Combined rigid/deformable plate tectonic reconstructions for the Central Atlantic margins

The exact location of the continent-ocean boundary (COB) at passive continental margins is difficult to define because of the similar physical properties of oceanic crust and highly extended continental crust, and the effect of igneous intrusions on the calculation of crustal thickness. The Iberian and Newfoundland conjugate margins are zones where anomalously large amounts of crustal extension have occurred, and are difficult to reconstruct in a global context using plate tectonic models based on rigid plates. A self-consistent global, plate tectonic model is presented here that incorporates stretching factors, deformable plates and scales deformation for the Cenozoic and Mesozoic for the entire Atlantic margin. Restoration to pre-rift geometries has been achieved by removal of plate ‘overlap’ of the deformed regions in the reconstructions, and is consistent with estimated stretching factors derived from deep seismic crustal studies across the conjugate margins.