Owen Fracture Zone: The Arabia–India plate boundary unveiled

We surveyed the Owen Fracture Zone at the boundary between the Arabia and India plates in the NW Indian Ocean using a high-resolution multibeam echo-sounder (Owen cruise, 2009) for search of active faults. Bathymetric data reveal a previously unrecognized submarine fault scarp system running for over 800km between the Sheba Ridge in the Gulf of Aden and the Makran subduction zone. The primary plate boundary structure is not the bathymetrically high Owen Ridge, but is instead a series of clearly delineated strike-slip fault segments separated by several releasing and restraining bends. Despite an abundant sedimentary supply by the Indus River flowing from the Himalaya, fault scarps are not obscured by recent deposits and can be followed over hundreds of kilometres, pointing to very active tectonics. The total strike-slip displacement of the fault system is 10-12km, indicating that it has been active for the past ~3 to 6Ma if its current rate of motion of 3±1mmyr−1 has remained stable. We describe the geometry of this recent fault system, including a major pull-apart basin at the latitude 20°N, and we show that it closely follows an arc of small circle centred on the Arabia–India pole of rotation, as expected for a transform plate boundary. ► 800 km of active submarine fault scarps revealed at the Arabia-India plate boundary. ► The present-day fault system has been active for the past 3 to 6 million years. ► The active faults closely follow a small circle about the Arabia-India rotation pole. ► A pull-apart basin as large as the Dead Sea Basin is recognized at the latitude 20°N. ► Potentially tsunamigenic landslides massively impinge the Owen bathymetric ridge.