Geological history and magmatism of the Jan Mayen microcontinent (Polar Atlantic)

Abstract

Two main events determined the formation, geological history, magmatism, and geodynamics of the Jan Mayen microcontinent: (1) drift of this segment of the Laurasian plate over the Iceland plume in the Early Paleogene; (2) propagation of the rift zone of the mid-Atlantic Ridge into this region and separation of the Jan Mayen lithospheric block from northeastern Greenland. The lithosphere was reduced at the block boundary when it was separated. This process was accompanied by the formation of depressions intruded by magma of the Iceland plume, which resulted in the appearance of a new volcanic center with active volcanoes of the central type. They supplied pyroclastic material to the sedimentary cover of the expanding Norwegian‒Greenland Basin in the Eocene and Oligocene. The wedging of the Jan Mayen plate (microcontinent) into the triple junction of the plates (Greenland, Eurasian, Jan Mayen) promoted intense volcanism and the formation of two large volcanic complexes: (1) the Greenland‒Faroes and the (2) Trail‒Vøring. Recent volcanoes of the Jan Mayen hot spot are fed by magma from the Iceland plume as well as from relict and newly formed cambers in a zone of deep-seated Jan Mayen transform faults.