Abstract
The Faroe margin in the northeastern Atlantic is segmented by margin-orthogonal, WNW–ESE-striking lineaments extending several hundred kilometers out to the continent–ocean transition. Despite several earlier studies speculating that these features are the product of reactivation of pre-Cenozoic basement-seated structures at depth, the thick Cenozoic volcano-sedimentary sequences deposited along the margin mask the underburden, thus rendering the identification and interpretation of such structures and resolving the pre-Cenozoic history of the area challenging. The present study documents for the first time the existence of margin-orthogonal basement-seated thrust systems and describes their detailed geometry, kinematics, and tectonic evolution.
MethodsWe interpreted basement-seated tectonic structures on seismic reflection data from TGS on the Faroe Platform and the Wyville–Thomson and Munkagrunnur ridges using the newly established seismic facies of major thrust systems.
ResultsThe data show that the Wyville–Thomson Ridge, Munkagrunnur Ridge, and Faroe Platform are cored by WNW–ESE-striking thrust systems hundreds of kilometers long and 30–50 km wide, showing dominantly top-SSW kinematics. The thrusts were reworked into NE–SW-striking folds during the Caledonian Orogeny and controlled the formation of Caledonian thrusts, which in turn controlled the formation of post-Caledonian faults. The pre-Caledonian nature of the WNW–ESE-striking thrusts and their geometry and kinematics suggest a relationship with late Paleoproterozoic Laxfordian shear zones onshore northern Scotland and the continuation of the coeval Nagssugtoqidian Orogen in southeastern Greenland, the Ammassalik Belt. The thrust systems also align with the Tornquist Zone in eastern Europe and the North Sea, thus suggesting either that they controlled the formation of the Tornquist Zone or a possibly much longer (Paleoproterozoic?) tectonic history for the Tornquist Zone.
ConclusionsThe Faroe Island margin is crosscut by late Paleoproterozoic Laxfordian–Nagssugtoqidian thrust systems, which controlled further tectonic development of the margin.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 181 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-44 |
| Number of pages | 44 |
| Journal | Open Research Europe |
| Volume | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 7 Dec 2024 |
Bibliographical note
The authors thank TGS for access to and permission to publish seismic reflection data in the Faroe Island continental shelf.Data Availability Statement
The data were provided by TGS (https://www.tgs.com/ in the methods chapter of the manuscript). The data are private and subject to a data privacy agreement (cannot be shared, published, or showed without consent of TGS). Yet, TGS allowed us access to the data and gave us permission to publish the data (Academic License Agreement number NA0509-366). Any interested party may thus contact TGS directly with a research project proposal and be granted access to the data. Access to the data is free of charge for academic research purposes.Funding
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101023439 (Impact of Timanian faults on Arctic Tectonics [ArcTec]). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| European Research Council | 101023439 |