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The Boundary Between Oceanic and Continental Crust in the Western North Atlantic

  • Chapter
The Geology of Continental Margins

Abstract

A poorly understood aspect of sea-floor spreading and continental drift involves the tectonic processes active during the earliest rifting history and separation of the continents. The identification of the boundary between oceanic and continental basement is required for any precise predrift reconstruction. No satisfactory criterion exists today for precisely determining continental reconstructions. Bullard et al. (1965) used selected isobaths for mathematically determining and evaluating the best geometric fits and others have used different criteria. Even though these fits appear visually satisfying at a large scale, many gaps and overlaps are present (Fig. 1).

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  1. Philip D. Rabinowitz
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Mobil Oil Corporation, 221 Nassau Street, 08540, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

    Creighton A. Burk (Chief Geologist) (Chief Geologist)

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, 03755, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA

    Charles L. Drake (Professor of Earth Sciences) (Professor of Earth Sciences)

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Rabinowitz, P.D. (1974). The Boundary Between Oceanic and Continental Crust in the Western North Atlantic. In: Burk, C.A., Drake, C.L. (eds) The Geology of Continental Margins. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-01141-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-01141-6_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

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