Abstract
The eastern Canadian margins were formed by northward propagating continental rifting and opening of the Atlantic Ocean. Rifting south of the Grand Banks began around 200 Ma ago, separating North America from Africa. More complex rifting, east and north of the Grand Banks, resulted in separation from Iberia and Europe around 120 Ma. Rifting subsequently propagated northward, between Labrador and Greenland, where sea floor spreading continued up to about 36 Ma. The structures of these margins are diverse, reflecting the differing ages and modes of formation. The rifted margins south of the Grand Banks are 150–200 km wide with over 15 km of sediment in some areas. The transform margins of the Grand Banks and Flemish Cap are narrower, the margin northeast of Newfoundland produced the 500 km-wide extensional Orphan Basin, and the younger rifted margins to the north are narrower with less sediment than those to the south.
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© 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Reid, I. (1989). Structure and Origin of the Passive Continental Margins of Eastern Canada. In: Earthquakes at North-Atlantic Passive Margins: Neotectonics and Postglacial Rebound. NATO ASI Series, vol 266. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2311-9_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2311-9_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7538-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-2311-9
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