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We present GlobSed, a new global 5-arc-minute total sediment thickness grid for the world's oceans and marginal seas. GlobSed covers a larger area than previously published global grids and incorporates updates for the NE Atlantic, Arctic, Southern Ocean, and Mediterranean regions, which results in a 29.7% increase in estimated total oceanic sediment volume. We use this new global grid and a revised global oceanic lithospheric age grid to assess the relationship between the total sediment thickness and age of the underlying oceanic lithosphere and its latitude. An analytical approximation model is used to mathematically describe sedimentation trends in major oceanic basins and to allow paleobathymetric reconstructions at any given geological time. This study provides a much-needed update of the sediment thickness distribution of the world oceans and delivers a model for sedimentation rates on oceanic crust through time that agrees well with selected drill data used for comparison.

We present GlobSed, a new global 5-arc-minute total sediment thickness grid for the world's oceans and marginal seas. GlobSed covers a larger area than previously published global grids and incorporates updates for the NE Atlantic, Arctic, Southern Ocean, and Mediterranean regions, which results in a 29.7% increase in estimated total oceanic sediment volume. We use this new global grid and a revised global oceanic lithospheric age grid to assess the relationship between the total sediment thickness and age of the underlying oceanic lithosphere and its latitude. An analytical approximation model is used to mathematically describe sedimentation trends in major oceanic basins and to allow paleobathymetric reconstructions at any given geological time. This study provides a much-needed update of the sediment thickness distribution of the world oceans and delivers a model for sedimentation rates on oceanic crust through time that agrees well with selected drill data used for comparison.

A number of rock samples were collected from two dredge positions on the Lomonosov Ridge at water depths of 2-3.5 km. The dredge samples are dominated by sediments deformed and metamorphosed under greenschist-facies conditions 470 myr ago according to 40Ar/39Ar dating of metamorphic muscovite. This shows that the Lomonosov Ridge was involved in a major Mid- Ordovician orogenic event that correlates with early arc-terrane accretion observed in northern Ellesmere Island, Svalbard, and other parts of the Caledonian belt. Detrital zircon age spectra of these metasediments span the Mesoproterozoic-Palaeoproterozoic with a main peak at around 1.6 Ga, and a pattern similar to that known from Caledonian metasedimentary rocks in East Greenland and northern Norway, as well as from Cambrian sediments in Estonia and Palaeozoic sediments on Novaya Zemlya. A second population of dredge samples comprises undeformed, non-metamorphic sandstones and siltstones. Detrital zircons in these sediments span the Palaeoproterozoic with a few Archaean zircons. Both rock types are covered by an up to 8 Ma ferromanganese crust and are evaluated to represent outcrop, and apatite fission-track data from three of the rock samples indicate that exposure at the seabed corresponds to a regional event of uplift and erosion that affected the Arctic in the Late Miocene. The data from the Lomonosov Ridge suggest that the 470 Ma orogenic event extended from Scotland and northern Scandinavia into the Arctic, including Svalbard, the Pearya Terrane and the Chukchi Borderlands.

We present a revised tectonostratigraphy of the Jan Mayen microcontinent (JMMC) and its southern extent, with the focus on its relationship to the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge area and the Faroe-Iceland Fracture Zone. The microcontinent's Cenozoic evolution consists of six main phases corresponding to regional stratigraphic unconformities. Emplacement of Early Eocene plateau basalts at pre-break-up time (56-55 Ma), preceded the continental break-up (55 Ma) and the formation of seawards-dipping reflectors (SDRs) along the eastern and SE flanks of the JMMC. Simultaneously with SDR formation, orthogonal seafloor spreading initiated along the Ægir Ridge (Norway Basin) during the Early Eocene (C24n2r, 53.36 Ma to C22n, 49.3 Ma). Changes in plate motions at C21n (47.33 Ma) led to oblique seafloor spreading offset by transform faults and uplift along the microcontinent's southern flank. At C13n (33.2 Ma), spreading rates along the Ægir Ridge started to decrease, first south and then in the north. This was probably complemented by intra-continental extension within the JMMC, as indicated by the opening of the Jan Mayen Basin - a series of small pull-apart basins along the microcontinent's NW flank. JMMC was completely isolated when the mid-oceanic Kolbeinsey Ridge became fully established and the Ægir Ridge was abandoned between C7 and C6b (24-21.56 Ma).

