Arcs and backarc basins in the Early Paleozoic lapetus Ocean
Authors: Pickering KevinT. , Smith Alan G. 
Published: April 2006

Abstract Understanding the evolution and destruction of past oceans not only leads to a better understanding of earth history, but permits comparison with extant ocean basins and tectonic processes. This paper reviews the history of the Early Paleozoic circum‐Atlantic oceans by analogy with the Pacific Ocean and Mesozoic Tethys. Rifting and continental separation from 620 to 570 Ma led to the development of passive margins along parts of the northern margin of Gondwana (the western coast of South America); eastern Laurentia (eastern North America, NW Scotland and East Greenland), and western Baltica (western Scandinavia). Meagre paleomagnetic data suggest that western South America and eastern North America could have been joined together to form facing margins after breakup. Although western Baltica is an apparently obvious candidate for the margin facing NW Scotland and East Greenland, the paleomagnetic uncertainties are so large that other fragments could have been positioned there instead. The Iapetus Ocean off northeastern Gondwana was probably a relatively wide Pacific‐type ocean with, during the late Precambrian to early Ordovician, the northern margin of Gondwana as a site of continentward‐dipping subduction zone(s). The 650‐500 Ma arc‐related igneous activity here and the associated deformation gave rise to the Cadomian, ‘Grampian’, Penobscotian, and Famantinian igneous and orogenic events. By 490‐470 Ma, marginal basins had formed along the eastern Laurentian margin as far as NE Scotland, along parts of the northern margin of Gondwana, and off western Baltica, but none are known from the East Greenland margin. These basins closed and parts were emplaced as ophiolites shortly after their formation by processes that, at least in some cases, closely resemble the emplacement of the late Cretaceous Semail ophiolite of Oman. This orogenic phase seems to have involved collision and attempted subduction of the continental margin of Laurentia, Gondwana and Baltica. In Baltica it gave rise to some eclogite facies metamorphism. Marginal basin development may have been preceded by arc formation as early as ca 510 Ma. A double arc system evolved outboard from the eastern Laurentian and western Baltica margins, analogous to some of the arc systems in the present‐day western Pacific. At 480‐470 Ma, there was a second phase of breakup of Gondwana, affecting the active Gondwanan margin. Eastern and Western Avalonia, the Carolina Slate Belt, Piedmont, and other North American exotic continental blocks rifted away from Gondwana. Farther east, Armorica, Aquitainia, Iberia and several European exotic continental blocks also rifted away, though it is unlikely that they all rifted at the same time. Between 460‐430 Ma, peaking at ca 450 Ma, orogenic events involved continuing arc‐continent collision(s). From 435‐400 Ma the remaining parts of the Eastern Iapetus Ocean were destroyed and the collision of Baltica with Laurentia caused the 430‐400 Ma Scandian orogeny, followed by suturing of these continents during the Siluro‐Devonian Acadian orogeny or Late Caledonian orogeny to 380 Ma, leaving a smaller but new ocean south of the fragments that had collided with the Laurentian margin farther south. The Ligerian orogeny 390‐370 Ma collision of Gondwana‐derived Aquitaine‐Cantabrian blocks with Eastern Avalonia‐Baltica and removed the part of the Iapetus south of Baltica.

Prior to any orogenic events, the Eastern Iapetus Ocean between Baltica and Laurentia may have resembled the present‐day central Atlantic Ocean between Africa and North America. The ocean appears to have closed asymmetrically, with arcs forming first outboard of the western margin of Baltica while the East Greenland margin was unaffected. The Western Iapetus Ocean between Laurentia and Gondwana also closed asymmetrically with a dual arc system developing off Laurentia and an arc system forming off the northern margin of Gondwana. Like the Pacific Ocean today, the Eastern Iapetus Ocean had a longer and more complex history than the Western Iapetus Ocean: it was already in existence at 560 Ma, probably developed over at least 400 million years, by mid‐Cambrian time was many thousands of kilometres wide at maximum extent, and was associated with a < 30 million year phase of marginal basin formation. In contrast, the Western Iapetus Ocean appears to have been much narrower, shorter lived (probably < 100 million years), and associated with the rifting to form two opposing passive carbonate margins, analogous to the Mesozoic Tethys or the present‐day Mediterranean.