Passive margin basin evolution in the Rockall Region, North Atlantic

A number of large and virtually unexplored basins lie in the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean to the west and northwest of Ireland. They are adjacent to a complex continental-oceanic transition zone of Late Cretaceous age. Basin development in the region was in response to a number of rift and thermal subsidence events and reflects early Mesozoic unsuccessful attempts at the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean.