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. 2025 Mar 17;4:1. Originally published 2024 Jan 3. [Version 2] doi: 10.12688/openreseurope.16791.2

Figure 11. Plate tectonic reconstruction of the opening of the Fram Strait.

Figure 11.

( a) Current configuration showing the contrast between the continent–ocean boundary used in the present reconstruction (orange lines) and that used in previous reconstructions (purple lines). The present continent–ocean boundary includes blocks previously assumed to be microcontinents, the Hovgård Ridge and East Greenland Ridge, which are now known to be fully attached to Greenland ( Dumais et al., 2021). ( b) Reconstruction at the onset of breakup in the Fram Strait (ca. 24–26 Ma) showing how the North Atlantic–Arctic rift stepped sideways and bypassed the thickened continental crust of the oblique Timanian Orogen in Svalbard and the Barents Sea. Basemap in ( a) and ( b) is from Amante & Eakins ( 2009; CC-0). The rotation file was modified after Domeier & Torsvik (2014) and Matthews et al. (2016) and is available from the Extended data on DataverseNO ( Koehl, 2025). Abbreviations: EGR: East Greenland Ridge; EJMFZ: East Jan Mayen fault zone; GR: Gakkel Ridge; HR: Hovgård Ridge; JMMC: Jan Mayen Microcontinent Complex; KoR: Kolbeinsey Ridge; KnR: Knipovich Ridge; MoR: Mohns Ridge; MyR: Molloy Ridge; S: Svalbard; WJMFZ: West Jan Mayen fault zone; ÆR: Ægir Ridge.