Origin of seaward-dipping reflectors in oceanic crust off the Norwegian margin by “subaerial sea-floor spreading”

A remarkable layered acoustic stratification is observed in the upper oceanic crust adjacent to the Norwegian continental margin. It comprises a seaward-dipping complex of reflectors in the form of a wedge. We suggest that it is a layered igneous sequence that results when crustal accretion occurs at a subaerial spreading axis and that this phenomenon may commonly occur during the earliest phase of ocean-basin genesis.