The similar to 1200-km-long Agulhas-Falkland Transform developed durin
g the Early Cretaceous break-up of West Gondwanaland. On the African P
late, the continent bordering the Agulhas Fracture Zone extends betwee
n the Agulhas Bank and the South Tugela reentrant. It is divided into
four distinct parts: Mallory Trough segment (I), Diaz Ridge segment (I
I), East London segment (III) and Durban segment (IV), from southwest
to northeast. Each segment differs from the others in its physiography
and in the nature of the continent-ocean crustal boundary. In segment
I, a wedge-like, eastward-narrowing deep-water basin separates the st
eep continental slope from a marginal fracture ridge of probable volca
nic origin along the transform fault trace. Along segment II the South
African continental slope is deeply embayed and a great thickness of
sedimentary strata has been ponded behind a buried ridge along the nor
thern side of the fracture-zone trace, above a probable fragment of oc
eanic crust representing a northerly extension of the Jurassic Falklan
d Plateau Basin. In segment III, the continental margin is steep, espe
cially along the middle slope; it Lies directly along the transform tr
ace, but conspicuously rugged along the continental slope, due to the
effects of submarine canyoning and sediment slumping. In segment IV, t
he continent-ocean boundary also lies directly along the transform fau
lt trace, and the margin shows evidence of seaward tilting above landw
ard-dipping faults along the middle or lower slope. The segmentation i
s inherited from Jurassic structural fabrics formed prior to Early Cre
taceous transform motion, when tectonic rotation of microplates caused
rifting and partial oceanization along the future Agulhas-Falkland me
gafault trajectory.