ROTATION OF MELANESIAN COMPLEX AND OF WEST ANTARCTICA - A KEY TO CONFIGURATION OF GONDWANA

An anti-clockwise rotation of the Melanesian complex with respect to Australia and an anti-clockwise rotation of west Antarctica with respect to east Antarctica, both caused by active sea-floor spreading emanating from mid-ocean ridges, enables a reconstruction of Gondwana-land without the necessity of accepting sunken land bridges. In this reconstruction Gondwana consisted of one Precambrian cratonic shield fringed by a continuous double geosynclinal belt of Paleozoic and Mesozoic age. The rotation proposed ties in with the evolution of the Scotia Arc and may also explain the anomalous structural position of the Ellsworth mountains. © 1969.