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Tectonic map of the Ellesmerian and Eurekan deformation belts on Svalbard, North Greenland, and the Queen Elizabeth Islands (Canadian Arctic)
Journal article   Open access

Tectonic map of the Ellesmerian and Eurekan deformation belts on Svalbard, North Greenland, and the Queen Elizabeth Islands (Canadian Arctic)

Karsten Piepjohn, Werner von Gosen, Franz Tessensohn, Lutz Reinhardt, William McClelland, Winfried Dallmann, Christoph Gaedicke and J Harrison
arktos, Vol.1(1), pp.1-7
12/2015
DOI: 10.1007/s41063-015-0015-7
url
https://doi.org/10.1007/s41063-015-0015-7View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

The tectonic map presented here shows the distribution of the major post-Ellesmerian and pre-Eurekan sedimentary basins, parts of the Caledonian orogen, the Ellesmerian fold-and-thrust belt, structures of the Cenozoic Eurekan deformation, and areas affected by the Eurekan overprint. The present continental margin of North America towards the Arctic Ocean between the Queen Elizabeth Islands and Northeast Greenland and the present west margin of the Barents Shelf are characterized by the Palaeozoic Ellesmerian fold-and-thrust belt, the Cenozoic Eurekan deformation, and, in parts, the Caledonian orogen. In many areas, the structural trends of the Ellesmerian and Eurekan deformations are more or less parallel, and often, structures of the Ellesmerian orogeny are affected or reactivated by the Eurekan deformation. While the Ellesmerian fold-and-thrust belt is dominated by orthogonal compression and the formation of wide fold-and-thrust zones on Ellesmere Island, North Greenland, and Spitsbergen, the Eurekan deformation is characterized by a complex network of regional fold-and-thrust belts (Spitsbergen, central Ellesmere Island), large distinct thrust zones (Ellesmere Island, North Greenland), and a great number of strike-slip faults (Spitsbergen, Ellesmere Island). The Ellesmerian fold-and-thrust belt was most probably related to the approach and docking of the Pearya Terrane (northernmost part of Ellesmere Island) and Spitsbergen against the north margin of Laurasia (Ellesmere Island/North Greenland) in the earliest Carboniferous. The Eurekan deformation was related to plate tectonic movements during the final break-up of Laurasia and the opening of Labrador Sea/Baffin Bay west, the Eurasian Basin north, and the Norwegian/Greenland seas east of Greenland.
Canadian Arctic Archipelago North Greenland Eurekan deformation Spitsbergen Earth Sciences Geology Geochemistry Earth Sciences, general Oceanography Ellesmerian fold-and-thrust belt Ellesmere Island Paleontology

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