The distribution of Cenozoic compressional structures along the NW European margin has been compared with maps of the thickness of the crystalline crust derived from a compilation of seismic refraction interpretations and gravity modelling, and with the distribution of high-velocity lower crust and/or partially serpentinized upper mantle detected by seismic experiments. Only a subset of the mapped compressional structures coincide with areas susceptible to lithospheric weakening as a result of crustal hyperextension and partial serpentinization of the upper mantle. Notably, partially serpentinized upper mantle is well documented beneath the central part of the southern Rockall Basin, but compressional features are sparse in that area. Where compressional structures have formed but the upper mantle is not serpentinized, simple rheological modelling suggests an alternative weakening mechanism involving ductile lower crust and lithospheric decoupling. The presence of pre-existing weak zones (associated with the properties of the gouge and overpressure in fault zones) and local stress magnitude and orientation are important contributing factors.

We present a revised tectonostratigraphy of the Jan Mayen microcontinent (JMMC) and its southern extent, with the focus on its relationship to the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge area and the Faroe-Iceland Fracture Zone. The microcontinent's Cenozoic evolution consists of six main phases corresponding to regional stratigraphic unconformities. Emplacement of Early Eocene plateau basalts at pre-break-up time (56-55 Ma), preceded the continental break-up (55 Ma) and the formation of seawards-dipping reflectors (SDRs) along the eastern and SE flanks of the JMMC. Simultaneously with SDR formation, orthogonal seafloor spreading initiated along the Ægir Ridge (Norway Basin) during the Early Eocene (C24n2r, 53.36 Ma to C22n, 49.3 Ma). Changes in plate motions at C21n (47.33 Ma) led to oblique seafloor spreading offset by transform faults and uplift along the microcontinent's southern flank. At C13n (33.2 Ma), spreading rates along the Ægir Ridge started to decrease, first south and then in the north. This was probably complemented by intra-continental extension within the JMMC, as indicated by the opening of the Jan Mayen Basin - a series of small pull-apart basins along the microcontinent's NW flank. JMMC was completely isolated when the mid-oceanic Kolbeinsey Ridge became fully established and the Ægir Ridge was abandoned between C7 and C6b (24-21.56 Ma).

We present a revised tectonostratigraphy of the Jan Mayen microcontinent (JMMC) and its southern extent, with the focus on its relationship to the Greenland–Iceland–Faroe Ridge area and the Faroe–Iceland Fracture Zone. The microcontinent's Cenozoic evolution consists of six main phases corresponding to regional stratigraphic unconformities. Emplacement of Early Eocene plateau basalts at pre-break-up time (56–55 Ma), preceded the continental break-up (55 Ma) and the formation of seawards-dipping reflectors (SDRs) along the eastern and SE flanks of the JMMC. Simultaneously with SDR formation, orthogonal seafloor spreading initiated along the Ægir Ridge (Norway Basin) during the Early Eocene (C24n2r, 53.36 Ma to C22n, 49.3 Ma). Changes in plate motions at C21n (47.33 Ma) led to oblique seafloor spreading offset by transform faults and uplift along the microcontinent's southern flank. At C13n (33.2 Ma), spreading rates along the Ægir Ridge started to decrease, first south and then in the north. This was probably complemented by intra-continental extension within the JMMC, as indicated by the opening of the Jan Mayen Basin – a series of small pull-apart basins along the microcontinent's NW flank. JMMC was completely isolated when the mid-oceanic Kolbeinsey Ridge became fully established and the Ægir Ridge was abandoned between C7 and C6b (24–21.56 Ma).

The high-Arctic Eurekan Orogeny was caused by a northward movement of Greenland relative to North America and Eurasia during the latest Cretaceous to late Eocene. While the Eurekan N-S shortening is well-documented in Ellesmere Island, North Greenland and Svalbard, the nature of the event is largely unknown in the ice-covered Arctic Ocean to the north of Greenland. In this contribution, we show that the tectono-physiographic evolution of the oceanic Amundsen Basin, the continental Lomonosov Ridge and the Morris Jesup Rise were all affected by significant Eurekan compression. We present the results of 3-D gravity inversion for predicting the sediment thickness and basement geometry within the Amundsen Basin and along its borderlands. We use the recently published LOMGRAV-09 gravity compilation and adopt a process-oriented iterative cycle approach that minimizes misfit between an Earth model and observations. The sensitivity of our results to lateral variations in depth and density contrast of the Moho is further tested by a stochastic inversion. Within their limitations, the approach and setup used herein provides the first detailed model of the sediment thickness and basement geometry in the Arctic Ocean north of Greenland. Our preferred result, using a C25 breakup scenario of the Amundsen Basin, correlates well with seismic observations along existing and several new marine seismic profiles. Breakup-related rift basins are predicted along the Lomonosov Ridge and a broad depocentre is predicted above high-relief basement in the central Amundsen Basin. Significantly, an up to 7 km deep elongated sedimentary basin is predicted along the northern edge of the Morris Jesup Rise. This basin continues into the Klenova Valley south of the Lomonosov Ridge and correlates with an offshore continuation of the Eurekan Mount Rawlinson Fault in Ellesmere Island. We compute the anomalous basement topography and show evidence of deformed oceanic and continental crust in relation

