Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T00:04:47.253Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cretaceous-Palaeogene sub-basaltic and intrabasaltic sediments of the Kangerdlugssuaq area, Central East Greenland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

A. C. Higgins  and
N. J. Soper
A. C. Higgins
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield SI 3JD
N. J. Soper
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield SI 3JD
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Cretaceous-Palaeogene sediments of the Kangerdlugssuaq area on the continental margin of Central East Greenland were deposited in an embayment of an extensive pre-NE Atlantic shelf sea. Pre-Sparnacian sediments are thin (150 m), incomplete and of siliciclastic type, formed in shallow marine waters. Sparnacian times saw the onset of vigorous basaltic vulcanicity, marking the initial rifting episode between Greenland and Eurasia. Uplift immediately prior to the vulcanicity is evidenced by an unconformity at the base of the Sparnacian, above which basement-derived arkosic sandstones and conglomerates are followed by about 1.5 km of coarse volcaniclastics, basaltic flows of dominantly picritic composition, pro-grading hyaloclastite wedges and thin siltstones with abundant organic detritus. Very rapid subsidence accompanied this early phase of vulcanicity, maintaining the top of the pile close to sea level and allowing the deposition of a further kilometre of waterlain tuffs in the embayment. Sedimentation extended northwards and eastwards on to basement rocks at this period, with the formation of a non-marine sequence which includes coals.

The overlying plateau tholeiites overlap the earlier volcanics; their depositional area was extremely extensive along the East Greenland margin and bears no relationship to the Kangerdlugssuaq sedimentary embayment, although their thickest development, 4 km or more, was attained in that region. Eruption rate of the pile exceeded subsidence for a period and it is dominantly subaerial.

