Tectonic Reconstruction and Mineralization Models of the Indian Ocean：Insights from SWIR

The Indian Ocean experienced a complex tectonic evolution including three major jumping and reorganization of ocean ridges and triple junctions, which had important impacts on the present-day tectonic pattern. Based on the plate reconstruction technique of Gplates and combining with the previous results of hotspots and age dating, this paper focuses on the major tectonic events occurred in the Indian Ocean at 120 Ma, 90 Ma, 84 Ma, 65 Ma, 40 Ma, 24 Ma, and 15 Ma, respectively. These tectonic events are closely related to the ultra-slow spreading Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR). Moreover, this paper discusses the Southwest Indian Ocean seafloor hydrothermal mineralization at different evolutionary stages of the ocean floor. The hydrothermal mineralization of the Southwest Indian Ocean has two models: the early hotspot-related mineralization associated with the interaction between hotspot and mid-ocean ridge, and the late wetspot-related mineralization associated with the formation of ocean core complexes.