Abstract
Abstract An updated magnetic anomaly grid of the NE Atlantic and an improved database of magnetic anomaly and fracture zone identifications allow the kinematic history of this region to be revisited. At break-up time, continental rupture occurred parallel to the Mesozoic rift axes in the south, but obliquely to the previous rifting trend in the north, probably due to the proximity of the Iceland plume at 57–54 Ma. The new oceanic lithosphere age grid is based on 30 isochrons (C) from C24n old (53.93 Ma) to C1n old (0.78 Ma), and documents ridge reorganizations in the SE Lofoten Basin, the Jan Mayen Fracture Zone region, in Iceland and offshore Faroe Islands. Updated continent–ocean boundaries, including the Jan Mayen microcontinent, and detailed kinematics of the Eocene–Present Greenland–Eurasia relative motions are included in this model. Variations in the subduction regime in the NE Pacific could have caused the sudden northwards motion of Greenland and subsequent Eurekan deformation. These events caused seafloor spreading changes in the neighbouring Labrador Sea and a decrease in spreading rates in the NE Atlantic. Boundaries between major oceanic crustal domains were formed when the European Plate changed its absolute motion direction, probably caused by successive adjustments along its southern boundary. Supplementary material: Figures showing the long wavelength of the NAG-TEC magnetic anomaly grid, detailed magnetic anomalies and isochrons, and a Table documenting aeromagnetic surveys for NAG-TEC magnetic compilation are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3661925
Highlights
The North Atlantic encompasses the area between Newfoundland–Iberia and the Eurasian Basin in the Arctic Ocean (Fig. 1)
Part of the tectonic motion resulting from different opening histories of oceanic basins north and south of the Iceland region has been accommodated by extension within the Jan Mayen microcontinent (JMMC), which sits at the junction between these two domains, but there are probably other, less well-documented, changes in the centre of the NE Atlantic and associated margins
An updated magnetic anomaly grid of the NE Atlantic, together with a new interpretation of the oceanic crust age in the Irminger, Iceland, Lofoten, Greenland and Norway basins, and west of the Jan Mayen microcontinent (JMMC), have prompted us to revisit the kinematic history of this region
Summary
Pioneering work that describes regional magnetic anomaly variations in the North Atlantic was made possible by the availability of relatively dense geophysical surveys, and the thorough evaluation and processing of these data by the Geological Survey of Canada in 1995 (Verhoef et al 1996). Part of this digital grid has been renewed by adding data from new aeromagnetic surveys by Olesen et al (2010) and Gaina et al (2011). The NAG-TEC project (Hopper et al 2014) offered the opportunity to revisit the NE Atlantic magnetic anomaly data compilation, and publicly available aeromagnetic data from 1951 to 2012 have been inspected and included in a new magnetic anomaly grid of this region (see the Supplementary material) (Fig. 2)
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