Description: The interpretation of seismic refraction and gravity data acquired in 2010 gives new insights into the crustal structure of the West Greenland coast and the adjacent deep central Baffin Bay basin. Underneath Melville Bay, the depth of the Moho varies between 26 to 17 km. Stretched continental crust with a thickness of 25 to 14 km and deep sedimentary basins are present in this area. The deep Melville Bay Graben contains an up to ~11km thick infill of consolidated and unconsolidated sediments with velocities of 1.6 to 4.9 km/s. Seawards, at the ~60 km wide transition between oceanic and stretched continental crust, a mount-shaped magmatic structure is observed, which most likely formed prior to the initial formation of oceanic crust. The up to 4 km high magmatic structure is underlain by a ~2 km thick and ~50 km wide high velocity lower crust. More to the west, in the oceanic part of the Baffin Bay basin, we identify a 2-layered, 3.5 to 6 km thin igneous oceanic crust with increasing thickness toward the shelf. Beneath the oceanic crust, the depth of the Moho ranges between 11.5 and 13.5 km. In the western part of the profile, oceanic layer 3 is unusually thin (~1.5 km) A possible explanation for the thin crust is accretion due to slow spreading, although the basement is notably smooth compared to the basement of other regions formed by ultra-slow spreading. The oceanic crust is underlain by partly serpentinized upper mantle with velocities of 7.6 to 7.8 km/s.

Description: We study the basement configuration in the slow-spreading Eurasia Basin, Arctic Ocean. Two multichannel seismic (MCS) profiles, which we acquired during ice-free conditions with a 3600 m long streamer, image the transition from the North Barents Sea Margin into the southern Eurasia Basin. The seismic lines resolve the up to 5000 m thick sedimentary section, as well as the crustal architecture of the southern Eurasia Basin along 120 km and 170 km, respectively. The seismic data show large faulted and rotated basement blocks. Gravity modeling indicates a thin basement with a thickness of 1–3 km and a density of 2.8*103 kg/m3 between the base of the sediments and the top of the mantle, which indicates exhumed and serpentinized mantle. The Gakkel spreading ridge, located in northern prolongation of the seismic lines is characterized by an amagmatic or sparsely magmatic segment. From the structural similarity between the basement close to the ultra-slow spreading ridge and our study area, we conclude that the basement in the Eurasia Basin is predominantly formed by exhumed and serpentinized mantle, with magmatic additions. An initial strike-slip movement of the Lomonosov Ridge along the North Barents Sea Margin and subsequent near-orthogonal opening of the Nansen Basin is supposed to have brought mantle material to the surface, which was serpentinized during this process. Continuous spreading thinned the serpentinized mantle and subsequent normal faulting produced distinct basement blocks. We propose that mantle exhumation has likely been active since the opening of the Eurasia Basin.

Description: Investigating the crust of northern Baffin Bay provides valuable indications for the still debated evolution of this area. The crust of the southern Melville Bay is examined based on wide-angle seismic and gravity data. The resulting P wave velocity, density, and geological models give insights into the crustal structure. A stretched and rifted continental crust underneath southern Melville Bay is up to 30 km thick, with crustal velocities ranging between 5.5 and 6.9 km/s. The deep Melville Bay Graben contains a 9 km thick infill with velocities of 4 to 5.2 km/s in its lowermost part. West of the Melville Bay Ridge, a ~80 km wide and partly only 5 km thick Continent-Ocean Transition (COT) is present. West of the COT, up to 5 km thick sedimentary layers cover a 4.3 to 7 km thick, two-layered oceanic crust. The upper oceanic layer 2 has velocities of 5.2 to 6.0 km/s; the oceanic layer 3 has been modeled with rather low velocities of 6.3 to 6.9 km/s. Low velocities of 7.8 km/s characterize the probably serpentinized upper mantle underneath the thin crust. The serpentinized upper mantle and low thickness of the oceanic crust are another indication for slow or ultraslow spreading during the formation of the oceanic part of the Baffin Bay. By comparing our results on the crustal structure with other wide-angle seismic profiles recently published, differences in the geometry and structure of the crust and the overlying sedimentary cover are revealed. Moreover, the type of margin and the extent of crustal types in the Melville Bay area are discussed.