Evolution of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea

Abstract

Geological and geophysical data collected aboard R/V Vema during five summer cruises in the period 1966 to 1973 have been used to investigate the geological history and evolution of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea. These data were combined with earlier data to establish the location of spreading axes (active as well as extinct), the age of the ocean floor from magnetic anomalies, and the locations and azimuths of fracture zones. The details of the spreading history are then established quantitatively in terms of poles and rates of rotation. Reconstructions have been made to locate the relative positions of Norway and Greenland at various times since the opening, and the implications of these reconstructions are discussed here.