Page:The origin of continents and oceans - Wegener, tr. Skerl - 1924.djvu/213

In this connection we might refer to another also very interesting portion of the earth’s crust, which has certainly been but slightly investigated, namely, the continental margin of Further India.
Fig. 43.—Depth chart of Further India.
(Depth contours, 200 and 2000 m.; outline of ocean deep, dotted). The deep sea-basin to the north of Sumatra is of special interest in this connection. The kink in the Malacca peninsula corresponds to the abrupt northern termination of Sumatra; but it is not possible again to cover up the window-like uncovering of the sima-sphere recognizable north of this island, by again straightening out the Malacca peninsula. That is at once shown by the island-chain of the Andamans, which lies before the window. We must obviously here assume that the great compression of the Himalayas has exerted a pull on the ranges of Further India in the direction of their length, that under the influence of this pull the Sumatra range has been torn off at the northern end of the island, and that the northern portion of the chain (Arakan) has been drawn northwards like an end of a rope into the great compression, and is still being so drawn. Planes of differential movement must have been formed by this process on both sides of this enormous horizontal displacement. It is interesting that the outermost marginal range, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, remained fast in the sima, and it was only the second chain that experienced this remarkable displacement.