Geology of central and eastern North Greenland

Abstract

A historical review of geological research in North Greenland is followed by a summary of the main results of the 1978-80 GGU expeditions to the region. New outcrops of Archaean and early Proterozoic crystalline rocks are recorded only as xenoliths in dykes and volcanic centres. A revised stratigraphy is applied to the middle Proterozoic Independence Fjord Group sandstones, while petrographic and isotopic studies have been made of the cross-cutting Midsommersø dolerites and the overlying Zig-Zag Dal Basalt Formation. No convincing evidence has been found of a Carolinidian orogenic episode separating these units from succeeding late Proterozoic sedimentary sequences. Lower Palaeozoic sediments dominate North Greenland and are divided into southern shelf and northern trough successions; new or revised stratigraphies are now applied in both settings. The shelf-trough boundary can be shown to have moved south with time, and a major early Silurian expansion of the trough is related to shelf subsidence and a new phase of turbidite deposition derived from the rising East Greenland Caledonian mountains. Devonian - Middle Carboniferous (Ellesmerian) deformation brought deposition to a close and created the North Greenland fold belt, in which deformation intensity and metamorphic grade increase northwards. Thin-skinned thrusting in association with west or south-facing folds is important in southern areas; this is one of the main differences in interpretation compared to earlier work in the fold belt. New outcrops of post-ElIesmerian sediments (Wandel Sea Basin) have mainly been recorded as fault or thrust bounded sequences; a new stratigraphy is applied to the Wandel Sea Basin succession. Cretaceous - Tertiary events include a suite of volcanic centres, dyke swarms, the Kap Washington Group volcanics, and faults and thrusts of Tertiary (Eurekan) age; all have been studied anew, as have the Quaternary deposits.