Walvis Ridge

More than 3,000 km (1,900 mi) in length, it extends from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, near Tristan da Cunha and the Gough Islands, to the African coast (at 18°S in northern Namibia).

Two of the distinct sections in the Walvis Ridge have similar mirrored regions in the Rio Grande Rise; for example, the eastern section of the Walvis Ridge evolved in conjunction with the Torres Arch (the western end of the Rio Grande Rise, off the Brazilian coast) and, as the South Atlantic gradually opened, these structures became separated.

[2] The mantle plume then gradually became unstable and bifurcated 60 to 70 Ma to produce the two separate Tristan and Gough hotspot tracks.

The Eocene Layer of Mysterious Origin (Elmo) is a period of global warming that occurred 53.7 Ma, about two million years after the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum.

This period manifests as a carbonate-poor red clay layer unique to the Walvis Ridge and is similar to the PETM, but of smaller magnitude.

[14] The Agulhas rings transport an estimated 1-5 Sv (millions m3/s) of water from the Indian Ocean to the South Atlantic.