Over 5000 km of new bathymetric data collected from near the northern Antarctic Peninsula (60 ¿S--63.5 ¿S latitude, 53.5 ¿W--63 ¿W longitude) show the morphology of an irregular segment of the Antarctic-Scotia plate boundary and nearby Shetland microplate. The irregular plate boundary is formed by an oblique intersection (>70¿) of the sinistral transpressional Shackleton fracture zone (SFZ) and the sinistral transtensional South Scotia Ridge transform (SSR) near Elephant (EI) and Clarence (CI) Islands. Mapped boundaries of the Shetland microplate include the South Shetland Trench and the volcanic rift axis of Bransfield Strait marginal basin. Bathymetric data, single-channel seismic reflection profiles, and Geosat/ERS 1 free air gravity data show a southeast trending fault zone on the northeast side of a prominent ridge in the SFZ. The fault zone is defined by scarps that affect ocean floor sediments, fault-bounded subbasins, rotated sedimentary layers, angular unconformities, linear gravity trends, and transtensional followed by contractional deformation. Southeast of a termination of the SFZ ridge at the South Shetland Trench, the fault zone subdivides into segments displaying steep scarps (up to 23¿) and canyons on the northeast margin of the EI platform. These features become east-west trending nearer to the western SSR. South of the islands, southwest trending extensional or transtensional fault zones disrupt the Bransfield Strait volcanic rift axis. These data suggest that (1) recent (<4 Ma) changes in the configuration of the Antarctic plate near the Antarctic Peninsula caused a segment of the SFZ transform to adjust to a more stable, rectilinear geometry with the SSR transform, and (2) diffuse transtension resulting from current Antarctic-Scotia relative motion is dissecting the Shetland microplate near EI and CI and transferring slivers of the Scotia plate onto the Antarctic plate. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1996