Diamantina Fracture Zone Diamantina Fracture Zone The Diamantina Fracture Zone is an area of the south-eastern Indian Ocean seafloor. It has 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. Being parallel to the Southeast Indian Ridge, Diamantina Fracture Zone is not a real fracture zone in the sense of plate tectonics, but rather an escarpment, separating two oceanic plateaus. In fact its extension to the west is called Diamantina Escarpment. This is the southern border of the Broken
Philippine Trench a M 8.2. The trench reaches one of the greatest depths in the ocean, third only to the Mariana trench and the Tonga trench. Its deepest point is known as Galathea Depth and reaches 10,540 meters (34,580 ft) or (5,760 fathoms). Sedimentation of the Philippine trench contains slightly metamorphosed, calc-alkalic, basic, ultrabasic rock and sand grains. The southern area of the trench contains homogenous, blue, clay silt and was poor in lime. Sand grains that were also found contained fresh basaltic andesite. The sediments found in the trenches are hypothesized to have been deposited by turbidity currents. A turbidity current