Structure and rifting evolution of the northern Newfoundland Basin from Erable multichannel seismic reflection profiles across the southeastern margin of Flemish Cap

• Published in: Geophysical Journal International
• Main Authors: Welford, J. K., Smith, J. A., Hall, J., Deemer, S., Srivastava, S. P., Sibuet, Jean-claude
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley-blackwell Publishing, Inc 2010
• Subjects: Controlled source seismology; Submarine tectonics and volcanism; Continental margins: divergent; Continental tectonics: extensional; Crustal structure; Atlantic Ocean; Newfoundland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00001/11202/7876.pdf; https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00001/11202/7877.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.2009.04477.x; https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00001/11202/

We present the results from processing and interpreting five lines from the 1992 Erable multichannel seismic reflection experiment extending from the southeastern margin of Flemish Cap into the northern Newfoundland Basin. These profiles reveal significant along strike variations in the rifting styles experienced by Flemish Cap. In the southwest, a 100-km-wide transition zone is identified between thinned continental crust and thin oceanic crust. Similar to the conjugate Galicia Bank and Iberian margins, this transition zone contains a section of deep basement adjacent to a series of shallower ridges and is interpreted as exhumed serpentinized mantle. Along strike towards the northeast, this transition zone pinches out completely within 100 km and is replaced by thin oceanic crust directly adjacent to thinned continental crust. By interpreting nearby seismic profiles and profiles on the conjugate margins using the same classification criteria, we construct regional maps of the distribution of crustal domains on both sides of the North Atlantic. These maps reveal significant variations in rifting style on the conjugate margins and along strike of each margin and also highlight the role of ancient transfer zones in compartmentalizing these rifting variations into four distinct regions. We propose that the limited localization of shallow topographically high serpentinized peridotite ridges on the Newfoundland-Iberia and Flemish Cap-Galicia Bank conjugate margins, was directly related to an increase in the rate of extension following the separation of Flemish Cap and Galicia Bank which exhumed deeper, less serpentinized mantle.