Russian Journal of Earth Sciences
Vol. 6, No. 2, April 2004
Deep-sea basins of the Atlantic ocean: The structure, time and mechanisms
of their formation
Yu. M. Pushcharovskii
Abstract
The aim of this project was to study the deep-sea basins of the Atlantic Ocean. Described
in this
paper are the morphology and deep crustal structure of the Argentine, Brazil, Cape,
Angola, North
American, Newfoundland, Canary, Sierra Leone, Iberia, and West-European basins. It
is shown that they
differ substantially in geological history. Also different are their internal structures.
The subsidence of the
respective segments of the Earth's crust took place not only following the spreading
model, but also as a
result of crustal extension between the spreading ridge and the continental margin,
caused by the pulling
apart of the continental blocks.