Sedimentological studies in the Upper Cretaceous coal-bearing strata of southern Nûgssuaq, central West Greenland

Abstract

During the 1988 field scason coal-bearing strata in the Upper Cretaccous Atanc Formation an southern Nûgssuaq, West Greenland (fig. I) were investigated in order to describe and interpret the sedill1cntological features. an the basis af this, it was hoped that a more refined synthesis of the regional geology could bc made. Previous work in the area has dealt mainly with thc dating of the formation (earlier references in Rosenkrantz, 1970), its assemblage of plant fossils (Heer, 1983; Seward, 1926), marine macrofossils (Steenstrup, 1874; Ravn, 1918) and its coal potential and petrography (Shekhar et al., 1982). The general depositional environment was discussccl by Sehiener (1975) and Henderson et al. (1976). The GGU coal project (Shekhar er al., 1982) adopted the models presentcd in these papers but despite impressive field work did not shed much new light on the origin of these sediments.