DEFINITION OF FALKLAND PLATEAU

A shallow-water shelf extending 1,200

miles (2,000 km) eastward from Tierra del Fuego on the

southern tip of South America past South Georgia Island.

The plateau includes the Falkland Islands 300 miles (480 km)

east of the coast of South America and is bounded on the

south by the Scotia Ridge and on the north by the Agulhas-

Falkland fracture zone. The Falkland Islands include two

main islands (East and West Falkland) and about 200 small

islands and are administered by the British but also claimed

by Argentina, with the capital at Stanley. The islands are

stark rocky outposts, plagued by severe cold rains and wind,

but they have abundant seals and whales in surrounding

waters. The highest elevation is 2,315 feet (705 m) on Mount

Adam. Thick peat deposits support a sheep-farming community

among the dominantly Scottish and Welsh population.

The Falkland Plateau formed as a remnant of the southern

tip of Africa that remained attached to South America

during the breakup of Gondwana and the movement of South

America away from Africa. The Agulhas-Falkland fracture

zone extends to the tip of Africa and represents the transform

along which divergence of the two continents occurred.

Numerous Mesozoic rift basins on the plateau are the site of

intensive oil exploration. The geology of the Falklands was

first described by Charles Darwin from his expedition on the

Beagle in 1833, and reported in 1846, and later pioneering

studies were completed by Johan G. Andersson in 1916.

Precambrian granite, schist, and gneiss are found on the

southwest part of Western Falkland Island, probably correlated

with the Nama of South Africa. The Precambrian basement

is overlain by a generally flat to gently tilted Paleozoic

sequence including 1.7 miles (3,000 m) of Devonian

quartzite, sandstone, and shale. A 2.2-mile (3,500-m) thick

Permo-Triassic sequence unconformably overlies the Paleozoic

sequence and includes tillites and varves indicating

glacial influence. These rocks are cut by Triassic-Jurassic

dioritic to diabasic dikes and sills related to the Karoo and

Parana flood basalts. Quaternary interglacial deposits are

overlain by diamictites and long lobes of gravel interpreted as

mudflows deposited in a periglacial environment.

The Falklands are folded into a series of northwestsoutheast

trending folds that intensify to the south and swing

to east-west on the east of the plateau.

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