| Abstract: | Recent geophysical measurements, including multi-channel seismic reflection, on the Svalbard passive margin have revealed that it has undergone a complex geological history which largely reflects the plate tectonic evolution of the Greenland Sea and the Arctic Ocean. The western margin (75–80°N) is of a sheared-rifted type, along which the rifted margin developed subsequent to a change in the pole of plate rotation about 36 m.y. B.P. The north-trending Hornsund Fault on the central shelf and the eastern escarpment of the Knipovich Ridge naturally divide the margin into three structural units. These main marginal structures strike north, paralleling the regional onshore fault trends. This trend also parallels the direction of Early Tertiary plate motion between Svalbard and Greenland. Thus, the western Svalbard margin was initially a zone of shear, and the shear movements have affected the adjacent continental crust. Although, the nature and location of the continent—ocean crustal transition is somewhat uncertain, it is unlikely to lie east of the Hornsund Fault. The northern margin, including the Yermak marginal plateau, is terminated to the west by the Spitsbergen Fracture Zone system. This margin is of a rifted type and the preliminary analysis indicates that the main part of the investigated area is underlain by continental crust. |
