New microcontinent discovery sheds light on tectonic movements

Scientists from the University of Derby have located a new microcontinent. Its discovery will benefit science and allow a better understanding of the movements of tectonic plates.

The Earth "lives." The surface of our planet consists of fluid mantles whose slow movements, from a human perspective, shape the landscape. Tectonic plates can move away from each other or collide in the subduction zone—the boundary where the oceanic plate goes under the continental plate. This is how mountains or destructive earthquakes are formed.

One of these boundaries is between Canada and Greenland, creating the Davis Strait, which connects the Baffin Sea with the Labrador Sea. Scientists have discovered a new microcontinent there.

The research team used maps based on gravitational and seismic data to determine when the rift was formed. It was established that it took place around 118 million years ago. The tectonic evolution of the Davis Strait itself is dated to between 33 and 61 million years ago.

The discovery is practically a massive fragment of crust with a thickness of around 19 to 24 kilometres, surrounded by two narrow bands of thin continental crust with a width of about 14 to 18 kilometres, which separate this area from mainland Greenland and Baffin Island. Scientists have named it the Proto-Microcontinent of the Davis Strait.