique Channel and the
seafloor of Dronning Maud Land. Before the 1980s it was assumed
that this spreading occurred continuously for 80 million years, from
the Cretaceous to present, along the fracture zones flanking the
mid-ocean ridge. In the mid-80s new magnetic lineations
discovered near the PEFZ made it clear that a change in the The Prince Edward Fracture Zone is
located near the centre of the
spreading direction occurred 74–56  Ma.[1]As the direction of
Southwest Indian Ridge.
spreading changed so did the phase.[2]

The largest offset along the Southwest Indian Ridge (800  km

(500  mi)) is located west of the PEFZ and east of the Du Toit Fracture Zone (45°S, 35°E; 53°S, 27°E).
During the Late Cretaceous this offset was smaller than 250 km (160 mi).[3]

Antarctic Bottom Water flows north through the PEFZ.[4]

References

Notes
1. Royer et al. 1988, Introduction, pp. 235–237
2. Royer et al. 1988, Figg 7. a-j
3. Royer et al. 1988, p. 241
4. Rogers 2012, The Southern Indian Ocean and its Seamounts, pp. 5–6

Sources
Rogers, A. (2012). Volume 1: Overview of seamount ecosystems and biodiversity (https://por
tals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2012-078-1.pdf) (PDF). An ecosystem
approach to management of seamounts in the Southern Indian Ocean. IUCN. Retrieved
11 May 2019.
Royer, J. Y.; Patriat, P.; Bergh, H. W.; Scotese, C. R. (1988). "Evolution of the Southwest
Indian Ridge from the Late Cretaceous (anomaly 34) to the Middle Eocene (anomaly 20)" (ht
tps://www.researchgate.net/publication/223455386). Tectonophysics. 155 (1–4): 235–260.
Bibcode:1988Tectp.155..235R (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1988Tectp.155..235R).
doi:10.1016/0040-1951(88)90268-5 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2F0040-1951%2888%299026
8-5). Retrieved 31 July 2016.
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