Arctic lithosphere — A review

•We present a review of Arctic lithosphere.•Arctic lithosphere is characterized using geophysical and geological data.•Arctic lithosphere is divided into discrete domains of specific ages.•Finally, we present a map summarizing the age of Arctic lithosphere.

This article reviews the characteristics of Arctic lithosphere and the principal tectonic events which have shaped it. The current state-of-knowledge associated with the crust, crustal-scale discontinuities, and their ages, as well as knowledge of the lithosphere as a whole from geophysical data, permits the division of Arctic lithosphere into discrete domains.Arctic continental lithosphere is diverse in age, composition, and structure. It has been affected by at least two periods of thermal overprinting associated with large volumes of magmatism, once in the Permo-Triassic and again in the Aptian. In addition, it was attenuated as the result of at least five phases of rifting (in the late Devonian–early Carboniferous, Permo-Triassic, Jurassic, Early Cretaceous, and Late Cretaceous–Cenozoic).Older phases of consolidation are associated with continental lithosphere and occurred through a series of continent–continent collisions in the Paleozoic. Jurassic and Cretaceous extensional phases are related to the dismembering of Pangea and Eurasia, and were concentrated in the Norway-Greenland and Canadian-Alaskan Arctic regions. Large areas of submarine, hyperextended continental (?) lithosphere developed in parts of the Amerasia Basin. After continental breakup and the accretion of new oceanic lithosphere, the Eurasia and Canada basins were formed.