Circum-Arctic Lithosphere Evolution (CALE) Transect C: displacement of the Arctic Alaska–Chukotka microplate towards the Pacific during opening of the Amerasia Basin of the Arctic

Abstract

AbstractThis paper synthesizes the framework and geological evolution of the Arctic Alaska–Chukotka microplate (AACM), from its origin as part of the continental platform fringing Baltica and Laurentia to its southward motion during the formation of the Amerasia Basin (Arctic Ocean) and its progressive modification as part of the dynamic northern palaeo-Pacific margin. A synthesis of the available data refines the crustal identity, limits and history of the AACM and, together with regional geological constraints, provides a tectonic framework to aid in its pre-Cretaceous restoration. Recently published seismic reflection data and interpretations, integrated with regional geological constraints, provide the basis for a new crustal transect (the Circum-Arctic Lithosphere Evolution (‘CALE’) Transect C) linking the Amerasia Basin and the Pacific margin along two paths that span 5100 km from the Lomonosov Ridge (near the North Pole), across the Amerasia Basin, Chukchi Sea and Bering Sea, and ending at the subducting Pacific plate margin in the Aleutian Islands. We propose a new plate tectonic model in which the AACM originated as part of a re-entrant in the palaeo-Pacific margin and moved to its present position during slab-related magmatism and the southward retreat of palaeo-Pacific subduction, largely coeval with the rifting and formation of the Amerasia Basin in its wake.