Sedimentary Basins and Crustal Processes at Continental Margins: From Modern Hyper-extended Margins to Deformed Ancient Analogues

Continental margins and their fossilized analogues are important repositories of natural resources. With better processing techniques and increased availability of high-resolution seismic and potential field data, imaging of present-day continental margins and their embedded sedimentary basins has reached unprecedented levels of refinement and definition, as illustrated by examples described in this volume. This, in turn, has led to greatly improved geological, geodynamic and numerical models for the crustal and mantle processes involved in continental margin formation from the initial stages of rifting through continental rupture and break-up to development of a new ocean basin. Further informing these models, and contributing to a better understanding of the features imaged in the seismic and potential field data, are observations made on fossilized fragments of exhumed subcontinental mantle lithosphere and ocean–continent transition zones preserved in ophiolites and orogenic belts of both Palaeozoic and Mesozoic age from several different continents, including Europe, South Asia and Australasia.
Structural and stratigraphic evolution of the Iberia–Newfoundland hyper-extended rifted margin: a quantitative modelling approach
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Published:January 01, 2015
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CiteCitation
Geoffroy Mohn, Garry D. Karner, Gianreto Manatschal, Christopher A. Johnson, 2015. "Structural and stratigraphic evolution of the Iberia–Newfoundland hyper-extended rifted margin: a quantitative modelling approach", Sedimentary Basins and Crustal Processes at Continental Margins: From Modern Hyper-extended Margins to Deformed Ancient Analogues, G. M. Gibson, F. Roure, G. Manatschal
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Abstract
We investigate the evolution of the Iberia–Newfoundland margin from Permian post-orogenic extension to Early Cretaceous break-up. We used a Quantitative Basin Analysis approach to integrate seismic stratigraphic interpretations and drill-hole data of two representative sections across the Iberia–Newfoundland margin with kinematic models for lithospheric thinning and subsequent flexural readjustment. We model the distribution of extension and thinning, palaeobathymetry, crustal structure, and subsidence and uplift history as functions of space and time. We start our modelling following post-orogenic extension, magmatic underplating and thermal re-equilibration of the Permian lithosphere. During the Late Triassic–Early Jurassic, broadly distributed, depth-independent lithospheric extension evolved into...