Larsen, Lotte M. et al. (1999): Trans-Atlantic correlation of the Palaeogene volcanic successions in the Faeroe Islands and East Greenland

Leg/Site/Hole:
Identifier:
2000-009724
georefid

Creator:
Larsen, Lotte M.
Danish Lithosphere Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark
author

Waagstein, Regin
Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Denmark
author

Pedersen, Asger K.
Geological Museum, Denmark
author

Storey, Michael
author

Identification:
Trans-Atlantic correlation of the Palaeogene volcanic successions in the Faeroe Islands and East Greenland
1999
Journal of the Geological Society of London
Geological Society of London, London, United Kingdom
156, Part 6
1081-1095
Before continental break-up in the NE Atlantic, the Faeroe Islands and central East Greenland were within a distance of 100-120 km. Chemical and lithological data for complete sections through the 5 km thick piles of contemporaneous Palaeogene flood basalts in the Faeroe Islands and in the Nansen Fjord area in East Greenland show very similar basalt compositions and evolution patterns with time. The Faeroes lower basalt formation and the equivalent Nansen Fjord Formation in East Greenland form a pre-break-up succession overlain by a sediment horizon. A syn-break-up succession consists of the Faeroes middle and upper basalt formations and the equivalent Milne Land Formation in East Greenland in which five intervals can be correlated with a compositional evolution from Ti-rich magnesian basalts and picrites at the base to a dominance of MORB-like low-Ti basalts at the top. The successions were generated in the same mantle melting column beneath a thinning continent with a rift zone that eventually ruptured the continent. The evolution pattern is very similar to that seen on the SE Greenland margin, but spreading according to the Palmason model of 1973 was not yet established. The pre- and syn-break-up successions formed volcanic megasystems stretching across the rift zone with areal extents of 70 000 and 220 000 km (super 2) and volumes of 120 000 and 250 000 km (super 3) . Rocks from the pre- and syn-break-up successions can be discriminated based on a simple major-element plot. The overlying succession was 3-3.5 km thick in E Greenland but was thin or absent in the Faeroes; the energy source for the melting appears to have been concentrated on the Greenland side.
English
Serial
Coverage:Geographic coordinates:
North:69.0000
West:-33.0000East: -27.0000
South:67.0000

Stratigraphy; Structural geology; Arctic region; Atlantic Ocean Islands; basalts; Cenozoic; chemical composition; correlation; East Greenland; emplacement; Faeroe Islands; flood basalts; geochemistry; Greenland; igneous rocks; lithofacies; mid-ocean ridge basalts; Milne Land Formation; Nansen Fjord Formation; Paleogene; paleogeography; plate divergence; plate tectonics; pyroclastics; sedimentary rocks; stratigraphic units; Tertiary; thickness; volcanic rocks; volume;

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