The Newfoundland-Iberia rift system is type locality of a non-volcanic rift. Although it has been studied extensively, fundamental questions remain about the duration, episodicity and spatial distribution of extension; their relationship to thinning/brekaup of the continental crust, exhumation/breaching of the subcontinental mantle lithosphere and onset of normal seafloor spreading. The spatial and temporal roles of pure shear vs. simple shear extension and the nature of post-rift magmatism also remain unclear. Through an ABR award the PI plans to analyze a broad set of academic and industrial seismic, GIS and stratigraphic data to better constrain the episodes of extension, the symmetry of the conjugate margins, identify possible post-rift magmatic intrusions and document the architecture of the basement.
The broader impacts of the study will include the training of a female post doctoral fellow and summer students. Then study will provide a state-of-the-art synthesis of the Newfoundland-Iberia rift system of broad interest to the geological community and may provide a framework for future IODP drilling of the rift system.
