2024 Chapters (Layout Features)

The rifted margin of eastern North America: insights into rifting, igneous activity, and breakup

Withjack, Martha; Schlische, Roy; Olsen, Paul E.; Kinney, Sean T.

Eastern North America (ENA) is a natural laboratory for studying rifting and passive-margin development. It hosts one of the world’s largest rift systems, one of the world’s oldest intact passive margins, and one of the world’s largest igneous provinces (the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province [CAMP]). A growing body of geological and geophysical evidence has shown that the tectonic history of the ENA rift system and margin is complex, differing significantly from the classic rift-to-drift model for passive-margin development. This chapter presents an overview of the key geologic features and history of the ENA rift system and margin, focusing primarily on recent developments and insights about rifting, igneous activity, breakup, and post-rift deformation during the rift-drift transition in the southern and central segments of the rift system and margin from the southeastern United States to southeastern Canada.