Abstract
A new model for the plate tectonic evolution of the Amerasian sector of the Arctic Ocean is suggested here using data from petroleum exploration on its margin. More than 500 km of late Cretaceous dextral slip is indicated for the SW–NE trending Kaltag fault system in Alaska and northwestern Canada. Terminating against the Kaltag, an older fault system trends along the Canadian Cordillera, with dextral slip of thousands of kilometres. Its offset by the Kaltag is postulated to follow the southern margin of the Canada Basin. Restoration of the offset creates a great circle lineament from the Asian end of the Lomonosov Ridge through western North America along which Jurassic–Cretaceous transform movement could have accommodated spreading about the Alpha Ridge. Accretion of the newly-formed lithosphere to a Palaeozoic Canada Basin created the Amerasian Basin in essentially its present configuration, modified by subsequent Kaltag movement.
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Jones, P. Evidence from Canada and Alaska on plate tectonic evolution of the Arctic Ocean Basin. Nature 285, 215–217 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/285215a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/285215a0
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