Mosaic-Block Relief of the Intraplate Deformation Area in the Central Indian Basin

Abstract Intensive fold and fault deformations of the sediments and basalt basement, high seismicity, and high heat flow indicate the tectonic activity of the Central Indian Basin within the Indo-Australian Plate. This distinguishes it from other deep-sea ocean basins that are tectonically passive morphostructures with a flat and smooth bottom located in the interior of lithospheric plates far from their tectonically active boundaries. The area of intraplate deformation of the Indian Ocean lithosphere in the Central Basin is formed by forces of high compression stress due to continental collision of India with Eurasia in the northern drift of the Indo-Australian plate. The tectonic structure of the intraplate deformation area is not created by regular long-wave undulations in the form of extended latitudinal ridges and depressions, but by individual isometric tectonic blocks, which manifest themselves as large hills in the seafloor relief of the Central Basin. The map we have compiled using new multibeam bathymetry data shows the mosaic-block relief of the intraplate deformation area in the Central Basin. The observed structural pattern suggests a genetic relationship between tectonic blocks deformed in the Miocene and primary inhomogeneities of the spreading oceanic crust.