The tectonic history of the Arctic Ocean remains poorly resolved and highly controversial. Details regarding break up of the Lomonosov Ridge from the Barents-Kara shelf margins and the establishment of seafloor spreading in the Cenozoic Eurasia Basin are unresolved. Significantly, the plate tectonic evolution of the Mesozoic Amerasia Basin is essentially unknown. The Arctic Ocean north of Greenland is at a critical juncture that formed at the locus of a Mesozoic three-plate setting between the Lomonosov Ridge, Greenland, and North America. In addition, the area is close to the European plate, resulting in complicated interactions between all these areas that are difficult to resolve. In 2009, the 550,000 km2 LOMGRAV aero-geophysical survey produced the first collocated gravity and magnetic measurements over the area, significantly increasing the data coverage. We present an interpretation of a new free-air gravity compilation, which reveals a regionally consistent structural grain across the Lomonosov Ridge, the Ellesmere and Lincoln Sea shelves, and the Alpha Ridge. We interpret the grain as evidence of latest Cretaceous (∼80 Ma) regional extension in response to the northward propagation of Atlantic and Labrador Sea opening into the Arctic, west of Greenland. This interpretation is consistent with coincident alkaline volcanic activity evident in the borderlands of the Lincoln Sea. We further suggest that Eurekan crustal shortening contributed to the formation of the distinct Lomonosov Ridge plateau against an important fault zone north of Greenland. Our results provide new constraints for Cretaceous-Cenozoic plate reconstructions of the Arctic. Key Points Presentation of the largest aero-gravity survey acquired over the Arctic Ocean Plate tectonic link between Atlantic and Arctic spreading west of Greenland New plate reconstruction models are presented for the area north of Greenland

Results from seismic mapping on the NW Greenland margin and Baffin Bay demonstrates the presence of submarine fan lobes formed in elongate graben and rift basins. Fan deposition commenced during late Eocene and possibly into Oligocene, presumably as a consequence of major tectonic activity in the source region, linked to the Eurekan Orogeny. The largest of the fan lobes extends for more than 300 km through the Melville Bay Graben and attains thickness up to about 1.3 km below the main boundary fault. Seismic geometries displaying elements of channels and central mounds, points to sand transport through the graben axis and hence a strong potential for reservoir development. On the Greenland shelf margin the lobes are generally located at burial depths between 1.5 and 4 km favorable for petroleum maturation and exploration.

Rifted margins form from extension and breakup of the continental lithosphere. If this extension is coeval with a region of hotter lithosphere, then it is generally assumed that a volcanic margin would follow. Here we present the results of numerical simulations of rift margin evolution by extending continental lithosphere above a thermal anomaly. We find that unless the lithosphere is thinned prior to the arrival of the thermal anomaly or half spreading rates are more than ̃50 mm a-1, the lithosphere acts as a lid to the hot material. The thermal anomaly cools significantly by conduction before having an effect on decompression melt production. If the lithosphere is thinned by the formation of extensional basins then the thermal anomaly advects into the thinned region and leads to enhanced decompression melting. In the North Atlantic a series of extensional basins off the coast of northwest Europe and Greenland provide the required thinning. This observation suggests that volcanic margins that show slow rates of extension only occur where there is the combination of a thermal anomaly and previous regional thinning of the lithosphere.

Seismic reflection and refraction data from the Flemish Cap margin off Newfoundland reveal the large-scale structure of a magma-starved rifted margin. There is little evidence for significant extensional deformation of the Flemish Cap, consistent with the hypothesis that it behaved as a microplate throughout the Mesozoic. The seismic data highlight important asymmetries at a variety of scales that developed during the final stages of continental breakup and the onset of oceanic sea-floor spreading. In strong contrast to the conjugate Galicia Bank margin, Flemish Cap shows: (1) an abrupt necking profile in cointinental crust, thinning from 30 km thick to 3 km thick over a distance of 80 km, and a narrow, less than 20 km-wide, zone of extremely thin continental crust; (2) no clear evidence for horizontal detachment structures beneath continental crust similar to the 'S' reflection; and (3) evidence for at least a 60 km-wide zone of anomalously thin oceanic crust that began accreting to the margin shortly after continental crustal separation. The oceanic crust averages only 3-4 km thick and in places is as thin as 1.3 km thick, although seismic layer 3 is missing where this occurs. The data suggest that there are large spatial and temporal variations in the available melt supply following continental breakup as oceanic sea-floor spreading becomes established. In addition, wide-angle data show that anomalously slow mande P-wave velocities appew approximately where continental crust has thinned to 6-8 km thick, indicating that low-degree serpentinization begins where the entire crust has become embrittled.

