Metamorphic Rocks of Burlington Peninsula and Adjoining Areas of Newfoundland, and Their Bearing on Continental Drift in North Atlantic

A geometrical fit of the land masses of northern Europe, Canada and Greenland has been constructed by Dr A. G. Smith using the method devised by Sir Edward Bullard and M r J. E. Everett. The method involves taking points of latitude and longitude on the 500 fm. line at intervals of about 30 miles along the two coasts to be fitted. Young features such as oceanic islands are ignored. By a method of successive approximation, the computer ‘homes in ’ on to the centre of rotation which gives the minimum root mean square misfit between the rotated coastlines j the misfit being measured as the discrepancy of longitude relative to the centre of rotation. In this manner the 500 fm. line along the east coast of Greenland has been fitted to that of northwestern Europe to form one unit. This unit, that is, the 500 fm. line of the west coast of Greenland and the Channel approaches have been fitted on to the 500 fm. line of Canada. Maps of this fit drawn as a conical projection with two standard parallels of latitude will be presented and will show the geochronological patterns across the reconstructed land masses.

The growth of the North Atlantic Ocean by the spreading of its floor

Polar Record ◽

10.1017/s0032247400058125 ◽

1967 ◽

Vol 13 (86) ◽

pp. 579-588 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

P. F. Friend

Keyword(s):

Atlantic Ocean ◽

North Atlantic ◽

North Atlantic Ocean ◽

Continental Drift ◽

Reasonable Doubt ◽

The North ◽

Northern Atlantic ◽

The North Atlantic ◽

Northern Atlantic Ocean

Argument about whether or not continental drift has occurred has been continuous and inconclusive since drift was first advocated fifty years ago by scientists from a number of different disciplines. Recently, evidence has accumulated to establish beyond reasonable doubt that this drift has indeed occurred. In this paper I discuss some features of the drift, particularly those concerning the northern Atlantic Ocean. The investigations of geologists should now be turned from the question of whether drift has occurred, to the manner in which it has occurred.

North Atlantic geology and continental drift

Earth-Science Reviews ◽

10.1016/0012-8252(70)90087-5 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. A184-A185 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

R.W. van Bemmelen

Keyword(s):

North Atlantic ◽

Continental Drift

Whole-rock Rb/Sr and zircon U/Pb ages of metamorphic rocks from northern Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago. II. The Cape Columbia Complex

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences ◽

10.1139/e76-080 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 774-780 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

A. K. Sinha ◽

Thomas Frisch

Keyword(s):

North Atlantic ◽

Age Groups ◽

Canadian Arctic ◽

Ellesmere Island ◽

Metamorphic Rocks ◽

Canadian Arctic Archipelago ◽

Fold Belt ◽

The North ◽

The North Atlantic ◽

North Atlantic Craton

Although not clearly separable on field and petrographic criteria, the gneisses of the Cape Columbia Complex, one of the two major crystalline terrains in the Northern Ellesmere Fold Belt, fall into two Rb/Sr age groups: nine samples define an isochron corresponding to an age of 1083 ± 18 m.y., Sr0 = 0.7057, while six samples show more scatter at 512 ± 90 m.y.,Sr0 = 0.7189. Zircons from two gneisses have 207Pb/206Pb, i.e. minimum, ages of 926 and 980 m.y. These data are interpreted as indicating that the rocks were recrystallized in the amphibolite facies about 1000 m.y. ago; little significance is attached to the younger Rb/Sr age. However, the possibility that the rocks are orthogneisses emplaced about 1000 m.y. ago and subsequently metamorphosed ~500–600 m.y. ago, cannot be excluded. In any event, the Cape Columbia Complex becomes the latest addition to the growing list of occurrences of 900–1200 m.y.-old ('Grenville-Sveco-Norwegian') rocks in the North Atlantic craton and environs.

Geochronology and continental drift—the North Atlantic

Deep Sea Research and Oceanographic Abstracts ◽

10.1016/0011-7471(66)90662-0 ◽

1966 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 779

Keyword(s):

North Atlantic ◽

Continental Drift ◽

The North ◽

The North Atlantic

Southeastern Atlantic Canada, Northwestern Africa, and Continental Drift

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences ◽

10.1139/e71-113 ◽

1971 ◽

Vol 8 (10) ◽

pp. 1218-1251 ◽

Cited By ~ 94

Author(s):

Paul E. Schenk

Keyword(s):

North Atlantic ◽

Plate Tectonics ◽

Continental Drift ◽

Continental Collision ◽

Atlantic Canada ◽

Island Arcs ◽

Late Precambrian ◽

The North ◽

Northwestern Africa ◽

Southeastern Atlantic

The model applies plate-tectonics to explain the geologic evolution of southeastern Atlantic Canada and northwestern Africa. The North Atlantic may have opened and closed several times from the middle Cryptozoic to the present. Closings of the ocean caused collisions between continents and also island arcs. Openings were ragged so that parts of one continent were transposed to the other, and sialic fragments became offshore micro-continents. Africa has progressively lost increments of continental crust to North America.Precambrian blocks of southeastern Atlantic Canada may be remnants of an African shelf. which was crumpled during a billion-year old continental collision (Grenville orogeny). After ragged rifting during the Late Precambrian these fragmentary blocks were carried eastward as micro-continents off Africa. Both early (Danakil Alps of the Red Sea) and late-stage (Canary Islands) recent analogues appear valid. The micro-continents ponded turbidites, which formed rise-complexes off Africa. Continental glaciations in the Late Precambrian and Late Ordovician not only make excellent inter-regional chronostratigraphic units in almost unfossiliferous strata. but also may confirm the African origin of Nova Scotia. Subducting plate-margins increased offshore volcanism and narrowed the Paleozoic Atlantic. Late Paleozoic continental collision again between Africa and North America sandwiched the micro-continent, telescoped the sedimentary/volcanic complexes, and flooded the sutured area with granodiorite. Middle Carboniferous carbonates and sulfates record vestiges of the Paleozoic Atlantic, and mixing of the Euro-African fauna with that of the western Paleozoic Atlantic of the northwestern Appalachians. The Atlantic was closed at least along the latitude of Atlantic Canada and Morocco. During the Mesozoic, an accreting margin uplifted this area, quickened redbed deposition and volcanism, initiated restricted marine sedimentation, and inaugurated the present North Atlantic east of the African remnant of southeastern Atlantic Canada.

North Atlantic—Geology and Continental Drift

10.1306/m12367 ◽

1969 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Marshall Kay

Keyword(s):

North Atlantic ◽

Continental Drift