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Lower Palaeozoic Stratigraphy of the East Greenland Caledonides

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Lower Palaeozoic Stratigraphy of the East Greenland Caledonides Lower Palaeozoic stratigraphy of the East Greenland Caledonides M. Paul Smith, Jan Audun Rasmussen, Steve Robertson, A.K. Higgins and A. Graham Leslie The Lower Palaeozoic stratigraphy of the East Greenland Caledonides, from the fjord region of North-East Greenland northwards to Kronprins Christian Land, is reviewed and a number of new lithostratigraphical units are proposed. The Slottet Formation (new) is a Lower Cambrian quartzite unit, containing Skolithos burrows, that is present in the Målebjerg and Eleonore Sø tectonic windows, in the nunatak region of North-East Greenland. The unit is the source of common and often-reported glacial erratic boulders containing Skolithos that are distributed throughout the fjord region. The Målebjerg Formation (new) overlies the Slottet Formation in the tectonic windows, and comprises limestones and dolostones of assumed Cambrian–Ordo- vician age. The Lower Palaeozoic succession of the fjord region of East Greenland (dominantly limestones and dolostones) is formally placed in the Kong Oscar Fjord Group (new). Amend- ments are proposed for several existing units in the Kronprins Christian Land and Lambert Land areas, where they occur in autochthonous, parautochthonous and allochthonous settings. Keywords: Early Palaeozoic, North-East Greenland, stratigraphy. M.P.S., Lapworth Museum, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. E-mail: [email protected] J.A.R. & A.K.H., Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Øster Voldgade 10, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark. S.R. (deceased) & A.G.L., British Geological Survey, Murchison House, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3LA, UK. The East Greenland Caledonides extend for over 1300 work by the Survey in the Kong Oscar Fjord region km between Scoresby Sund (70°N) and Kronprins (72°–75°N). A number of new Lower Palaeozoic litho- Christian Land (81°30′N), cropping out in an ice-free stratigraphical units are proposed on the basis of this coastal strip of variable width (Fig. 1). In the south, work and amendments are proposed for some exist- the exposed width of the orogen is 300 km, but in the ing units. north this is reduced to less than 100 km. The orogen The Lower Palaeozoic sediments of Kronprins Chris- has been the subject of a series of systematic map- tian Land and Lambert Land (Fig. 2) were deposited ping programmes by the Survey since 1968, supple- on a subtidal to peritidal platform that constituted the menting and revising work by other groups, most not- south-easternmost part of the Franklinian Basin ably Lauge Koch’s long series of geological expedi- (Higgins et al. 1991), and lay at a marked inflexion of tions between 1926 and 1958 (see Haller 1971). This the Laurentian margin where it turns through 90° be- paper documents the key stratigraphical observations tween the present-day E–W-trending coast of North on Lower Palaeozoic rocks made during expeditions Greenland and the N–S-trending coast of East Green- from 1993 to 1995 by the former Geological Survey of land. The stratigraphy erected in the Caledonian fore- Greenland (GGU) to Kronprins Christian Land and land of eastern North Greenland (Peary Land and Lambert Land (78°–82°N), and the 1997–1998 field western Kronprins Christian Land; Peel 1985; Higgins Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin 6, 5–28 © GEUS, 2004 5 GEUS Bulletin 6.pmd 5 10-02-2005, 09:53 POST-CALEDONIAN Peary Land Wandel Sea 82°W Palaeogene basalts Station Nord Palaeogene intrusions Wandel Sea Basin: ▲ Carboniferous–Palaeogene sediments ▲ East Greenland basins: ▲ Carboniferous–Cretaceous sediments ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ LATE TO POST-CALEDONIAN ▲ ▲ Kronprins Christian Land KronprinsCentrumsø Christian Land Devonian – continental sediments ▲ thin-skinned thrust belt ▲ (parautochthonous foreland) ▲ Fig. 2 CALEDONIAN OROGENIC BELT ▲ ▲ Lambert Land ▲ Late to post-kinematic granites ▲ Neoproterozoic–Ordovician sediments (East Greenland) BELT ▲ ▲ Neoproterozoic–Silurian sediments (eastern North Greenland) Nørreland window ° 78 N ▲ Palaeo-Mesoproterozoic sediments and basalts (eastern North Greenland) 35°W E Crystalline complexes and sediments C (Archaean–Mesoproterozoic) I ▲ THRUST▲ D CALEDONIAN FORELAND N Dronning ▲ A Neoproterozoic–Silurian sediments Louise ▲ Danmarkshavn L BELT (North Greenland) Land ▲ N I ▲ Palaeo-Mesoproterozoic sediments T S and basalts (eastern North Greenland) U ▲ R Mainly crystalline rocks – H ▲ T Bessel Fjord parautochthonous windows E L ▲ O ▲ Thrust S N Fault/shear zone A I Fig. 8 N O MARGINAL Tectonic zone boundary D E L ▲ A ▲ ▲ THRUST C ▲ Eleonore Sø ▲ Wollaston 74°N window ▲ Forland ▲ ▲ ▲ Hamberg ▲ Gletscher foreland ▲ ▲ Greenland Målebjerg CALEDONIDES window ▲ Charcot ▲ Land Traill Ø ▲ SKINNED window ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ Jameson Land Fig. 1. Geological map of the East Greenland Caledo- THICK nides, showing location of the foreland windows in Gåseland ▲ S window co the western marginal thrust belt. Modified from ▲ re ▲ s by Sund 100 km Higgins & Leslie (2000). Frames indicate the regions ▲ 25°W 70°N shown at larger scales in Figs 2 and 8. 