Metasedimentary rocks, intrusions and deformation history in the south-east part of the c. 1800 Ma Ketilidian orogen, South Greenland: Project SUPRASYD 1996

Abstract

The south-east part of the c. 1800 Ma Ketilidian orogen in South Greenland (Allaart, 1976) is dominated by strongly deformed and variably migmatised metasedimentary rocks known as the ‘Psammite and Pelite Zones’ (Chadwick & Garde, 1996); the sediments were mainly derived from the evolving Julianehåb batholith which dominates the central part of the orogen. The main purpose of the present contribution is to outline the deformational history of the Psammite Zone in the region between Lindenow Fjord and Kangerluluk (Fig. 2), investigated in 1994 and 1996 as part of the SUPRASYD project (Garde & Schønwandt, 1995 and references therein; Chadwick et al., in press). The Lindenow Fjord region has high alpine relief and extensive ice and glacier cover, and the fjords are regularly blocked by sea ice. Early studies of this part of the orogen were by boat reconnaissance (Andrews et al., 1971, 1973); extensive helicopter support in the summers of 1992 and 1994 made access to the inner fjord regions and nunataks possible for the first time.
A preliminary geological map covering part of the area between Lindenow Fjord and Kangerluluk was published by Swager et al. (1995). Hamilton et al. (1996) have addressed the timing of sedimentation and deformation in the Psammite Zone by means of precise zircon U-Pb geochronology. However, major problems regarding the correlation of individual deformational events and their relationship with the evolution of the Julianehåb batholith were not resolved until the field work in 1996. The SUPRASYD field party in 1996 (Fig. 1) was based at the telestation of Prins Christian Sund some 50 km south of the working area (Fig. 2). In addition to base camp personnel, helicopter crew and the four authors, the party consisted of five geologists and M.Sc. students studying mafic igneous rocks and their mineralisation in selected areas (Stendal et al., 1997), and a geologist investigating rust zones and areas with known gold anomalies.