Observations on the Precambrian rocks of Scandinavia and Labrador and their implications for the interpretation of the Precambrian of Greenland

Abstract

During the summer of 1969 the writer visited two of the main North Atlantic Shield areas outside Greenland as a guest of the Geological Surveys of Sweden, Finland and Canada. The visit to Scandinavia was organised as a field excursion in conjunction with the I.U.G.S. Subcommission on Precambrian Stratigraphy meeting held in Stockholm at the beginning of June. I would like to thank Professors Rankarna, Simonen and Welin for their arrangements, and my companions during the field excursion for stimulating discussion of Precambrian problems. The visit to northern Labrador was initiated by the Geological Surveys of Greenland and Canada as part of a programme to compare the geology on each side of the Davis Strait. I would like to thank Dr F. C. Taylor whose party Dr B. F. Windley (Leicester University) and I joined in Labrador for his help in planning and carrying out this part of the programme. It is to be hoped that this was only a start to cooperative ventures between the two Surveys and that a member of the GSC staff wiII be able to join a GGU field party in West Greenland. After leaving the GSC party the writer was joined by Dr N. Westoll (Queens University, Kingston) to work further south along the Labrador coast. This was made possibIe through the kindness of Drs E. P. Wheeler and S. A. Morse who provided logistical support and considerable unpubIished information about the Nain district, and through the courtesy of Drs. S. Gandhi, P. Grimley and A. Beavan of the British Newfoundland Exploration Co. who provided transport, hospitality and geological information in the Makkovik and Seal Lake districts. Finally I would like to thank the staffs of the Iron Ore Co. of Canada and the McGiII University Sub-Arctic Station for their help in visiting the marginal rocks of the Labrador trough at SchefferviIIe. Without the active cooperation of all of these scientists the field season wouId have been much less successful.