A group of geoscientists from a number of NATO countries met under NATO
sponsorship in Copenhagen on February 27 and 28, 1978, and formulated a
proposal entitled "EVOLUTION OF THE GREENLAND- ICELAND-FAEROE-SCOTLAND
RIDGE, A KEY AREA IN MARINE GEOSCIENCE". This part of the North Atlantic
Ocean is of particular interest because of its anomalously shallow
bathymetry which has profoundly influenced many aspects of the evolution
of the North Atlantic. The proposed investigations therefore aim to
study the deep crustal structure including relationship of continental
and oceanic crust, history of subsidence of the ridge including its past
role as a land bridge, age of the oceanic basement along it and its
history of formation, and the influence of the ridge on Tertiary and
Quaternary depositional palaeoenvironments. In furtherance of this
proposal, it is intended to carry out a series of seismic and drilling
operations on the Ridge during the coming years. These major marine
investigations will be mainly funded from national sources. An important
preliminary stage to the project is the collec- tion and synthesis of
available data. NATO has already approved a small budget for this
purpose which has enabled a geoscientist to work partly at the
Department of Geological Sciences of Durham University, UK, and partly
at Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University,
Palisades, USA, for about six months to compile the data. The most
important map showing magnetic anomalies and lineations in the area, is
included in a pocket at the back of this volume.