Structure of the Storstrømmen shear zone, eastern Hertugen af Orléans Land, North-East Greenland

Abstract

The Storstrømmen shear zone is a NNE-trending belt of steep, heterogeneously deformed gneisses and mylonites, at least 8 km wide, which transects the basement gneiss complexes of the Caledonian fold belt between Dronning Louise Land and Hertugen af Orleans Land. Shear criteria indicate a consistent sinistral sense of displacement parallel to a gently-plunging L-S fabric. Mineral assemblages and fabrics within the mylonites indicate that mylonitisation was initiated under low amphibolite facies conditions and continued within the greenschist facies. The shear zone is reworked by late, steep brittle faults which are associated with cataclasis and local metamorphic retrogression.