Correlations of oceanic spreading rates and hiatus surface area in the North Atlantic realm

Abstract

The North Atlantic realm is strongly affected by the Iceland–Jan Mayen mantle-hotspot system. Its strength has varied over time, with consequences for evolving plate-driving forces and topography maintained dynamically by convective stresses in the mantle. Here, we combined reconstructions of Atlantic spreading rates with maps of geological hiatuses at the scale of continental Europe. We extracted hiatus information from a geological map of Europe (scale 1:5 million)—at the available temporal resolution of geological series—to construct hiatus maps for the basal Paleocene to Pliocene Series boundaries across the North Atlantic realm and Europe. The maps allow one to visualize first-order changes in hiatus intensity and spatial extent; they serve as a reference frame and proxy tool for paleogeographic analysis of topography; and they reveal that episodes of spreading acceleration in the North Atlantic coincide with episodes of erosion/nondeposition intensification at the continental scale of Europe. Such patterns are not predicted by the plate mode of mantle convection, but they are generally consistent with the plume mode. Interregional-scale hiatus mapping may serve as a powerful new technique to visualize these effects, especially once the temporal resolution of the maps has been refined. Interpretation of such hiatal surfaces is most effective in a context with theoretical frameworks, such as the plume mode of mantle convection.