Reconnaissance scale geochemical survey in central and western North Greenland Preliminary results concerning zinc and barium

Abstract

Stream sediment samples were colleeted at a density of 1 sample per 30 km2 in Warming Land, Wulff Land, Nares Land, Nansen Land and along Navarana Fjord. The minus 0.1 mm grain size fraetion of the samples was analysed by X-ray fluorescenee for 30 elements. The regional distribution pattem for the contents of Zn and Ba reflects the lithological changes. Lowest values for both elements occur in the lower Palaeozoic earbonate platform and the contents gradually inerease northwards in the flysch deposits of the Silurian basin to a high level for both elements in samples from the folded Cambrian basin deposits in Nansen Land. Anomalously high values of Zn and Ba at Navarana Fjord and at north-west Nares Land are associated with a thin Cambro-Ordovician unit of blaek dolomitie mudstones. Reeonnaissanee zine anomalies and the occurrenee of massive sphalerite in the matrix of a breccia zone at Navarana Fjord are taken as indications of a major zine mineralising event.