Since ancient times, the Earth has been in constant motion. As a result, there is a 3,500-kilometer-long rift called the East African Rift, a tear that has been observed for six years. Now another one is looming before us. geological event: A ‘failed’ microcontinent has been discovered, which was generated as a result of the intense activity of the planetary crust.
This ‘unborn’ microcontinent is located between the borders of Canada and GreenlandUsing computerized processes, scientists have managed to model the plates involved in the past.
Microcontinent discovered between Canada and Greenland raises new questions
In North America, specifically among Canada and Greenlandscientists from Sweden and the UK have found an ‘unborn’ microcontinent. In turn, the same researchers believe they have stumbled upon an ancient fault similar to the San Andreas fault in California, USAwhich could have guided the movement of partial terrestrial separation between both sectors since 60 million years ago.
Davis Strait It is the ice sheet that separates the two continental masses and is between 320 and 640 kilometres wide, and connects the Labrador Sea with Baffin Bay. This study determined that its crust is actually a fragment of a continent that did not completely separate when Greenland and Canada split up.
Microcontinents, according to experts, are defined as isolated fragments of fractured continental crust and lithosphere, “displaced from their original continent and surrounded by oceanic crust.” The results can be read in the journal Gondwana Research.
Davis Strait is famous for its fierce tides. Photo: iStock
About 33 million years ago, Greenland stopped moving away from North America and remained in the North American tectonic plateThis failed rift zone is a hotspot for studying plate tectonic movement and splitting, according to Jordan Phethean, a geophysicist at the University of Derby in the United Kingdom and co-author of the study.
Researchers have named the new fragment of continental crust discovered beneath the Davis Strait a protomicrocontinent. Some, like Madagascar, form their own islands. In the case of the Davis Strait, it did not break off entirely. It is a segment of continental crust between 19 and 24 kilometers thick, Phethean explained.
Scientific work to investigate the microcontinent
Researchers reconstructed the subsurface structure of the Davis Strait region using gravity data collected by satellites and seismic information obtained by ships. From these clues, scientists built computer models of past plate motion.
North America and Greenland began to separate 120 million years ago and the process accelerated 61 million years ago, when the seafloor of the Davis Strait began to spread.
At that time, Greenland could have generated a fault similar to the San Andreas fault in the United States, California, called Pre-Ungava Transforming MarginAbout 56 million years ago, Greenland reached the end of that structure and drifted northward. The protomicrocontinent of Davis Strait formed during this period.
The San Andreas fault runs for about 1,300 km along California, United States. Photo: United States Geological Survey
The North American plate was about to break up, but about 48 million years ago the process stopped. A new major fault formed in the region and the break in the Davis Strait was completed. Shortly afterwards, about 33 million years ago, Greenland collided with Ellesmere Island and this would have stopped its movement.
Plate tectonics is often thought of as occurring deep within the Earth, such as oceanic plates sinking beneath continents. The importance of the newly discovered fault in the Davis Strait suggests that features in the upper crust may also be influential, Phethean said.
