Wrench faulting in the Canada Basin, Arctic Ocean

Abstract:

Synthesis of seismic velocity, potential field, and geologic data from within the Canada Basin of the Arctic Ocean and its surrounding margins suggests that a northeast-trending structural fabric has influenced the origin, evolution, and current tectonics of the basin. This fabric is defined by a diverse set of observations, including (1) a magnetic lineament extending from offshore Prince Patrick Island to the bend in the Canada Basin Gravity Low that separates higher magnetic amplitudes to the northwest from a region of more subdued anomalies to the southeast; (2) the orientation of the 600-km long Northwind Escarpment along the edge of the Canada Basin; (3) a large, linear, positive magnetic anomaly that parallels Northwind Escarpment; (4) negative flower structures along the base of the Northwind Escarpment identified in seismic reflection profiles; (5) the edges of a linear, 150-km-long by 20-km-wide by 2000-m deep, basin in the Chukchi Plateau; (6) the sub-parallel ridges of Sever Spur along the Canadian margin north of Prince Patrick Island; (7) an oblong gravity low interpreted to indicate thick sediments beneath an inferred rift basin at 78^oN in ~3600 m water depth; (8) the offshore extensions of the Canning sinistral and Richardson dextral fault zones; (9) the offshore extension of the D3 magnetic terrain of Saltus et al. (2011); and (10) the association of dredged rocks of the Chukchi Borderland with the Pearya terrane ~2000 km northeast of its present location (Brumley et al., 2015). Ongoing deformation of the Beaufort margin by impingement of the Brooks Range tectonic front is recorded by modern seismicity along the Canning and Richardson fault zones, which imply that deformation is accommodated by slip along the northeast-trending fabric. Together, these features are interpreted to indicate long-lived northeast-southwest oriented tectonic fabric in the development of the Canada Basin from initial rifting to modern deformation of the Beaufort margin. The approximately east-west trending seafloor-spreading of the central Canada Basin appears to be enclosed by and not affected by this fabric. This synthesis, although speculative, suggests that the opening of the Canada Basin may have involved considerable wrench faulting in addition to the more generally accepted rotational model of opening.