On the apparent eastward migration of the spreading ridge in Iceland

• Main Author: G. R. Foulger
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Jan Mayen; Iceland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.493.497; http://www.mantleplumes.org/Penrose/PenPDFAbstracts/Foulger_Gillian_abs2.pdf

The part of the north Atlantic where Iceland is currently forming has functioned as a tectonic divide since the opening of the ocean, and has persistently featured paired spreading ridges and intervening microplates. At the time of ocean opening a ~ 100-km long, right-stepping transform fault, the Faeroe transform fault (FTF), formed where the new spreading ridge crossed the Caledonian suture [Bott, 1985] (Figure 1a). Tectonic complexities subsequently rafted several continental blocks into the ocean, including Jan Mayen, the Jan Mayen microcontinent (JMM) and the Faeroe block.