The North Atlantic Igneous Province: Stratigraphy, Tectonic, Volcanic and Magmatic Processes.

Edited by D.W. Jolley and B.R. Bell The Geological Society of London (UK) Special Publication No. 197, 344 p. ISBN 1-86239-108-4, Hardback. $142.00 US (list price); $71.00 US (GSL member price); $85.00 US (AAPG member price)

After reading the title and being offered the opportunity to review this volume it was with great interest and anticipation that I accepted the challenge. The North Atlantic Igneous Province is one of the youngest and most accessible of the large igneous provinces that are associated with both the voluminous outpouring of basaltic lavas and the emplacement of giant dyke swarms. Components of the North Atlantic province include: the active subaerial and subglacial volcanism, geothermal areas and seismic activity of Iceland; the ongoing submarine activity of the mid-Atlantic ridge; the submarine volcanic ridges that mark the trace of the Iceland hotspot track during the opening of the North Atlantic since anomaly 24; seaward-dipping reflectors and dyke swarms of the continental margins, and the British Isles; and Paleocene-Eocene flood basalts that are widely exposed onshore from the Faroe Islands through West Greenland and East Greenland to Baffin Island.

This vast region provides a wonderful opportunity to compare modern volcanic and intrusive processes in a wide variety of settings with those preserved in the young geological record. Hydrocarbon exploration, including exploratory wells and related geophysical data, notably 3D reflection seismic data, provides the opportunity to understand the nature and behaviour of sills, dykes and flows, both in three dimensions and through time. The combination of magnetic data from the ocean basins and onland basalt piles upward of 4-km thick, provides a chance to link magnetic reversals to biostratigraphy and absolute ages from the exposed rock record, and to understand in detail the behaviour of the earth's magnetic field during the reversal process. Iceland, itself, is the surface expression of an active plume jet located on an active spreading ridge. There is now convincing evidence to indicate that the arrival of this same plume can be linked to the onset of seafloor spreading in both Labrador Sea-Baffin Bay (at 62 Ma) and in the North Atlantic, north of the Charlie Gibbs Fracture Zone (at 55 Ma). There is evidence that this plume activity could have steered the plate motions of Greenland, to have been part of the driving force for southwestward acceleration of the North Atlantic plate beginning in the Paleocene, and for producing plate convergence and Paleocene-Eocene orogeny across the Canadian Arctic Islands. Both theory and field observation indicate that the arrival of mantle plumes can generate regional uplift over areas of plate, measuring 1000's of kilometres in diameter. These uplift events must have had a profound regional, if not global, effect on our ability to correlate specific unconformities and tectono-eustatic events through the rock record. The poorly understood relationship of plumes to Neogene continental margin uplift is also apparent in the close correlation of extreme topography to flood basalt exposures in both East and West Greenland. Finally, the environmental consequences of accelerated volcanism are well known historically from Iceland, and the related effects were undoubtedly massive during critical periods of flood volcanism in the geological past.

It is clear to me that a book is needed that can examine and highlight the array of links between large igneous provinces and themes as diverse as plate tectonic theory, sequence stratigraphy, geochronology, extreme paleoenvironmental conditions, and hydrocarbon exploration. The North Atlantic Igneous Province could be an obvious focus for such a book. Unfortunately, Geological Society Special Publication No. 197 is not that book. Like most of the special publications of the Geological Society, this volume is no different than a journal special issue that allows researchers with broadly common interests to bring their papers together under one cover. When a book reviewer is confronted with a volume of loosely linked scientific papers, there is an overwhelming urge to try to review the merits of each individual contribution. I have resisted this urge.

The present volume consists of eleven scientific papers and an introductory contribution that places these eleven papers in geological context. Six of the papers deal with either the Faroe Islands or the Faroe-Shetland Basin. There are two papers on West Greenland, one on East Greenland, one on the Norwegian continental margin, and one that re-evaluates magnetic anomalies and the spreading history of the North Atlantic between southeast Greenland and the Rockall Plateau. Many of the contributors are linked to offshore exploration interests and, therefore, the focus is on new data sets that have been obtained to assess hydrocarbon potential. This volume makes useful contributions to a variety of topics dealing with the Paleogene geology of the North Atlantic region. It will be of greatest use to explorationists working in the Faroe- Shetland Basin region. There are several useful papers here for readers wishing to understand some general features of the North Atlantic Igneous Province. However, most papers will only appeal to those with specific interests (for example, dinoflagellates of prevolcanic strata in West Greenland, genesis of Erland Volcano, emplacement of Faroe-Shetland sill complexes, sediment dispersal patterns in Foinaven Sub-basin, etc). Such readers would be better served by requesting reprints from the individual authors.

J. Christopher Harrison

Geological Survey of Canada, Calgary