Focus_geoy4301  3rd pages

Hyperextended continental margins—Knowns and unknowns

Tony Doré1 and Erik Lundin2
Statoil (UK) Ltd., One Kingdom Street, London W2 6BD, UK
1

Statoil Research Centre, Arkitekt Ebbells veg 10, 7053 Trondheim, Norway
2

In this issue of Geology, Tugend et al. (2015, p. 15) discuss rift geom- Deep-water margin
T1
etries and hyperextension in the Bay of Biscay–Parentis (BBP) area. This Hyperextended
(embrittled)
is a well-defined propagating rift/ocean (e.g., Sibuet et al., 2012), with Compressional folds Upper continental
crustal architecture revealing a succession of zones typical of magma-poor (weak) T2 crust

c 30 km
margins: (1) limited crustal stretching, (2) hyperextension, (3) exhumed Ultra-thin or T3
mantle, and (4) ultraslow or normal oceanic crust (cf. Péron-Pinvidic and Penrose crust
Lower continental
Exhumed mantle crust
Manatschal, 2009). The zones probably formed as the rift propagated, a serpentinized & infiltrated
Moho

common mode of continental break-up (e.g., the South Atlantic, Heine et Magma-poor margin
al., 2013; Central Atlantic, Kneller and Johnson, 2011, and North Atlantic
oceans; Sibuet et al., 2012). Tugend et al. show how this margin evolved as
Shallow-water margin
partitioned transtensional domains along the nascent plate boundary and, Hyaloclastite delta

perhaps most significantly, describe how hyperextension along the bound-

ary localized deformation during later plate convergence. Upper continental
SDRS crust
Hyperextension is defined as stretching of the crust such that the lower

c 30 km
Penrose crust (c 7 km)
and upper crust become coupled and embrittled, allowing major faults “Underplate”
Lower continental
to penetrate to the mantle, leading to partial hydration (serpentinization) crust

of the uppermost mantle, as observed in obducted margins in the Swiss Moho

Alps (e.g., Manatschal, 2004). Hyperextension is documented worldwide, Magma-rich margin
e.g., in the South Atlantic (Contrucci et al., 2004), off southern Austra-
lia (Direen et al., 2007) and in the Red Sea (Cochran and Karner, 2007), Figure 1. Schematic structure of hyperextended (magma-poor) and
and requires stretching by a factor of 3–4, with crustal thinning to ~8 km magma-rich passive margins.
or less (e.g., Pérez-Gussinyé and Reston, 2001). Off Iberia-Newfound-
land and in the Labrador Sea, fully exhumed serpentinized mantle forms
50–100 km belts between the hyperextended basins and (“Penrose”) oce- identified as serpentinized mantle (e.g., O’Reilly et al., 1996, Reynisson
anic crust with linear magnetic anomalies (Fig. 1). et al., 2010), but this can be difficult to identify from velocity structure
The Iberian and Newfoundland conjugate margins are testing grounds for alone: P-wave to S-wave velocity ratios (Vp/Vs) can be used as a lithol-
the concept of hyperextension, with exhumed mantle rocks, serpentinized ogy indicator, but at a Vp range of 7.0–7.5 km/s there is significant overlap
peridotites of continental affinity, sampled at Ocean Drilling Program with gabbroic rocks (“underplate”), and other potential sub-crustal bodies
(ODP) sites (e.g., Whitmarsh and Miles, 1995; Tucholke et al., 2004). Fault (e.g., Mjelde et al., 2009).
blocks have been drilled and correlated with seismic data on the Galicia The most intriguing aspect of hyperextended margins may be what dif-
Bank and seaward (e.g., Tucholke et al., 2007; Ranero and Pérez-Gussinyé, ferentiates them from volcanic passive margins (Fig. 1 and Table 1; see
2010). ‘Necking’, the process whereby the lithosphere thins through time also Franke, 2013). Hyperextended margins result from slow extension
and across a basin, is controversial in these margins. Conjugate margins rates and are magma-poor, but it is not clear why. The assumption of slow
are commonly asymmetric, one margin characterized by gradual thinning extension rates is based on initial sea-floor spreading half-rates in the order
with a wide transition between continent and ocean, the other by more of 10 mm/yr (e.g., Sibuet et al., 2004). Magma-rich margins, in contrast,
abrupt thinning and a narrower transition (e.g., Hopper et al., 2004). Both are more sharply necked and associated with initial spreading half-rates of
types, however, show a discrepancy between overall crustal thinning and ~25–30 mm/yr (e.g., Schreckenberger et al., 2002; Hopper et al., 2003).
stretching as derived from seismically observable brittle faults. Models to Extension rates immediately prior to break-up are difficult to quantify in
explain this discrepancy include large-scale crustal detachments (Lister et hyperextended margins, which provide few clues as to the duration of their
al., 1991), depth-dependent (coaxial) stretching (i.e., differential extension evolution. Even the well-studied Iberia margin provides limited constraints,
of upper brittle and lower ductile crust), and masking of extensional events since boreholes are short and on structural highs rather than in syn-rift
by polyphase faulting (Reston, 2007). Recent models explain broad hyper- wedges, and rift successions tend to be too deeply buried to interest the
extended margins such as offshore Galicia or Angola in terms of sequen-
tial upper crustal faulting, with the extension focus migrating oceanward,
and with upper crustal brittle faulting balanced by lower crustal flow (e.g.
TABLE 1. FACTORS DIFFERENTIATING HYPEREXTENDED (MAGMA-POOR)
Ranero and Pérez-Gussinyé, 2010). Higher resolution seismic grids are
AND VOLCANIC PASSIVE MARGINS
needed to decide which model, or hybrid of models, is valid.
Early Cretaceous break-up along the Galicia margin and in the Bay of Hyperextended Margin Volcanic Margin
Biscay may represent the southern end-member of a chain of hyperex- Magma-poor (mantle melt ~10%) Magma-rich
tended basins along the north Atlantic (e.g., Lundin and Doré, 2011), all Wide necking zone Narrow necking zone
Slow extension rate Rapid extension rate
characterized by highly thinned crust. All failed to achieve full oceanic Serpentinized mantle Seaward-dipping reflectors (SDRs)
status, subsided rapidly and accumulated sedimentary infill (10 km or No Moho in outer (exhumed) zone Clear Moho
Deep-water breakup Subaerial breakup
more in the Møre Basin). Sub-crustal bodies in some basins have been

