High inside corners at ridge-transform intersections

To better understand the origin of the topographic asymmetry that commonly occurs near the intersection of a rifted spreading center and a transform fault, we examine topographic maps of 53 ridge-transform intersections. We conclude the following: (1) High inside corners occur at 41 out of 42 ridge-transform intersections at slow spreading ridges, and thus should be considered characteristic and persistent features of rifted slow spreading ridges. (2) High inside corners occur wherever an axial rift valley is present. (3) Large high inside corners occur at both long and short transform offsets. (4) High inside corners at long offsets decay off-axis faster than predicted by the square root of age cooling model, precluding a thermal-isostatic origin.