View source for Shackleton fracture zone

{{Short description|Fracture zone south of South America}}
[[File:Shackleton Fracture Zone.jpg|300px|thumb|The Shackleton fracture zone]]

The '''Shackleton fracture zone''' ('''SFZ''') is an undersea [[fracture zone]], [[Undersea mountain range|oceanic ridge]]<ref name=GeologicalSociety>{{cite journal |author1=Roy Livermore|author2=Graeme Eagles|author3=Peter Morris|author4=Andrés Maldonado|title=Shackleton Fracture Zone: No barrier to early circumpolar ocean circulation|date=September 2004|doi=10.1130/G20537.1|url=https://digital.csic.es/handle/10261/18847|issn=1553-040X|journal= Geology|volume=32 |issue=9 |page=797 |bibcode=2004Geo....32..797L |hdl=10261/18847 }}</ref> and fault located in the [[Drake Passage]], at the separation between the [[Scotia plate]] from the [[Antarctic plate]].<ref name="raco.cat">{{cite journal|title=TECTÓNICA DE PLACAS Y CLIMA: la formación del Paso de Drake (Antártida)|date=March 27, 2019|url=https://www.raco.cat/index.php/ECT/article/download/372918/466560/|journal=La Geología es Noticia|language=es}}</ref> It extends between 59° and 60°40' south latitude and between 56°30' and 61° west longitude and runs in a northwest to southeast direction from the South American continental shelf to the [[South Shetland Islands]].
Chile claims the area as part of its [[Chilean Sea|Outer Continental Shelf boundary]].

The name, recognized by the Advisory Committee on Underwater Features (ACUF) since June 1987, is named after the British polar explorer [[Ernest Shackleton]] (1874–1922).

==Natural delimitation between the Pacific and South Atlantic oceans==
[[File:Natural delimitation between the Pacific and South Atlantic oceans by the Shackleton fracture zone.svg|thumb|300px|right|Map showing the proposal presented by the thesis entitled "Natural delimitation between the Pacific and South Atlantic Oceans by the Shackleton Fracture Zone"]]

Scientists in [[Chile]] and other countries postulated that the boundary between the southeastern [[Pacific Ocean]] and the southwestern [[Atlantic Ocean]] was not the ''[[Cape Horn]] meridian'', but rather the Shackleton fracture zone [[mid-oceanic ridge]]<ref name=GeologicalSociety/> and a submarine orographic chain which links the [[Tierra del Fuego|Tierra del Fuego Archipelago]] with the [[Antarctica|Antarctic continent]]. It also considers the [[Borders of the oceans|conventional border]] of the [[Southern Ocean]] at the 60°S parallel.<ref>{{cite web |title=There's a new ocean now-can you name all 5? |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/theres-a-new-ocean-now-can-you-name-all-five-southern-ocean |date=8 June 2021 |publisher=National Geographic |access-date=29 November 2023}}</ref>

The researchers Juan Ignacio Ipinza Mayor and Cedomir Marangunic Damianovic put forward the scientific theory that the separation of the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] and [[Atlantic|Atlantic Ocean]] oceans "could be confirmed from the so-called Shackleton Fracture Zone (...) the boundary is then located east of the so-called Cape Horn Meridian".<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Juan Ignacio Ipinza Mayor|author2=Cedomir Marangunic Damianovic|title=ALGUNAS CONSECUENCIAS JURÍDICAS DE LA INVOCACIÓN POR PARTE DE CHILE DE LA "TEORÍA DE LA DELIMITACIÓN NATURAL DE LOS OCÉANOS" EN EL DIFERENDO SOBRE LA PLATAFORMA CONTINENTAL AUSTRAL|url=https://www.publicacionesanepe.cl/index.php/cdt/article/download/950/616|date=2021 |journal=ANEPE |language=es}}</ref>

In 2019, the scientific journal ''Geology is News'' published "The SFZ separates tectonic plates and oceans, to the east the Scotia plate
and to the west the Antarctic plate (which includes the former Phoenix plate), and to the east the Pacific Ocean and to the west the Atlantic Ocean."<ref name="raco.cat"/>

In 2004 The Geological Society of America in the scientific paper entitled ''Shackleton Fracture Zone: No barrier to early circumpolar ocean circulation'' posits that: "the Shackleton Fracture Zone could have blocked the gateway until the early Miocene. Geophysical and geochemical evidence presented here suggests that the Shackleton Fracture Zone is an oceanic transverse ridge".<ref name=GeologicalSociety/>

==See also==
* [[Ernest Shackleton]]
* [[Luis Pardo]]
* [[Borders of the oceans]]
* [[Natural delimitation between the Pacific and South Atlantic oceans by the Scotia Arc]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{cite web|url=https://www.marineregions.org/gazetteer.php?p=details&id=7165|title=Marine Gazetteer Placedetails: Shackleton Fracture Zone}}

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[[Category:Geology of the Southern Ocean]]
[[Category:Argentine Antarctica]]
[[Category:British Antarctic Territory]]
[[Category:Chilean Antarctic Territory]]
[[Category:Fracture zones]]


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