The release of altimetric data from the Geosat Geodetic Mission by the
US Navy [1] is leading to a much-improved understanding of tectonics
in the Southern Ocean, a region in which remoteness and adverse physic
al conditions have limited the acquisition of geophysical data by rese
arch ships. The Scotia Sea is an outstanding example of back-arc sprea
ding, which is revealed in some detail by free-air gravity anomaly map
s derived from the latest release of data acquired south of 30-degrees
-S [2]. Sea surface height data for this region have been reduced to a
grid of free-air gravity anomalies, and are illustrated here by means
of colour shaded relief and contour maps. The new data confirm the ex
istence of a number of inactive spreading ridges within the Scotia Sea
and surrounding small basins. The amplitudes and wavelengths of gravi
ty anomalies over these ridges conform, in general, to the expected re
lationship with spreading rate, except in the central Scotia Sea, wher
e a proposed Miocene slow-spreading ridge appears to have left no clea
r signature. The spreading ridge axis in the east Scotia Sea comprises
seven or more segments, separated by small, mainly sinistral, offsets
and exhibits a median valley with depths of 200-1000 m that is reflec
ted in free-air lows of 10-40 mGal. Near both its northern and souther
n termini, the gravity signature of the ridge becomes less distinct, w
ith a less pronounced axial low. The northernmost segments of the ridg
e are displaced in a right-lateral sense by a feature which appears to
represent a southward migrating non-transform offset. Whereas the pro
cess of spreading in Drake Passage and the east Scotia Sea was compara
ble to mid-ocean ridges, that in the central Scotia Sea may have been
disorganized, as observed in some western Pacific back-arc basins.