f Lebombo: Are We On The Edge Of Africa?

The history of continental dispersal is recorded in the fracture zones and magnetic anomalies of the oceans, though for various reasons it is the earliest phases of dispersal that are, at the same time, the most interesting and the least clearly defined in this record. The relative movements of Africa and Antarctica are particularly important if a reliable model for the whole of Gondwana dispersal is to be built since it affects plate circuits through both the South Atlantic and the Indian Oceans. The absence of marine magnetic anomalies through the Cretaceous Quiet Zone (125-84 Ma) leads to a lack of time control for an important part of the dispersal process, though the fracture zones created then are still clear.