[1] Since a reorganisation of the involved tectonic plates c. 10 Ma, the AOC moves in discrete steps westward along the Aden Ridge.
[3] The Owen fracture zone, together with the Dalrymple Trough in its northern end, is a transform fault along which spreading between the Arabian and Indian plates at the Carlsberg Ridge becomes the subduction of the Himalayan orogeny.
North of the Aden–Owen–Carlsberg triple junction, the Owen fracture zone is quiet for 250 km (160 mi) but right-lateral slip along its active segments indicates that Arabia is moving northward faster than India.
[3] The relative motion between the Nubian and Somalian plates before 3.2 Ma is difficult to determine since the movement in the Southwest Indian Ridge is extremely slow.
Analysing the Aden–Owen–Carlsberg triple junction, however, geologists have been able to determine that before 11 Ma the Nubia–Somalia relative motion was faster than today and contained a significant strike-slip component.