Structure across the northeastern margin of Flemish Cap, offshore Newfoundland from Erable multichannel seismic reflection profiles: evidence for a transtensional rifting environment

Type Article
Date 2010-11
Language English
Author(s) Welford J. Kim1, Hall Jeremy1, Sibuet Jean-Claude2, Srivastava Shiri P.3
Affiliation(s) 1 : Mem Univ Newfoundland, Dept Earth Sci, St John, NF, Canada.
2 : IFREMER, Ctr Brest, Dept Geosci Marines, Plouzane, France.
3 : Geol Survey Canada, Bedford Inst Oceanog, Dartmouth, NS, Canada.
Source Geophysical Journal International (0956-540X) (Wiley-blackwell Publishing, Inc), 2010-11 , Vol. 183 , N. 2 , P. 572-U51
DOI 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2010.04779.x
WOS© Times Cited 28
Keyword(s) Controlled source seismology, Continental margins: divergent, Continental tectonics: extensional, Submarine tectonics and volcanism, Crustal structure, Atlantic Ocean
Abstract P>We present the results from processing and interpreting nine multichannel seismic reflection lines collected during the 1992 Erable experiment over the northeastern margin of Flemish Cap offshore Newfoundland. These lines, combined into five cross-sections, provide increased seismic coverage over this lightly probed section of the margin and reveal tectonically significant along-strike variations in the degree and compartmentalization of crustal thinning. Similar to the southeastern margins of Flemish Cap and the Grand Banks, a transitional zone of exhumed serpentinized mantle is interpreted between thinned continental and oceanic crust. The 25 km wide transitional zone bears similarities to the 120 km wide transitional zone interpreted as exhumed serpentinized mantle on the conjugate Irish Atlantic margin but the significant width difference is suggestive of an asymmetric conjugate pair. A 40-50 km wide zone of inferred strike-slip shearing is interpreted and observed to extend along most of the northeastern margin of Flemish Cap. Individual shear zones (SZs) may represent extensions of SZs and normal faults within the Orphan Basin providing further evidence for the rotation and displacement of Flemish Cap out of Orphan Basin. The asymmetry between the Flemish Cap and Irish conjugate pairs is likely due in large part to the rotation and displacement of Flemish Cap which resulted in the Flemish Cap margin displaying features of both a strike-slip margin and an extensional margin.
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Welford J. Kim, Hall Jeremy, Sibuet Jean-Claude, Srivastava Shiri P. (2010). Structure across the northeastern margin of Flemish Cap, offshore Newfoundland from Erable multichannel seismic reflection profiles: evidence for a transtensional rifting environment. Geophysical Journal International, 183(2), 572-U51. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.2010.04779.x , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00017/12776/