This sequence of events is compared with the similar history of sedimentation and basaltic vulcanicity on the west coast of Greenland, and it is inferred that just as the East Greenland sequence records the initiation of spreading between Greenland and Rockall-Faeroe at anomaly 24−25 time, so that of West Greenland marks the propagation of the Labrador Sea spreading axis through the Davis Strait into Baffin Bay at anomaly 26−27 time.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 118 , Issue 4 , July 1981 , pp. 337 - 354
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Athavale, R. N. & Sharma, P. V. 1975. Paleomagnetic results on early Tertiary lava flows from West Greenland and their bearing on the evolution history of the Baffin Bay-Labrador Sea region Can. J. Earth Sci. 12, 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birkelund, T. & Perch-Nielsen, K. 1976. Late Palaeozoic-Mesozoic evolution of the central East Greenland. In Geology of Greenland (ed. Escher, A. & Watt, W. S.). Gron. Geol. Under., pp. 455–65.Google Scholar
Clarke, B. D. & Upton, B. G. J. 1971. Tertiary basalts of Baffin Island: Field relations and tectonic setting Can. J. Earth Sci. 8, 248–58.Google Scholar
Donovan, D. T. 1957. The Jurassic and Cretaceous systems in East Greenland. Meddr. Gronland, 155, 4.Google Scholar
Emery, K. O. 1968. Relict sediments on continental shelves of the world Bull. Am. Ass. Petrol. Geol. 52, 445–64.Google Scholar
Hailwood, E. A., Bock, W., Costa, L., Dupeuble, P. A., Muller, C. & Schnitker, D. 1979. Chronology and biostratigraphy of northeast Atlantic sediments, DSDP Leg 48. Initial Reports of Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol. XLVIII, pp. 1119–141. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Hailwood, E. A. & Sayre, W. O. 1979. Magnetic anisotropy and sediment transport directions in North Atlantic early Cretaceous black shales and Eocene mudstones cored on DSDP Leg 48. Initial Report of Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol. XLVIII, pp. 909–18. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Harrison, R. K., Knox, R. W. O'B. & Morton, A. C. 1979. Petrography and mineralogy of volcanogenic sediments from DSDP Leg 48, Southwest Rockall Plateau, Sites 403 and 404. Initial Reports of Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol. XLVIII, pp. 771–85. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Henderson, G., Rosenkrantz, A. & Schiener, E. J. 1976. Cretaceous-Tertiary sedimentary rocks of West Greenland. In Geology of Greenland (ed. Escher, A. & Watt, W. S.). Grøn. Geol. Under., pp. 341–62.Google Scholar
Jacque, M. & Thouvenin, J. 1975. Lower Tertiary tuffs and volcanic activity in the North Sea. In Petroleum Continental Shelf of Northwest Europe (ed. Woodland, A. W.), vol. 1. Geology, pp. 455–65. London: Applied Science Publishers.Google Scholar
Johnson, H. D. 1978. Shallow siliciclastic seas. In Sedimentary Environments and Facies (ed. Reading, H. G.), pp. 207–19. Blackwell Scientific Publications.Google Scholar
Jurgensen, T. & Mikkelsen, N. 1974. Coccoliths from volcanic sediments (Danian) in Nugssuaq, West Greenland. Bull. geol. Soc. Denmark, 23, 225–30.Google Scholar
Kristoffersen, Y. & Talwani, M. 1977. Extinct triple junction south of Greenland and the Tertiary motion of Greenland relative to North America. G.S.A. Bull. 88, 1037–49.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Letolle, R., Vergnaud-Grazzini, C. & Pierre, C. 1979. Oxygen and carbon isotopes from bulk, carbonates and foraminiferal shells at DSDP sites 400, 401, 402, 403 and 406. Initial Reports of Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol. XLVIII, pp. 741–55. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Murray, J. W. 1979. Cenozoic biostratigraphy and palaeoecology of sites 403 to 406 on the foraminifers. Initial Reports of Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol. XLVIII, pp. 415–30. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Parrott, R. J. E. & Reynolds, P. H. 1975. Argon 40/Argon-39 geochronology, age determinations of basalts from the Labrador Sea area. Abstr. geol. Soc. Am. 7, 835.Google Scholar
Perch-Nielsen, K. 1973. Danian and Campanian/Maastrichtian coccoliths from Nugssuaq, West Greenland Bull geol. Soc. Denmark 22, 79–82.Google Scholar
Roberts, D. G., Montadert, L. & Searle, R. C. 1979. The western Rockall Plateau: Stratigraphy and structural evolution. Initial Reports of Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol. XLVIII, pp. 1061–88. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Seward, A. C. & Edwards, W. N. 1941. Fossil plants from East Greenland. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. 11, 8, 169–76.Google Scholar
Soper, N. J. & Costa, L. I. 1978. Palynological evidence for the age of Tertiary basalts and post-basaltic sediments at Kap Dalton, central East Greenland Grønland Geol. Unders. Rapp. 80, 123–7.Google Scholar
Soper, N. J., Higgins, C. A., Downie, C., Matthews, D. W. & Brown, P. E. 1976. Late Cretaceous-early Tertiary stratigraphy of the Kangerdlugssuaq area, East Greenland, and the age of opening of the north-east Atlantic Jl geol. soc. Lond. 132, 85–104.Google Scholar
Srivastava, S. P. 1978. Evolution of the Labrador Sea and its bearing on the early evolution of the North Atlantic Geoph. J. Roy. Ast. Soc. 52, 313–57.Google Scholar
Swinnerton, H. H. 1943. Belemnites from East Greenland. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. 11, 10, 406–10.Google Scholar
Wager, L. R. 1934. Geological investigation in East Greenland. I. General Geology from Angmagssalik to Kap Dalton. Meddr. Grønland, 105, 1–46.Google Scholar
Wager, L. R. 1947. Geological investigations in East Greenland. IV. The stratigraphy and tectonics of Knud Rasmussens Land and the Kangerdlugssuaq region Meddr. Grønland 134, 1–64.Google Scholar
Wager, L. R. & Deer, W. A. 1959. Geological investigations in East Greenland. III. The petrology of the Skaergaard Intrusion, Kangerdlugssuaq Meddr. Grønland 105, 1–352.Google Scholar
Watts, A. B., Schreiber, B. C. & Habib, D. 1975. Dredged rocks from the Hatton Bank, Rockall Plateau Jl geol. Soc. Lond. 131, 639–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar