Abstract
The process of continental break-up provides a large-scale experiment that can be used to test causal relations between plate tectonics and the dynamics of the Earth’s deep mantle1,2. Detailed diagnostic information on the timing and dynamics of such events, which are not resolved by plate kinematic reconstructions, can be obtained from the response of the interior of adjacent continental plates to stress changes generated by plate boundary processes. Here we demonstrate a causal relationship between North Atlantic continental rifting at ∼62 Myr ago and an abrupt change of the intra-plate deformation style in the adjacent European continent. The rifting involved a left-lateral displacement between the North American-Greenland plate and Eurasia, which initiated the observed pause in the relative convergence of Europe and Africa3. The associated stress change in the European continent was significant and explains the sudden termination of a ∼20-Myr-long contractional intra-plate deformation within Europe4, during the late Cretaceous period to the earliest Palaeocene epoch, which was replaced by low-amplitude intra-plate stress-relaxation features5. The pre-rupture tectonic stress was large enough to have been responsible for precipitating continental break-up, so there is no need to invoke a thermal mantle plume as a driving mechanism. The model explains the simultaneous timing of several diverse geological events, and shows how the intra-continental stratigraphic record can reveal the timing and dynamics of stress changes, which cannot be resolved by reconstructions based only on plate kinematics.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Lithgow-Bertelloni, C. & Richards, M. A. The dynamics of Cenozoic and Mesozoic plate motions. Rev. Geophys. 36, 27–43 (1998)
Anderson, D. L. Top-down tectonics? Science 293, 2016–2018 (2001)
Rosenbaum, G., Lister, G. S. & Duboz, C. Relative motions of Africa, Iberia and Europe during Alpine orogeny. Tectonophysics 359, 117–129 (2002)
Ziegler, P. A. Geological Atlas of Western and Central Europe 1–239 (Shell International Petroleum, Den Haag, 1990)
Nielsen, S. B., Thomsen, E., Hansen, D. L. & Clausen, O. R. Plate-wide stress relaxation explains European Palaeocene basin inversions. Nature 435, 195–198 (2005)
Wybraniec, S. et al. New map compiled of Europe’s gravity field. Eos 79 (37), 437–442 (1998).
Cloetingh, S., McQueen, H. & Lambeck, K. On a tectonic mechanism for regional sea level variations. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 75, 157–166 (1985)
Vandycke, S. Palaeostress records in Cretaceous formations in NW Europe: extensional and strike–slip events in relationships with Cretaceous–Tertiary inversion tectonics. Tectonophysics 357, 119–136 (2002)
Kent, A. J. R. et al. Mantle heterogeneity during the formation of the North Atlantic Igneous Province: Constraints from trace element and Sr-Nd-Os-O isotope systematics of Baffin Island picrites. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 5 Q11004 doi: 10.1029/2004GC000743 (2004)
Tegner, C. et al. 40Ar-39Ar geochronology of Tertiary mafic intrusions along the East Greenland rifted margin: relation to flood basalts and the Iceland hotspot track. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 156, 75–88 (1998)
Ritchie, J. D., Gatliff, R. W. & Richards, P. C. in Petroleum Geology of Northwest Europe: Proc. 5th Conf. (eds Fleet, A. J. & Boldy, S. A. R.) 573–584 (Geological Society, London, 1999)
O’Connor, J. M., Stoffers, P., Wijbrans, J. R., Shannon, P. M. & Morrissey, T. Evidence from episodic seamount volcanism for pulsing of the Iceland plume in the past 70 Myr. Nature 408, 954–958 (2000)
Dèzes, P., Schmid, S. M. & Ziegler, P. Evolution of the European Cenozoic rift system: interaction of the Alpine and Pyrenean orogens with their foreland lithosphere. Tectonophysics 389, 1–33 (2004)
Ziegler, P. A., Cloetingh, S. & van Wees, J.-D. Dynamics of intra-plate compressional deformation: the Alpine foreland and other examples. Tectonophysics 252, 7–59 (1995)
Roest, W. R. & Srivastava, S. P. Sea-floor spreading in the Labrador Sea—a new reconstruction. Geology 17, 1000–1003 (1989)
