PLATE REORGANIZATION - A CAUSE OF RAPID LATE NEOGENE SUBSIDENCE AND SEDIMENTATION AROUND THE NORTH-ATLANTIC

Subsidence analysis of wells in the central North Sea and Labrador-Grand Banks and off the West Greenland, Scotian shelf and United States Altantic margin shows distinct quantitative stratigraphic correlation patterns of circum North Atlantic sites. A significant departure from the overall decrease in subsidence for the Pliocene occurs in many wells, when the rate is found to have increased one or more orders of magnitude from Oligocence/Miocene rates. We propose that the associated changes in intraplate stress caused the excess margin subsidence. Relative uplift along basin edges is consistent with this mechanism of relative movement and may explain apparent eustatic changes in sea level. -from Authors