GEOLOGY, January 2015; v. 43; no. 1; p. 95–96  |  doi:10.1130/focus012015.1  |  Published online XX Month 2014
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petroleum industry. Exhumed mantle is particularly challenging, because it Lundin, E.R., and Doré, A.G., 2011, Hyperextension, serpentinization and weak-
cannot be isotopically dated and does not show linear magnetic anomalies. ening: A new paradigm for rifted margin compressional deformation: Geol-
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Differences in magmatism between the two margin types are also a rich Lundin, E.R., Redfield, T.F., and Peron-Pindivic, G., 2014, Rifted continental
topic for debate. Hyperextended margins are not amagmatic: exhumed margins: Geometric influence on crustal architecture and melting, in Pin-
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to 100% between magma-poor and magma-rich margins. The latter (e.g., mentary Geology (SEPM) Foundation, Bob F. Perkins Conference, 26–28
January, Houston, Texas, p. 18–53.
the northeast Atlantic) are attributed by most workers to elevated mantle Manatschal, G., 2004, New models for evolution of magma-poor rifted margins
temperatures associated with a plume (e.g., Smallwood and White, 2002). based on a review of data and concepts from West Iberia and the Alps: Inter-
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tial spreading are caused by this additional heat source, absent in hyper- -004​-0394-7.
Mjelde, R., Faleide, J.I., Breivik, A., and Raum, T., 2009, Lower crustal composi-
extended margins. Alternatively, reversing cause and effect, the amount of tion and crustal lineaments on the Vøring margin, NE Atlantic: A review:
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tance from the plate tectonic pole of rotation, so that slower separation rates O’Reilly, B.M., Hauser, F., Jacob, A.W.B., and Shannon, P.M., 1996, The litho-
and magma-poor margins occur closer to the pole (Lundin et al., 2014). sphere below the Rockall Trough: Wide-angle seismic evidence for exten-
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Péron-Pinvidic, G., and Manatschal, G., 2009, The final rifting evolution at deep
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