Abstract The opening of the North Atlantic region was one of the most important geodynamic events that shaped the present day passive margins of Europe, Greenland and North America. Although well-studied, much remains to be understood about the evolution of the North Atlantic, including the role of the Jan Mayen microplate complex. Geophysical data provide an image of the crustal structure of this microplate and enable a detailed reconstruction of the rifting and spreading history. However, the mechanisms that cause the separation of microplates between conjugate margins are still poorly understood. We assemble recent models of rifting and passive margin formation in the North Atlantic and discuss possible scenarios that may have led to the formation of the Jan Mayen microplate complex. This event was probably triggered by regional plate tectonic reorganizations rejuvenating inherited structures. The axis of rifting and continental break-up and the width of the Jan Mayen microplate complex were controlled by old Caledonian fossil subduction/suture zones. Its length is related to east–west-oriented deformation and fracture zones, possibly linked to rheological heterogeneities inherited from the pre-existing Precambrian terrane boundaries.

Abstract New deep seismological data from Ellesmere Island and the adjacent Arctic continental margin provide new information about the crustal structure of the region. These data were not available for previous regional crustal models. This paper combines and redisplays previously published results – a gravity-derived Moho map and seismological results –to produce new maps of the Moho depth, the depth to basement and the crystalline crustal thickness of Ellesmere Island and contiguous parts of the Arctic Ocean, Greenland and Axel Heiberg Island. Northern Ellesmere Island is underlain by a thick crustal block (Moho at 41 km, c. 35 km crust). This block is separated from the Canada–Greenland craton in the south by a WSW–ENE-trending channel of thinned crystalline crust (Moho at 30–35 km, <20 km thick crust), which is overlain by a thick succession of metasedimentary and younger sedimentary rocks (15–20 km). The Sverdrup Basin in the west and the Lincoln Sea in the east interrupt the crustal architecture of central Ellesmere Island, which is interpreted to be more representative of its initial post-Ellesmerian Orogen structure, but with a later Sverdrup Basin and Eurekan overprint.

Abstract We use new models of crustal structure and the depth of the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary to calculate the geopotential energy and its corresponding geopotential stress field for the High Arctic. Palaeostress indicators such as dykes and rifts of known age are used to compare the present day and palaeostress fields. When both stress fields coincide, a minimum age for the configuration of the lithospheric stress field may be defined. We identify three regions in which this is observed. In north Greenland and the eastern Amerasia Basin, the stress field is probably the same as that present during the Late Cretaceous. In western Siberia, the stress field is similar to that in the Triassic. The stress directions on the eastern Russian Arctic Shelf and the Amerasia Basin are similar to that in the Cretaceous. The persistent misfit of the present stress field and Early Cretaceous dyke swarms associated with the High Arctic Large Igneous Province indicates a short-lived transient change in the stress field at the time of dyke emplacement. Most Early Cretaceous rifts in the Amerasia Basin coincide with the stress field, suggesting that dyking and rifting were unrelated. We present new evidence for dykes and a graben structure of Early Cretaceous age on Bennett Island.