The pattern of the pre-Tasman Sea rift system and the geometry of breakup

Abstract

Jongsma and Mutter (in press) suggest that the western half of the Lord Howe Rise comprises a Mesozoic rift zone and Weissel and Hayes (1977) claim that the pole of rotation which describes the opening of the Tasman Sea is much further south than originally thought. We utilise these observations to describe the distribution of the Mesozoic rift and the controls on the breakup geometry. We suggest that an initial 3-branch rift system was present and that two of these arms 'failed'.