The opening of the Equatorial and South Atlantic Oceans is still a matter of debate, particularly as concerns the locations of the intraplate deformation. We propose here a critical review of the kinematic models published since Bullard et al., 1965, based on a series of constraints: new interpretation of the magnetic anomalies, seafloor isochrons, flow lines, fracture zones, continental and oceanic homologous structures and radiometric dating of igneous rocks. All of these models present numerous unexplained misfits (gaps, overlaps and misalignments). We present here a new evolution of the Equatorial and South Atlantic Ocean from the tightest reconstruction to Chron C34. This new model confirms the hypothesis of a northward propagation of the South American deformation proposed by Eagles, but rejuvenates slightly the ages for this propagation and refines the plate reconstructions. In particular, we highlight the role of the kinematic «buffer» Santos block, located between the salty Aptian Central segment in the North and the Volcanic Hauterivian Austral segment in the South. The new initial fit presented in this study represents the tightest reconstruction that could be obtained and constitutes the base canvas on which the problem of the continental margin genesis should be addressed.

[1] Many recent papers describe the structure of the Iberia and Newfoundland rifted margins; however, none of them propose kinematic restorations of the complete rift system to quantify the amount of extension necessary to exhume mantle and initiate seafloor spreading. In our study, we use two pairs of cross sections considered as conjugate lines: one across the Galicia Bank-Flemish Cap and the other across the Southern Iberia Abyssal Plain-Flemish Pass. Both transects have been imaged by reflection-and refraction-seismic methods and have been drilled during Ocean Drilling Program Legs 103, 149, 173, and 210. Drilling penetrated parts of the rift stratigraphy and the underlying basement. The cross sections can therefore be considered as the best-documented conjugate transects across present-day hyperextended, magma-poor rifted margins. The aim of this paper is threefold: (1) provide a detailed description of the crustal architecture of the two conjugate sections, (2) define the extensional structures and their ages, and (3) quantify the amount of strain and strain rate accommodated along these lines. This paper proposes a quantitative description of extension along the Iberia-Newfoundland rift system and discusses the limitations and problems in quantifying extensional deformation along hyperextended rifted margins.

S U M M A R YDeep penetration multichannel reflection and Ocean Bottom Seismometer wide-angle seismic data from the Congo-Angola margin were collected in 2000 during the ZaïAngo cruise. These data help constrain the deep structure of the continental margin, the geometry of the pre-salt sediment layers and the geometry of the Aptian salt layer. Dating the deposition of the salt relative to the chronology of the margin formation is an issue of fundamental importance for reconstructing the evolution of the margin and for the understanding of the crustal thinning processes. The data show that the crust thins abruptly, from a 30-40 km thickness to less than 10 km, over a lateral distance of less than 50 km. The transitional domain is a 180-km-wide basin. The pre-salt sediment layering within this basin is parallel to the base of the salt and hardly affected by tectonic deformation. In addition, the presence of a continuous salt cover, from the continental platform down to the presumed oceanic boundary, provides indications on the conditions of salt deposition that constrain the geometry of the margin at that time. These crucial observations imply shallow deposition environments during the rifting and suggest that vertical motions prevailed-compared to horizontal motions-during the formation of the basin.

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