Macquarie Triple Junction

Figure 1: The present Macquarie Triple Junction portrays the three most common oceanic tectonic boundaries. The first is Emerald Fracture Zone, a leaky transform fault, which is the region between A and A’. The second is the Southeast Indian Ridge, located just west of the MTJ and is split by the Balleny Fault Zone, identified by the letter B. And lastly the Hjort Trench which is represented by C. The Macquarie microplate occupies an illdefined southern region of the area labelled as the Indio-australian Plate which for the last 3 million years has been a separate Australian Plate[1][2]

The Macquarie Triple Junction is a geologically active tectonic boundary located at 61°30′S 161°0′E / 61.500°S 161.000°E / -61.500; 161.000[3] at which the historic Indo-Australian Plate, Pacific Plate, and Antarctic Plate collide and interact. The term Triple Junction is given to particular tectonic boundaries at which three separate tectonic plates meet at a specific, singular location. The Macquarie Triple Junction is located on the seafloor of the southern region of the Pacific Ocean, just south of New Zealand. This tectonic boundary was named in respect to the nearby Macquarie Island, which is located southeast of New Zealand.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Choi2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Gasperini2023 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Falconer, R. K. H. (1972). "The Indian-Antarctic-Pacific triple junction". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 17 (1): 151–158. Bibcode:1972E&PSL..17..151F. doi:10.1016/0012-821X(72)90270-1.