A modified predrift fit of Greenland and western Europe

Evolution of the Labrador Sea and its bearing on the early evolution of the North Atlantic

“…The present reconstruction obtained b'etween Europe and Greenland, Fig. 2 1 (d), differs from the previous reconstructions (Bullard, Everett & Smith 1965;Laughton 197 1 ;Talwani & Eldholm 1977;Vann 1974;Roberts 1974) near Southeast Greenland. A gap of 80 km exists between the margins of Southeast Greenland and the western Rockall Plateau in most of these predift reconstructions and has been interpreted as subsided continental crust (Vann 1974;Featherstone, Bott & Peacock 1977) and as old oceanic crust formed during the initial opening of the North Atlantic (Laughton 1972).…”

A possible Lower Permian age for the onset of ocean floor spreading in the northern North Atlantic

“…From Vann's (1974) pre-Tertiary drift refit it seems probable that the Rockall trough, the Faeroe-Shetland trough and the Norway-Greenland rift formed at the same time. The parallelism between the two margins is disfigured only by the Faeroes shelf, which is apparently underlain by continental crust (Bott et al 1974), although the thick pile of Tertiary basalts has probably contributed to its size.…”

“…Was this seaway between Norway and Greenland a narrow ocean or an epicontinental Vann (1974). This construction ensures no overlap of assumed subsided continental crust.…”

“…Pre-Tertiary reconstructions of Greenland and northwestern Europe by Bott and Watts (1970) and Vann (1974) carry the implication that the formation of the Rockall trough cannot be considered separately from the Faeroe-Shetland trough and a NorwayGreenland rift (see also Roberts 1970 andBott 1975b).…”

The offshore continuation of the Moine Thrust north of Shetland as deduced from basement isotopic ages

“…Some workers have implied that the basement ridge running offshore between Norway and Scotland is, or could be, pre-Caledonian in age (Talwani andEldholm 1972, 1977;Vann 1974;Watson and Dunning 1979), continuous with the Lewisian Complex and the Lofoten-Vesteralen Complex. If this ridge is assigned to the cratonic foreland of the Caledonides, it is now clear that the western thrust belt margin of the Caledonian Orogeny, as defined by the intra-foreland Flannan Thrust ( Fig.…”