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1.
Introduction
The North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP) is a classic Large Igneous Province associated with a volcanic rifted margin. It has traditionally been considered to comprise the voluminous Palaeogene igneous rocks occurring at the conjugate E Greenland-NW European margins and in the W Greenland-Baffin Bay area (Upton, 1988; Saunders et al. 1997; Meyer, Van Wijk & Gernigon, 2007 and references therein). Other contemporaneous magmatism occurred in the northernmost parts of Greenland (Kap Washington Group at c. 64±3 Ma, (Estrada, Höhndorf & Henjes-Kunst, 2001) and in the W Barents Sea (Vestbakken Volcanic Province, c. 54 Ma, (Tsikalas, Eldholm & Faleide, 2002) (Fig. 1).
Figure 1.
Simplified geological map of the North Atlantic Igneous Province and surrounding areas modified from Saunders et al. (1997); Nielsen, Larsen & Hopper (2002) and Nielsen, Stephenson & Thomson (2007). The ages are from the references in Table 1. The Early Palaeogene transient regional uplifts are from references in Table 2. The central igneous complexes and/or seamounts are modified from Bull & Masson (1996); Ritchie, Hitchen & Edwards (1997); Naylor et al. (1999); Edwards (2002); Hitchen (2004); Archer et al. (2005). Abbreviations: BJ - Bjørnøya; BJH - Bjørnøya High; CGFZ - Charlie Gibbs Fracture Zone; EEC - East Erlend Complex; FTF - Faroe Transform Fault; GFZ - Greenland Fracture Zone; JM - Jan Mayen; JMFZ - Jan Mayen Fracture Zone; JMR - Jan Mayen Ridge; MTFC - Møre-Trøndelag Fault Complex; RB - Rosemary Bank; SFZ - Senja Fracture Zone; UFZ - Ungava Fracture Zone; VV - Vestbrona Volcanic rocks; VVP - Vestbakken Volcanic Province; WEC - West Erlend Complex.
The major Early Palaeogene NAIP rocks can be regionally divided into: W Greenland-Baffin Island, SE Greenland, (central-east) CE Greenland, NE Greenland, Vøring margin, Møre margin, Faroe Islands, Rockall-Hatton area, Faroe-Shetland Basin, Rockall Trough and the NW British Isles (Saunders et al. 1997) (Fig. 1). Other contemporaneous, smaller and more isolated parts of the NAIP are also shown in Figure 1. The CE Greenland-Faroe Islands Ridge and Iceland formed subsequent to the onset of sea-floor spreading in the area (Meyer, Van Wijk & Gernigon, 2007). Exposed and submerged basaltic rocks of the NAIP extend roughly NE-SW for more than 2000 km...