Abstract
ONE of the cornerstones of continental drift is the fit1 of the continental edges of Africa and South America by removal of the South Atlantic Ocean, which is thought to have formed by the rifting of these two continents some time in the Mesozoic and their subsequent drifting apart. We shall present evidence from marine magnetic anomalies in the southern South Atlantic that demonstrates that this initial rift first occurred in the early Cretaceous, probably in the Valanginian (∼125 to 130 m.y. BP). This conclusion is based mainly on a magnetic lineation pattern that lies in the Cape Basin directly southwest of the continental edge of South Africa, although we very tentatively identify a few of the same anomalies on the other side of the ridge in the Argentine Basin.
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LARSON, R., LADD, J. Evidence for the Opening of the South Atlantic in the Early Cretaceous. Nature 246, 209–212 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/246209a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/246209a0
