STRUCTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF MAGNETIC ANOMALIES NORTH OF THE BAHAMA‐ANTILLES ISLANDS

Abstract

Seven individual shipboard and airborne magnetic surveys have been conducted north of the Bahama‐Antilles Islands by the Naval Oceanographic Office during a 5.3 year period since 1962. A computed main magnetic field model was used to reduce the observed data from these surveys to a common magnetic residual chart. Two anomaly trends, each composed of linear magnetic features, dominate the residual chart. One trend strikes northeast‐southwest, the other at an angle of 80 degrees to it. By relating the residual magnetic anomalies to structural features observed on an experimental model developed by Billings and to actual structural features in the nothern Antilles, it is shown that the anomalies could be engendered by structural features resulting from an east‐west horizontal couple. The line of action of this couple is consistent with prevalent theories on continental drift.