Cold Fusion: Igniting North Atlantic Cold Spots; Continental Margin Re-Evaluation with New Tools, Data and Techniques

William Dickson¹ and Mark E. Odegard^2
1Dickson International Geosciences (DIGs), Houston, TX
²Grizzly Geosciences, Inc. (GrizGeo), Sugar Land, TX

The Northwest Atlantic margin has exploration warm spots and cold storage areas. For example, the Labrador Shelf of Eastern Canada and US East Coast have been quiet since the mid-1980's while intervening (Cuba, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland) and conjugate margin (Northwest Africa, northwest Europe - West of Shetlands) basins have seen increasing success. As Hamilton et al. note, Shell have found exploration success in old areas with new ideas and new technology. After a 20-odd year hiatus, we have new data, technology and geological concepts, prompting a review of the region.

Advanced compilations of public domain bathymetry, gravity and magnetic data (per recent papers by the authors) have been re-levelled, cross-correlated and merged. Our North Atlantic coverage includes 5 million+ line-km each of gravity and magnetic profiles and a half-million+ data points, carefully merged to regional backgrounds derived from multiple satellites. Data grids at super-regional (4 km) and basin-level (1 km) scales were used to generate stunning imagery from the bathymetry, gravity, magnetic and auxiliary sets.

Evolution of passive margins and adjacent oceanic crust has been much studied and published in volume since the mid-1980's. In comparisons between published interpretations and our new imagery, we present adjustments, revisions, extrapolations and some speculation. While dominant structural features are largely unchanged, we see evidence of more subtle correlations with play-defining features such as areas of crustal transition, basin thicks, and salt-involved movement.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90078©2008 AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas