Continental Plates and Accreted Oceanic Terranes in the Arctic

The geology of the Arctic Ocean Basin is in many ways less well understood than that of the other ocean basins discussed in preceding volumes of this series. Very broad shelf seas conceal large parts of the continents fronting on the Arctic. This geography plus ice cover and difficult working conditions has retarded the accumulation of data and progress in resolving the controversial origin and history of the Arctic Ocean (Churkin, 1973; Churkin et al., this volume).