We conducted a seismic refraction experiment across Flemish Cap and into the deep basin east of Newfoundland, Canada, and developed a velocity model for the crust and mantle from forward and inverse modeling of data from 25 ocean bottom seismometers and dense air gun shots. The continental crust at Flemish Cap is 30 km thick and is divided into three layers with P wave velocities of 6.0–6.7 km/s. Across the southeast Flemish Cap margin, the continental crust thins over a 90-km-wide zone to only 1.2 km. The ocean-continent boundary is near the base of Flemish Cap and is marked by a fault between thinned continental crust and 3-km-thick crust with velocities of 4.7–7.0 km/s interpreted as crust from magma-starved oceanic accretion. This thin crust continues seaward for 55 km and thins locally to ~1.5 km. Below a sediment cover (1.9–3.1 km/s), oceanic layer 2 (4.7–4.9 km/s) is ~1.5 km thick, while layer 3 (6.9 km/s) seems to disappear in the thinnest segment of the oceanic crust. At the seawardmost end of the line the crust thickens to ~6 km. Mantle with velocities of 7.6–8.0 km/s underlies both the thin continental and thin oceanic crust in an 80-km-wide zone. A gradual downward increase to normal mantle velocities is interpreted to reflect decreasing degree of serpentinization with depth. Normal mantle velocities of 8.0 km/s are observed ~6 km below basement. There are major differences compared to the conjugate Galicia Bank margin, which has a wide zone of extended continental crust, more faulting, and prominent detachment faults. Crust formed by seafloor spreading appears symmetric, however, with 30-km-wide zones of oceanic crust accreted on both margins beginning about 4.5 m.y. before formation of magnetic anomaly M0 (~118 Ma).

Seismic reflection and refraction data from the SE Greenland margin provide a detailed view of a volcanic rifted margin from Archean continental crust to near-to-average oceanic crust over a spatial scale of 400 km. The SIGMA III transect, located ∼600 km south of the Greenland-Iceland Ridge and the presumed track of the Iceland hot spot, shows that the continent-ocean transition is abrupt and only a small amount of crustal thinning occurred prior to final breakup. Initially, 18.3 km thick crust accreted to the margin and the productivity decreased through time until a steady state ridge system was established that produced 8–10 km thick crust. Changes in the morphology of the basaltic extrusives provide evidence for vertical motions of the ridge system, which was close to sea level for at least 1 m.y. of subaerial spreading despite a reduction in productivity from 17 to 13.5 km thick crust over this time interval. This could be explained if a small component of active upwelling associated with thermal buoyancy from a modest thermal anomaly provided dynamic support to the rift system. The thermal anomaly must be exhaustible, consistent with recent suggestions that plume material was emplaced into a preexisting lithospheric thin spot as a thin sheet. Exhaustion of the thin sheet led to rapid subsidence of the spreading system and a change from subaerial, to shallow marine, and finally to deep marine extrusion in ∼2 m.y. is shown by the morphological changes. In addition, comparison to the conjugate Hatton Bank shows a clear asymmetry in the early accretion history of North Atlantic oceanic crust. Nearly double the volume of material was emplaced on the Greenland margin compared to Hatton Bank and may indicate east directed ridge migration during initial opening.