6 GEUS Bulletin 6.pmd 6 10-02-2005, 09:53 et al. 1991; Smith & Bjerreskov 1994) can, to a signifi- with more scattered outcrops on the plateaus. The cant degree, be applied to the successions farther to discontinuous exposure is disrupted by a series of the east and south within the study area (Figs 2, 3), eastward-dipping thrusts with displacements of sev- although many of the units differ in detail. This re- eral hundred metres to a few kilometres. Correlation gion is the only part of the Franklinian Basin to have of superficially similar Middle Ordovician to Silurian been subsequently affected by the Caledonian oroge- sediments in alternating units of peritidal dolostone ny, and the Lower Palaeozoic units described here and subtidal burrow-mottled limestones required de- occur both in the foreland and in the thin-skinned tailed sedimentary facies analysis. Macrofaunal bio- parautochthonous fold-and-thrust belt beneath the stratigraphy in the field was supplemented by the bio- Vandredalen thrust sheet (Fig. 2; Higgins et al. 2001b). stratigraphic analysis of conodonts, which in almost The Lower Palaeozoic successions of the fjord re- all cases verified the field determinations (Rasmussen gion of the southern parts of North-East Greenland & Smith 2001). Cambrian sediments are restricted to (72°–74°30′N; see Fig. 8) have been the subject of a the sandstones of the Kap Holbæk Formation (see more protracted research effort that extends back to below), scattered representatives of which occur in the 19th century. The Cambrian–Ordovician of the fjord autochthonous, parautochthonous and allochthonous region has become one of the classic reference areas settings. for this stratigraphical interval, but it was only during the 1997–1998 Survey field seasons that the tectonic context was fully elucidated (Higgins et al. 2004a). It is now clear that the Cambrian–Ordovician of the fjord Kap Holbæk Formation region, together with the underlying, Neoproterozoic revised Tillite Group and Eleonore Bay Supergroup, make up the upper part of the highest thrust sheet in the orogen, History. The Kap Holbæk Formation was first docu- which has been transported several hundred kilome- mented by Adams & Cowie (1953) during a geologi- tres from the east-south-east (Higgins & Leslie 2000; cal reconnaissance around the head of Danmark Fjord, Higgins et al. 2004a). Furthermore, notably different and was informally divided into five members. Fränkl developments of Lower Palaeozoic rocks were dis- (1954) demonstrated that the unit was also present in covered cropping out in tectonic windows adjacent to Kronprins Christian Land around Sæfaxi Elv, and Hurst the Inland Ice; the successions within these windows & McKerrow (1985) interpreted it as occurring within are disturbed by Caledonian deformation, and are in- thrust sheets north of Romer Sø. Initial biostratigraph- terpreted as autochthonous to parautochthonous rep- ical determinations (Peel & Vidal 1988) concluded that, resentatives of the foreland (Smith & Robertson 1999a, on the basis of acritarchs, the unit was of latest Vendian b; Higgins et al. 2004a, b, this volume). The latter are (late Ediacaran) age. fully documented for the first time here, and provide Clemmensen & Jepsen (1992) revised the Hagen data critical for interpreting the Lower Palaeozoic evo- Fjord Group of Haller (1961) to encompass a phase of lution of the Iapetus passive margin and its subse- Neoproterozoic shallow marine sedimentation which quent deformation during the Caledonian orogeny. succeeds the Palaeoproterozoic–Mesoproterozoic In- dependence Fjord Group and the Mesoproterozoic Zig- Zag Dal Basalt Formation, and pre-dates Franklinian Basin sedimentation. Since the Kap Holbæk Forma- Kronprins Christian Land tion was thought to be of Vendian age, the formation The Lower Palaeozoic units cropping out over a c. was considered to be representative of the youngest 5000 km2 area in southern Kronprins Christian Land, phase of sedimentation in the Hagen Fjord Group eastern North Greenland (Figs 2, 3), were mapped basin. However, two schemes of possible stratigraphic and documented in 1993–1995 as part of the 1:500 000 correlation could still be used to express the relation- mapping programme carried out by GGU. Within the ship of the Kap Holbæk Formation to the underlying thin-skinned parautochthonous fold-and-thrust belt Fyns Sø Formation, with radically different conse- forming much of this
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