Franke, D., Hintz, K. & Oncken, O. The Laptev Sea rift. Mar. Petrol. Geol. 18, 1083–1127 (2001)
Nagy, J. Delta-influenced foraminiferal facies and sequence stratigraphy of Paleocene deposits in Spitsbergen. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 222, 161–179 (2005)
Saalmann, K. & Thiedig, F. Thrust tectonics on Broggerhalvoya and their relationship to the Tertiary West Spitsbergen fold-and-thrust belt. Geol. Mag. 139, 47–72 (2002)
Faleide, J. I., Gudlaugsson, S. T., Eldholm, O., Myhre, A. M. & Jackson, H. R. Deep seismic transects across the sheared western Barents Sea-Svalbard continental margin. Tectonophysics 189, 73–89 (1991)
Harrison, J. C. et al. Correlation of Cenozoic sequences of the Canadian Arctic region and Greenland: implications for the tectonic history of northern North America. Bull. Can. Petrol. Geol. 47, 223–254 (1999)
Mogensen, T. E., Nyby, R., Karpuz, R. & Haremo, P. Late Cretaceous and Tertiary Structural Evolution of the Northeastern Part of the Vøring Basin, Norwegian Sea 379–396 (Spec. Publ. 167, Geological Society, London, 2000)
Imber, J. et al. Early Tertiary sinistral transpression and fault reactivation in the western Voring Basin, Norwegian Sea: Implications for hydrocarbon chloration and pre-breakup deformation in ocean margin basins. Bull. Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. 89, 1043–1069 (2005)
Dean, K., McLachlan, K. & Chambers, A. in Petroleum Geology of Northwest Europe: Proc. 5th Conf. (eds Fleet, A. J. & Boldy, S. A. R.) 533–544 (Geological Society, London, 1999)
England, R. W. The Early Tertiary Stress Regime in NW Britain: Evidence From the Patterns of Volcanic Activity 381–389 (Spec. Publ. 39, Geological Society, London, 1988)
Karson, J. A., Brooks, C. K., Storey, M. & Pringle, M. S. Tertiary faulting and pseudotachylytes in the East Greenland volcanic rifted margin: seismogenic faulting during magmatic construction. Geology 26, 39–42 (1998)
Christiansen, R. L., Foulger, G. R. & Evans, J. R. Upper-mantle origin of the Yellowstone hotspot. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 114, 1245–1256 (2002)
Schettino, A. & Scotese, C. R. New Internet software aids paleomagnetic analysis and plate tectonic reconstructions. Eos 82, 530–536 (2001)
Luterbacher, H. P. et al. in A Geologic Time Scale (eds Gradstein, F. M., Ogg, J. G. & Smith, A. G.) 384–408 (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 2004)
Perch-Nielsen, K. in Proc. Cretaceous–Tertiary Boundary Events Symp. (eds Birkelund, T. & Bromley, R. G.) Vol. 1 115–135 (Univ. of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 1979)
Martini, E. in Proc. II Planktonic Conf. (Roma 1970) (ed. Fainacci, A.) Vol. 2 739–785 (Tecnoscienza, Rome, 1971)
Acknowledgements
This work was initiated during a visiting fellowship for R. Stephenson at the Department of Earth Sciences, Aarhus, and completed during project COLD, supported by the Danish Natural Science Research Council.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
The file contains Supplementary Notes, Supplementary Figures S1-S3 with Legends and additional references. (PDF 343 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nielsen, S., Stephenson, R. & Thomsen, E. Dynamics of Mid-Palaeocene North Atlantic rifting linked with European intra-plate deformations. Nature 450, 1071–1074 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06379
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06379
This article is cited by
-
Deciphering the Late Paleozoic to Mesozoic tectono sedimentary evolution of the northern Bohemian Massif from detrital zircon geochronology and heavy mineral provenance
International Journal of Earth Sciences (2019)
-
Constraining shifts in North Atlantic plate motions during the Palaeocene by U-Pb dating of Svalbard tephra layers
Scientific Reports (2017)
-
The Pyrenean inversion phase in northern Belgium: an example of a relaxation inversion?
International Journal of Earth Sciences (2016)
-
Role of thermal refraction in localizing intraplate deformation in southeastern Ukraine
Nature Geoscience (2009)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.