The structure and evolution of the east Greenland continental margin before spreading started on the Kolbeinsey ridge

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Abstract

An analysis of the deep structure of the East Greenland margin (Blosseville Kyst to Liverpool Land) and of the Jan Mayen microcontinent resulted in the development of a crustal model that was valid for both before their disruption. A joint model clearly demonstrates the net result of rifting phases during Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic time. Starting from the Devonian, a graben-shaped depression about 180 km wide existed between Liverpool Land and the Jan Mayen Ridge; the depression was formed by subsiding of the crystalline basement that was not compensated by sedimentation. The marine basin was approximately 2 km deep during late Devonian time. The west-east joint deep crustal section clearly defines three depths in the upper mantle that fit dome-like surfaces superposed on each other. We interpret these surfaces as temperature fronts of mantle plumes that differ by their time of origin: Paleozoic, Mesozoic to Cenozoic, and late Cenozoic. The rim of the present-day Blosseville Kyst and Liverpool Land shelf is found to be underlain by a basement high that is associated with the axis of a positive free-air gravity anomaly. East of the high along the anomaly axis, we identified a continent-ocean boundary. The present-day phase in the geological evolution of the Greenland-Norwegian region north of Iceland is characterized by an increased thermal state of the lithosphere and manifestations of intraplate tectonics.

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S. V. Usenko

Institute of Earthquake Prediction Theory and Mathematical Geophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences; Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Science

Author for correspondence.
Email: usenko@mitp.ru
Russian Federation, Profsoyuznaya ul. 84/32, Moscow, 117997; Bol’shaya Gruzinskaya ul. 10, str. 1, Moscow, 123242

T. V. Prokhorova

Institute of Earthquake Prediction Theory and Mathematical Geophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: tatprokh@mitp.ru
Russian Federation, Profsoyuznaya ul. 84/32, Moscow, 117997

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Supplementary files

Supplementary Files
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2. Fig. 1. Overview map of the research area. Bathymetric base SRTM30.v.4 [Becker et al., 2009].

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3. Fig. 2. A combined model of the earth's crust of East Greenland and the Jan Mayen microcontinent, according to [Weigel et al., 1995; Kodaira et al., 1998] as amended.

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4. Fig. 3. Seismostratigraphic sections of the East Greenland continental margin by profiles.

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5. Fig. 4. Seismic sections through the Kolbeynsey Ridge.

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6. Fig. 5. Research results.

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7. Fig. 6. Reconstruction of the discharge in the Jan Mayen Depression according to profile V2803 (1) of single-channel seismic profiling (http://www.geomapapp.org/).

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