When Gondwana started breaking apart in Jurassic times there was not a single clear break, as occurred subsequently in the South Atlantic Ocean. The animation shows what happened to five smaller fragments that initially lay off southern Africa and how they became isolated fragments, distant from the main continents, today.

The Precambrian shields of the three continents Africa, Antarctica and South America are shown in pink, surrounded by the gravity margins (discussed elsewhere) in purple. The post-break-up paths of points representing these continents are shown in grey with black dots at intervals of 5 My.

Three smaller fragments that initially stayed with Africa (The Malvinas Plateau, Maurice Ewing Bank and South Georgia) progressively split off Africa and follwed the green pathways shown, moving westwards with respect to our fixed mantle reference frame from 155 to 140 Ma. None of them crossed the location of the Bouvet plume head (orange star).

Two fragments, Beira High and Limpopia, followed the blue paths. The Beira High re-joined Africa after only a short period of separation. Limpopia, meanwhile, followed Antarctica until about 132 Ma when it stopped following Antarctica southwards and started following Africa to the north. Its U-turn occurred as it approached the Bouvet plume head and the active transform switched from west of it to its east.

The central role of the Bouvet plume is demonstrated in our conservative model that requires a minimum of hypothesis and conforms to a geometry of persistent forward ocean growth everywhere. The time-scale for the Lower Cretaceous is indicated by the colours within the Africa-Antarctica Corridor (AAC) immediately east of Limpopia. The AAC seems immune to the complexities further west. Perhaps its persistence can be attributed 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.