Journal article
Ellesmerian and Eurekan fault tectonics at the northern margin of Ellesmere Island (Canadian High Arctic)
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geowissenschaften, Vol.164(1), pp.81-105
2013
DOI: 10.1127/1860-1804/2013/0007
Abstract
The northern part of Ellesmere Island is dominated by up to several hundreds-of-kilometres long, NE-SW striking fault zones parallel to the passive continental margin of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Most of the fault zones formed during or have been affected by one or two important tectonic events in the development of the northern margin of North America. The events can be related to a post-Caledonian stage of the formation of Laurussia during the Early Carboniferous Ellesmerian Orogeny and to the final break-up of the supercontinent during the Eurekan Deformation in the Early Tertiary. Two of the fault zones, the Petersen Bay Fault and Yelverton Thrust, represent the original boundary between the allochthonous terrane Pearya and the Franklinian Basin. Both fault zones were formed during the approach and docking of Pearya against the margin of Laurentia. After the development of the Palaeozoic to Cenozoic Sverdrup Basin, the faults in central and SE Ellesmere Island were re-activated or initiated as thrusts or reverse faults and as strike-slip faults in the NW part of the island during the Early Tertiary Eurekan Deformation. The age of the strike-slip movements along the north margin of the Canadian Arctic Islands indicates that the evolution of the large brittle fault zones is more likely related to the opening of the Eurasian Basin than to the formation of the Amerasian Basin.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Ellesmerian and Eurekan fault tectonics at the northern margin of Ellesmere Island (Canadian High Arctic)
- Creators
- Karsten PiepjohnWerner von GosenAndreas LäuferWilliam C. McClellandSolveig Estrada
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Zeitschrift der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geowissenschaften, Vol.164(1), pp.81-105
- DOI
- 10.1127/1860-1804/2013/0007
- ISSN
- 1860-1804
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2013
- Academic Unit
- Earth and Environmental Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9984229968602771
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