East Gondwana breakup and microcontinent formation

The Eastern Indian and Australian Southern Ocean were formed through the breakup of East Gondwana – Australia, India and Antarctica. Today these ocean basins contain numerous submerged features with crustal thickness much greater than normal oceanic crust, including Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs), microcontinents and 'failed' microcontinents still attached to Australia's passive continental margins, e.g. the Naturaliste Plateau and the South Tasman Rise. The features point to a wide range of interacting surface and mantle processes such as mantle plumes, plate tectonic reorganisations, varying seafloor spreading rates and directions, and downwelling slabs.