Conjugate volcanic rifted margins, seafloor spreading, and microcontinent: Insights from new high‐resolution aeromagnetic surveys in the Norway Basin

Abstract

AbstractWe have acquired and processed new aeromagnetic data that cover the entire oceanic Norway Basin located between the Møre volcanic rifted margin and the Jan Mayen microcontinent (JMMC). The new compilation allows us to revisit the structure of the conjugate volcanic (rifted) margins and the spreading evolution of the Norway Basin from the Early Eocene breakup time to the Late Oligocene when the Aegir Ridge became extinct. The volcanic margins (in a strict sense) that formed before the opening of the Norway Basin have been disconnected with the previous Jurassic‐Mid‐Cretaceous episode of crustal thinning. We also show evidence of relationships between the margin architecture, the breakup magmatism distribution along the continent‐oceanic transition, and the subsequent oceanic segmentation. The Norway Basin shows a complex system of asymmetric oceanic segments locally affected by episodic ridge jumps. The new aeromagnetic compilation also confirms that a fan‐shaped spreading evolution of the Norway Basin was clearly active before the cessation of seafloor spreading and extinction of the Aegir Ridge. An important Mid‐Eocene kinematic event at around magnetic chron C21r can be recognized in the Norway Basin. This event coincides with the onset of diking and increasing rifting activity (and possible oceanic accretion?) between the proto‐JMMC and the East Greenland margin. It led to a second phase of breakup and microcontinent formation in the Norwegian‐Greenland Sea ~26 Myrs later in the Oligocene.