The record of early Tertiary N Atlantic volcanism in sediments of the North Sea Basin

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Abstract
Summary: Volcaniclastic deposits in sedimentary sequences of the North Sea Basin and adjacent areas indicate that two phases of early Palaeogene explosive volcanism took place in the north-eastern Atlantic region. The earlier, late Palaeocene (NP5-NP6) phase involved significant activity along a N-S trend that included both the British and Faeroe-Greenland Tertiary volcanic provinces. The later phase spanned the latest Palaeocene and early Eocene (NP9 to NP13), with much or all of the activity taking place in the Faeroe-Greenland Province. Early ashfalls of mixed basaltic to silicic compositions may have included contributions from the final phase of British volcanism, but were followed by a series of 200 or more tholeiitic ashfalls of Faeroe-Greenland provenance. These tholeiitic eruptions appear to have marked the onset of separation of Greenland from Europe in mid NP10 times. A subsequent return to pyroclastic activity of more variable compositions appears to have marked the re-establishment of stresses within the E Greenland crust that continued throughout the early Eocene (mid NP10 to end NP13). The mechanism of eruption of the tholeiitic ashes, which are equivalent to a magma volume of several thousand cubic kilometres, is uncertain, but they would appear to involve hydrovolcanic processes.