The Architecture of the Continent-Ocean Boundary in the Northern Baffin Bay - New Evidence Based on MCS Data

Altenbernd, Tabea ¹; Berglar, Kai ¹; Block, Martin ¹; Damm, Volkmar ¹; Schnabel, Michael ¹; Ehrhardt, Axel ¹
(1)Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Hannover, Germany.

The Baffin Bay is a sediment-filled oceanic basin which developed together with the opening of the Labrador Sea and Davis Strait in several stages. It plays an important role in understanding the genesis, opening processes and formation of the North Atlantic. Due to the lack of clear magnetic lineation patterns, it is still under debate whether the underlying crust in the Baffin Bay is of oceanic or continental origin.

In summer 2010, during the multidisciplinary marine geoscientific expedition ARK-XXV/3, new multichannel seismic data with a total length of 4000 km has been acquired in Greenland territorial waters of the central and northern Baffin Bay. Interpretation of these data gives new insight in the evolution of Baffin Bay, the existence of oceanic crust, the nature of the West Greenland continental margin, the continent-ocean transition and the evolution of sedimentary basins.

The data show that the block-faulted continental passive margin of West Greenland is characterized by sediment filled rift basins and lava flows of the Paleocene Basalt Province. Oceanic crust is present in the deep water area of the Baffin Bay and is characterized by high amplitude reflectors, a diffraction pattern and a hummocky surface. On some of the new acquired MCS lines a transition zone between the oceanic crust and the block-faulted continental margin is present. A breakup unconformity, which defines the beginning of drifting and seafloor spreading, could also be identified on some of the lines.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90135©2011 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Milan, Italy, 23-26 October 2011.