The Agulhas Passage, situated on the southern margin of Africa, at the

junction of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, offers a unique opportunity for investigating the history of the South Atlantic Ocean on a small scale.

The framework

This deep-sea passage is situated at the eastern termination of the Agulhas Fracture Zone and lies between the step, faulted southern margin of South Africa and the irregular morphology of the partly continental Agulhas Plateau. Its formation dates back to about 95 my.

The pre-drift	The opening

Changes in the rate of seafloor spreading, jumps in the ridge axis and associated volcanic and tectonic activity strongly modified basement morphology and influenced sedimentation.

The oceanic crust	The cross structure

Also the morphology recalls the shapes of the understaying structures.

The morphology	The 3 D	The 3 D/1

The marginal fracture ridge on the continental margin effectively damned the

influx of terrigenous and shelf sediments into the passage, although structurally - controlled gullies in the upper slope allowed turbidites to flow down the slope and become ponded in the deepest parts of the passage. During the Pliocene, a large, tectonically-triggered slump formed at the northern end of the Passage.

The acoustic facies	The thickness

The sensible map reports the ship-tracks of eleven reflection seismic profiles.

They show (see content) the interpretation of the main characteristics of the examinated area, but only three (proff.1, 2 and 4) are sensibles and was presented in Rossi &Westall, 1994.

The ship-tracks

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