John Phethean, an earth scientist and lecturer at the university of Derby, was invited to join a team of geologists investigating the Davis Strait – off Greenland. He has experience in Icelandic geological fieldwork and research. The findings seem to contradict the mainstream model for the formation of Iceland and the so called Greenland ridge which includes Iceland and the Faeroes Islands. These are situated on or near the Mid Atlantic Ridge itself, running down the spine of the Atlantic Ocean. Yet, the Greenland ridge appears to run somewhat differently, or separately. The Sheffield based geology newsletter Down to Earth, has an editorial piece on this, and other recent news. It seems some earth scientists are thinking the break-up of Europe from North America is still an ongoing actuality and has not, as yet, fully severed the connection. It seems to be a case of stretched crust. Phethean goes so far as to say the link between the Eurasian plate and that of North America, has not yet occurred. It is still in the process of happening. In other words, but not said, no sign of a break in the plates – even after a hundred million years of drifting apart, It seems the words stretched crust might better describe the situation – but how would that come about?
The Times of India reported [see earlier post on the subject some time ago], the international geologic team had found a thick formation on the bottom of the Davis Strait that appears to be a section of the old crust connecting Greenland to the mainland. It says, North America and Eurasia could actually be refined as a single plate rather than two. It also means that Iceland, too, is probably not just of volcanic origin, sitting on a hot mantle plume as generally described, but is also a leftover section of the single plate – and all the volcanism has occurred on top of that feature, as Phethean seems to be saying. Volcanism on Iceland is said to go back 52 million years on the geological column. Hence, after the asteroid strike around 65 million years ago. The whole of the Greenland ridge appears to be a rifted oceanic magmatic plateau – but see https://www.derby.ac.uk/news/2024/scientists-make-groundbreaking-discovery-sparking-conversation-over-continent/ … This begs the question – is plate tectonics really occurring or is the earth expanding and stretching the crust?
In the next link we go to the other end of the Eurasian plate – the Bering land bridge. See https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/ancient-land-bridge-that-connected-siberia-to-us-wasnt-what-it-seems-scientists-find … which of course appears to show the Eurasian plate is still connected to North Ameria in the west as much as in the east. This was a bit of research, not on plates, as such, but the environment of Beringia during the Late Glacial Maximum. It seems they did some sediment cores from the present sea bed of the Bering Sea and it looks like Beringia, when it was above sea level, was boggy, to say the least. Or does that only apply to the period after 18,000 years ago until the Younger Dryas? That is not particularly clear in the press release.
The consensus view is that it was a steppe environment in which mammoth and horses roamed between the two continents. The sediment cores contradict that as the environment was full of lakes and ponds, a bit like the Canadian shield after the end of the Ice Age. Hence my query above. It is thought Beringia was above sea level from 36,000 to 11,000 years ago. How often it had previouslly been above sea level is an unknown. The findings were presented to the AGU annual conference in December and the audience was informed there were lots of small lakes and river and stream channels. The core also picked up small fossils, pollen grains, as well as organic matter. There were trees – and water fleas, crustaceans etc. A landscape of a flood plain and marshland. There were also evidence of mammoth but they were perhaps confined to higher ground. There is now a need to expand the research to a bigger area of what was Beringia in order to get a more structured picture.