William C. McClelland
Dept. of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
Justin V. Strauss
Dept. of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA
Maurice Colpron
Yukon Geological Survey, Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 2C6, Canada
Jane A. Gilotti
Dept. of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
Karol Faehnrich
Dept. of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA
Shawn J. Malone
Dept. of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, Wisconsin 54311, USA
George E. Gehrels
Dept. of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
Francis A. Macdonald
Earth Science Dept., University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
John S. Oldow
Borealis, 200 E. Troxell Road, Oak Harbor, Washington 98277, USA, and Dept. of Geology, Western
Washington University, Bellingham, Washington 98225, USA
Abstract
Recent field-based studies indicate that the northern margin of North America is best interpreted
as a tectonic boundary that experienced a long, complex history of strike-slip displacement.
Structures juxtaposing the Pearya and Arctic Alaska terranes with North America are linked and
define the Canadian Arctic transform system (CATS) that accommodated Paleozoic terrane
translation, truncation of the Caledonian orogen, and shortening within the transpressional
Ellesmerian orogen. The structure was reactivated during Mesozoic translational opening of the
Canada Basin. Land-based evidence supporting translation along the Canadian Arctic margin is
consistent with transform structures defined by marine geophysical data, thereby providing a
robust alternative to the current consensus model for rotational opening of the Canada Basin.
Manuscript received 17 Feb. 2021. Revised manuscript received 5 Apr. 2021.
Manuscript accepted 8 Apr. 2021. Posted 10 May 2021.
© The Geological Society of America, 2021. CC-BY-NC.
https://doi.org/10.1130/GSATG500A.1