Tectonic-Sedimentary System of the Atlantis-Meteor Seamounts (North Atlantic): Volcanism and Sedimentation in the Late Miocene-Pliocene and Position in the Atlantic-Arctic Rift System

The paper analyzes original data obtained on the Atlantis-Meteor seamount system during Cruise 33 of the R/V Akademik Nikolai Strakhov in the eastern North Atlantic. This system is a volcanic rise formed on the Canary abyssal plate and represents one of the key objects for understanding the geological history of opening of the central segment of the Atlantic Ocean. Basalts, tephrites, and organogenic terrigenous lagoonal marine sediments dredged from the Atlantis, Plato, and Cruiser seamounts are considered. Petrography and compositions of the Atlantis and Cruiser basalts reflect significant differences in settings of their eruptions. Well-crystallized vesicle-free olivine basalts from the Atlantis Seamount were ejected under deep-water conditions. Glassy vesicular basalts of the Cruiser Seamount are typical of shallow subaerial eruptions. Evidence for the accumulation of tuff breccias and tuff gravelstones of the Plato Seamount in subaerial settings are obtained. Tendencies were revealed in the lithogenetic transformations of organogenic-terrigenous sediments of the Cruiser Seamount, which were subjected to the high-temperature impact of subaerial lava flows. During the volcanosedimentary lithogenesis, the plant lignite-like matter lost its primary structure and was transformed into anisotropic coke with the wide development of fusinite and pyrofusinite. The studied volcanic occurrences are thought to be related to the final (Late Miocene-Pliocene) volcanic stage in the seamount system, which predated the destruction of the system, its prograde subsidence, and transformation of islands into guyots.