Structural and stratigraphic framework of the North Greenland fold belt in Johannes V. Jensen Land, Peary Land

Abstract

Structural and stratigraphic detaiIs collected during reconnaissance fjeld work in northern Peary Land in 1969 are presented to substantiate the rather general accounts of the North Greenland fold belt hitherto published. The structural detail, largely in the form of graphic profiles sketched in the fieid, is referred to a structural frarnework in which three main deformation phases are recognised. The fold belt displays a roughly E-W zonation based on the progressive northerly increasing intensity of deformation and metamorphic effects that culminate along the northern coast in amphibolite-facies mineral assemblages in complexly folded schist lithologies. It is stressed that, while the conspicuous structural character of the fold belt is its northerly vergence seen particularly in the northernmost part, the detailed structural make-up of the fold belt is complex. Fold style and vergence vary considerably and the southern margin of the fold belt, autochthonous with respect to the platform, is characterised by south-verging folds. Some stratigraphical data is presented particularly from the Lower Palaeozoic sequence at the southern part of the fold belt that iIIustrates the basinal clastic facies at the sheIf-basin margin.