The name was proposed by Dr. Steven C. Cande of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography for the vessel Emerald, which traversed this region in 1821, and was approved by the Advisory Committee for Undersea Features in June 1997.
[2] Some[2] have restricted the name to the southern east west orientated transform fault zone but the north south orientated faults that define the eastern boundary of the Emerald Basin are generally included in the literature.
[6] The clockwise rotation of the Pacific Plate and Antarctic Plate between 12 and 10 million years ago resulted in fragmentation of the long-offset Emerald transform fault and its replacement over less than 2 million years with closely spaced, highly variable transform offsets that were joined by short ridge segments.
[7] There was asymmetrical spreading rates in the area of the leaky transform fault zone near the Macquarie Triple Junction.
[7] This article incorporates public domain material from "Emerald fracture zone".