Rises of the Amerasia Basin, Arctic Ocean, and Possible Equivalents in the Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

Abstract—The main positive morphostructures of the Amerasia Basin — the Lomonosov Ridge, Alpha Ridge, Mendeleev Rise, Chukchi Plateau, and Northwind Ridge — are considered from the geomorphological, geological, and geophysical aspects. Seismic time and depth sections are provided up to the Moho discontinuity for the Lomonosov Ridge and its junction with the Greenland and East Siberian shelves, as well as for the Mendeleev and Alpha rises and Chukchi Plateau. The sections were constructed from DSS and multichannel seismic reflection studies. Some similarities between these morphostructures and typical sections of the continental crust are demonstrated. Brief geological and geophysical data are presented for the positive morphostructures of the Atlantic Ocean, such as the Rockall and Vøring plateaus, the continental nature of which has been established beyond all doubt. The genesis of positive morphostructures in the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean has been linked with continental rifting and concomitant intraplate magmatism.