When Gondwana started breaking apart in Jurassic times there was not a single clear break, as occurred subsequently in (most of) the South Atlantic Ocean, for example. The animation shows what happened to six small fragments that originally lay off southern Africa - in the break-up zone between Africa and Antarctica - and how they moved before becoming firmly part of Africa, Antarctica, or South America today. They are indicated by bold black crosses and their tracks, 180-100 Ma, against our mantle plume reference frame are shown by red dots at intervals of 2 My. The Bouvet plume head, radius 1000 km, is shown by the large orange star. The present-day coastlines of the three main continental fragments - Africa, Antarctica, South America - are shown in black.

From south to north in the 184.2 Ma reassembly the micro-fragments are:

(a) The Falkland Islands, a small part of the Malvinas plateau that includes all of southernmost South America.

(b) The Maurice Ewing Bank (MEB), known to include Precambrian rock dated at 1100 Ma and thought to be an eastward extension of South Africa's Namaqua-Natal belt in our reconstruction.

(c) Grunehogna, an Archean element of Antarctic geology separated from the rest of Antarctica by Permo-Triassic (?) paleo-rifts that do not indicate unfulfilled potential for separation from the rest of the continent.

(d) Limpopia, a notional fill of the gap between Africa and Antarctica that we see as the key to the development of the Mozambique Ridge Animation L.

(e) Beira High, a small fragment of Africa that rifted off in early dispersion but then remained as part of Africa.

(f). A sixth fragment, Natal Valley, is part of the Mozambique plains, created 184-150 Ma, that rafted off at about 130 Ma and moved southwest along the Agulhas fault zone independently for about 10 My before rejoining Africa.

The time-scale for the Lower Cretaceous is indicated by the colours within the Africa-Antarctica Corridor (AAC) immediately east of Limpopia. The animation illustrates the effect of an active mantle plume in determining the trajectory of small fragments in its vicinity. None of them crossed the Bouvet plume head (large orange star).

The Beira High followed Antarctica until 168 Ma (our model) until the active ridge jumped to its south.

Limpopia followed Antarctica, as described in Animation L, until the active ridge migrated to its south and east. In our mantle reference frame it described a U-turn around 130 Ma.

The Natal valley fragment followed Africa until it becane detached at about 135 Ma. Its movement with respect to the mantle frame then stopped or slightly reversed until about 125 Ma, leaving marine magnetic anomalies from this interval in the ocean created to its NE.

The MEB moved NE with Africa until, approaching the centre of the plume head and a U-turn at about 142 Ma, it started moving southwest independently along the Agulhas faul. Eventually the early mid-ocean ridge separating it from the Malvinas plateau and the Falkland Islands ('Skytrain' marine magnetic anomalies) slowed and died out - at 113 Ma in our model while that to its east became the southernmost part of the mid-Atlantic ridge.

The Falkland Islands, as part of the Malvinas plateau, was the first fragment to detach itself from the northeasterly drift of the Gondwana fragments, reversing its direction of motion in the mantle reference frame at 165 Ma and gaining rapid westward motion from about 142 Ma.

The central role of the Bouvet plume is demonstrated in our conservative model. Model building required a minimum of hypothesis and conforms to a geometry of persistent forward ocean growth everywhere, even on the small, temporary mid-ocean ridges. The AAC seems immune to these complexities. Perhaps its stability and logevity may can be ascribed to the mid-ocean ridge within it always lying close to the line joining the Bouvet plume head to that of the (future) Marion plume. The model for ocean growth was developed independently of that for the movements of Africa with respect to the mantle reference frame. The fact that this gives a logical result of small freagment evading the plume head with smooth mantle-paths for all fragments is reassuring that the model is robust. The many models in existence that deal with a fixed Africa will miss this.