thumb|upright=1.3|Diamantina fracture zone marked in red

The Diamantina fracture zone (DFZ, Diamantina zone) is an area of the south-eastern Indian Ocean seafloor, consisting of a range of ridges and trenches. It lies to the south of the mideastern Indian Ocean features of the Wharton Basin and Perth Basin, and to the south west of the Naturaliste Plateau.

Escarpment

Being parallel to the Southeast Indian Ridge, the Diamantina fracture zone is not a true fracture zone in the sense used in plate tectonics, and includes an escarpment, separating two oceanic plateaus, being the southern border of the Broken Ridge Plateau. All these features are mirrored by corresponding topography on the other side of the Southeast Indian Ridge. The Broken Ridge Plateau has separated at the ridge from the Kerguelen Plateau and these were components of the Earth's second largest characterised large igneous province by volume. Professor Jamieson's team deployed baited landers beyond water depth aiming to document the biodiversity and geology of the region.

Bathymetry

thumb|upright=1.3|Diamantina [[bathymetry]]The first high-resolution multibeam bathymetry of the central DFZ was collected between June 2014 and June 2016, for the purpose of searching for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370), which disappeared on 8 March 2014.

Based on this research, it was suggested that the Dordrecht Deep within the DFZ in the southeast Indian Ocean, and the Sunda Trench in the eastern Indian Ocean (~), are the two candidates for the deepest points in the Indian Ocean.

thumb|One of the three full ocean depth rated landers used by the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre.

To resolve this debate, the Diamantina fracture zone was surveyed by the Five Deeps Expedition in March 2019 by the Deep Submersible Support Vessel DSSV Pressure Drop, equipped with a full-ocean depth Kongsberg SIMRAD EM124 multibeam echosounder system. Using this echosounder and direct measurement by a Benthic lander, a maximum water depth of  m ± was measured for the Dordrecht Deep, at , deeper than and ~ southwest of the Stewart and Jamieson (2019) GEBCO_14-derived location.

See also

  • Oceanic trench
  • Sunda Arc

References

  • Location on Google map