A study on the formation of the microcontinent is published in Gondwana Research.
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Ice covered fjord on Baffin Island with Davis Strait in the background. Credit: Image Makers / Photographer's Choice RF / Getty Images Plus.
Geologists reconstructed the plate tectonic movements that occurred about 30 million years ago and led to the formation of the protomicrocontinent.
Protomicrocontinents are defined by the authors as "related regions of relatively thick continental lithosphere separated from the main continents by a zone of thinner continental lithosphere." "The lithosphere simply refers to the hard, rocky outer layer of our planet.|
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They rule out that the formation involved another feature of the crust, such as a continental band.
View of the country of Greenland in the Arctic with the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean
The first rupture between Canada and Greenland began about 118 million years ago. Seafloor spreading began about 61 million years ago and ended about 33 million years ago, creating the Davis Strait.
Scientists say the seafloor between Canada and Greenland shifted from northeast-southwest to north-south between about 58 and 49 million years ago. This separated the protomicrocontinent from the Davis Strait. This seafloor spreading stopped when Greenland collided with Ellesmere Island to the north.
Color-coded map of Greenland and Canada
Crustal thickness inversion overlaid with proposed extent of the Davis Strait protomicrocontinent.
The research can be used to understand how other microcontinents form around the world, including the Jan Mayen microcontinent northeast of Iceland, the Eastern Tasmanian Rise southeast of Tasmania and the Gulden Draak Knoll off the coast of Western Australia.
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"Better knowledge of how these microcontinents form will enable researchers to understand how plate tectonics work on Earth, with useful implications for mitigating the dangers of plate tectonics and discovering new resources," says co-author Dr. Jordan Phethean of the University of Derby, UK in a paper
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