We present results from a combined multichannel seismic reflection (MCS) and wide-angle onshore/offshore seismic experiment conducted in 1996 across the southeast Greenland continental margin. A new seismic tomographic method is developed to jointly invert refraction and reflection travel times for a two-dimensional velocity structure. We employ a hybrid ray-tracing scheme based on the graph method and the local ray-bending refinement to efficiently obtain an accurate forward solution, and we employ smoothing and optional damping constraints to regularize an iterative inversion. We invert 2318 Pg and 2078 PmP travel times to construct a compressional velocity model for the 350-km-long transect, and a long-wavelength structure with strong lateral heterogeneity is recovered, including (1) ∼30-km-thick, undeformed continental crust with a velocity of 6.0 to 7.0 km/s near the landward end, (2) 30- to 15-km-thick igneous crust within a 150-km-wide continent-ocean transition zone, and (3) 15- to 9-km-thick oceanic crust toward the seaward end. The thickness of the igneous upper crust characterized by a high-velocity gradient also varies from 6 km within the transition zone to ∼3 km seaward. The bottom half of the lower crust generally has a velocity higher than 7.0 km/s, reaching a maximum of 7.2 to 7.5 km/s at the Moho. A nonlinear Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis is performed to estimate the a posteriori model variance, showing that most velocity and depth nodes are well determined with one standard deviation of 0.05-0.10 km/s and 0.25-1.5 km, respectively. Despite significant variation in crustal thickness, the mean velocity of the igneous crust, which serves as a proxy for the bulk crustal composition, is surprisingly constant (∼7.0 km/s) along the transect. On the basis of a mantle melting model incorporating the effect of active mantle upwelling, this velocity-thickness relationship is used to constrain the mantle melting process during the breakup of Greenland a

Seismic data, drilling data, and gravity data define a 40-km-wide continent-ocean transition (COT) below the outer half of the 70- to 80-km-wide shelf along the Leg 152 drilling transect. The seismic data include a detailed grid of shallow high-resolution seismic data; a regional grid of conventional multichannel seismic data (including sonobuoy refraction data); and a deep crustal, vertical incidence multichannel seismic profile. Below the outer shelf, the top of the Precambrian crust off southeast Greenland dips through a normally faulted, seaward-facing flexure zone below the landward feather edge of the seaward-dipping reflector sequence (SDRS), which is subaerially erupted baslatic lavas. Associated with the flexure zone, the continental crust thins from approximately 28 km thick to almost zero over a maximum distance of 40 km. Variations in present-day crustal thickness are much less because of accretion of thick igneous crust during breakup. Most of the thinning of the continental crust takes place within only 25 km from the mid-shelf flexure zone. Within this zone, landward-dipping normal faults are present in the upper continental crust, indicating that thinning was accommodated by fault-related crustal extension. Lower crustal thinning appears to be of a different nature and may be related to 'intrusive' underplating. The seismically defined COT is consistent with a distinct development from initially continental to oceanic volcanism observed in the boreholes. The new igneous SDRS crust seems to be 20-22 km thick, including at least 5 km of lava in the upper crust. Deep reflections located below the COT at 30-35 km depth may represent a pillow of thick (10 km or more) underplate dmaterial or intra-mantle reflections from a residual mantle.

The effect of diffusion creep on lithospheric extension was investigated using a one-dimensional numerical model that assumes a constant force is available to drive extension. The model is motivated by the fact that continental areas with average heat flow should be too strong to rift using standard estimates of lithospheric strength. However, such areas do rift and diffusion creep is a mechanism by which lithosphere may deform at a lower stress level than is required for the usually assumed dislocation creep. Diffusion creep is more efficient at smaller grain sizes and the model results indicate that mantle grain sizes would have to be less than 1 mm for diffusion creep to significantly reduce the critical force. During the initial stages of continental rifting, grain size reduction and diffusion creep deformation mechanisms may have an important effect on lithospheric strength. -from Authors

Deep crustal seismic observations from northwest Australia demonstrate that the Cuvier margin is a volcanic passive margin that formed as Greater India rifted away from Australia in the Early Cretaceous. Formation of the Cuvier Basin and initial sea-floor spreading resulted in the emplacement of exceptionally thick oceanic crust, while contemporaneous spreading off the adjacent Exmouth Plateau formed normal-thickness oceanic crust. Rapid rifting of the Cuvier margin created strong lateral temperature gradients in the subjacent upper mantle at the time of breakup. This induced small-scale convection in the upper mantle that increased the rate of upwelling and, thus, the volume of melt generated by decompression partial melting. In turn, this resulted in a larger volume of magma at the initiation of sea-floor spreading, and thicker oceanic crust was initially emplaced. -from Authors

The nonlinear correlation technique has been used to guide a seismic trace interpolant to fill gaps in seismic surveys, replace noisy traces, and produce evely spaced arrays. Given an initial alignment the correlation aligns corresponding features between adjacent seismic traces and quantifies the traveltime difference between the traces on a point-for-point basis. This information is used to construct synthetic (interpolated) traces, at any arbitrary distance between the correlated traces. The technique is applied to a 48-channel, NMO corrected, CDP gather and to a stacked seismic section to demonstrate its use, sensitivities, and limitations in processing and geological interpretation studies. -from Authors