The northeastern margin of Laurentia formed an important part of the Iapetus Ocean and includes the development of the Franklinian Basin in North Greenland and Arctic Canada. The uninterrupted continental margin bordering the North American craton is represented by well-exposed successions in Northeast and eastern North Greenland, together with Svalbard and Bjørnøya. Physiographically, the northeastern margin of Laurentia during the early Paleozoic history of Greenland was a northward extension of the passive rifted continental
margin of the Caledonian continental edge of Laurentia. It was a transform-rifted margin and represents the part of the Laurentian margin that borders the Arctic part of the North Atlantic Ocean. Geologically, the northwestern segment of the continental margin has a somewhat different setting and development from farther south in the Northeast Greenland–Svalbard segment but both regions overlie a thick and extensive package of Neoproterozoic rocks and
were affected by the Caledonian orogeny.