Geology of the Arctic: Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Arctic Geology (Vol. 1) 9781487584979

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GEOLOGY OF

Volume I

THE

ARCTIC

GEOLOGY OF

THE ARCTIC Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Arctic Geology HELD IN CALGARY, ALBERTA JANUARY 11-13, 1960 UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE ALBERTA SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM GEOLOGISTS

Volume I Editor: Gilbert O. Raasch

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS

Copyright, Canada, 1961 University of Toronto Press Printed in Canada

Reprinted in 2018 ISBN 978-1-4875-7286-0 (paper)

Foreword

of the First International Symposium on Arctic Geology held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, January 11th to 13th, 1960, a number of instructive, interesting, and original papers were presented, and essentially all of them are printed in the pages of The Geology of the Arctic volumes I and II. The idea of calling such a meeting was conceived by several members of the Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists in the year 1958, and the task of organization began during the following year with appointment of the various committee chairmen. Thanks to representative bodies, organizations, and individuals of Great Britain, Denmark, the U.S.A., the U.S.S.R. and Canada, encouragement and moral support from the outset indicated the ultimate success of the meeting. The financial grants received from the government of the Province of Alberta and the Government of Canada were also a large factor in assuring the ultimate success of the Symposium, and to the authors of the papers presented at the Symposium a debt of gratitude is due, to say nothing of the members of the various Committees listed herewith, who gave of their time and effort in an outstanding and unselfish manner, and to whom we again extend our sincere thanks: George S. Hume, Ph.D., O.B.E., Honorary Chairman of Organizing Committee; John A. Downing, B.Sc., Executive Chairman of Organizing Committee; Derek W. R. Wilson, Ph.D., General Secretary of Organizing Committee and Chairman of Publicity Committee; A. W. Byrne, Ph.D., Chairman of Technical Programme Committee; John N. Townley III, B.A., Chairman of Registration Committee; Gordon Hamilton, B.Sc., Chairman of Exhibits Committee; Frank Buckle, Chairman of Transportation Committee; E. W. Carter, Chairman Circumpolar Map Committee; A. J. Goodman, