The Jan Mayen micro-continent - Searching for new knowledge on prospectivity, basin evolution and sediment provenance

The Norwegian continental margin has been extensively studied through a large number of seismic surveys and drill holes, and the subsurface geology is therefore generally well known. In comparison, the knowledge on the subsurface geology of the conjugate East Greenland margin is rudimentary. More knowledge on the geology of this conjugate margin is important to further advance our understanding of rifting processes and sedimentary basin formation in this region. The Jan Mayen Ridge stretches 500 km southw ards from Jan Mayen, and has been suggested to represent the off-rifted East Greenland margin. Multi-channel reflection seismic surveys show that the presumed continental basement is overlain by a 2-3 km thick sedimentary sequence, and that Mesozoic syn-r ift strata are present below rift-related flood basalt. Samples from the deeper parts of this succession was probably recently recovered by dredging the southern wall of the West Jan Mayen Fracture Zone (FZ), which seems to provide a tectonic window into the micro continent and the deeper parts of the associated sedimentary successions.The more than 50 km long southern escarpment of the West Jan Mayen FZ has a relief of up to 3.5 km and represents a unique location to carry out the first exploratory sampl ing of subsurface sedimentary sequences of the East Greenland margin. We propose a four-year research project that aims at providing new basic knowledge on rifting and basin evolution by combining a geophysical survey of the northern part of the Jan Maye n Ridge and the Jan Mayen FZ system, with detailed sampling of the sedimentary successions exposed along the southern escarpment of the West Jan Mayen FZ