Inversion of NASA Operation IceBridge gravity data shows that the portion of the Abbot Ice Shelf to the west of 94°W is underlain by an extensional rifted terrain formed at about 90 Ma in the early stages of rifting between Antarctica and Zealandia.
This ancient seaway was later to extend farther westward to Gibraltar as rifting between Laurasia and Gondwana began in the Late Triassic.
Also during the Miocene Epoch rifting between Greenland and Europe had progressed to a point where a connection was established between the North Atlantic and the Norwegian Sea.
We interpret the multiple extensional pulses recorded in Southwest Iberia as resulting not only from continental rifting between Iberia and Newfoundland, but also between Nova Scotia and Morocco.
Magmatism is linked with rifting between South Africa and East Antarctica in the north, and associated with back-arc extension in the south.
The present-day Mediterranean seafloor was formed during a complex sequence of rifting between small plates in this region, beginning with the separation of North America and Europe from Africa about 200 million years ago.
