Reconnaissance of Eocambrian and Lower Palaeozoic strata in south-western Peary Land, North Greenland

Abstract

During the 1975 ice drilling operations ofthe Greenland lee Sheet Programme (GISP) on the Hans Tavsens Iskappe, three days were spent in the area south-west ofthe ice capo This allowed a brief examination of the bedrock and Quaternary featuresfrom a single camp on the east side of Adams Gletscher (fig. 4 and Weidick, this report). The area visited is at the western end of Wandel Dal, the broad low valley linking Independence Fjord in the east with J. P. Koch Fjord. The main geological and physiographical features of the region were recorded from the air by Lauge Koch in 1938. Previous .geologists to visitthe area have been on the dog sledge route through Wandel Dal, e.g. J. C. Troeisen and K. Ellitsgaard-Rasmussen on Eigil Knuth's Danish Peary Land expedition 1947-51 but almost nothing has been published. The most important results of the present visit are: (1) The recognition at Adams Gletscher ofthe well-known Eocambrian- Lower Palaeozoic Jørgen Brønlund Fjord sequence and the continuation ofit to the west ofPeary Land. (2) The discovery offossiliferous Middle Cambrian strata (hitherto unknown in Peary L.and) overlain by oolitic limestones in the interval between the Brønlund Fjord Formation and the Wandel Valley Formation, and (3) The recognition of substantial post-Silurian fauIt movements in the platform.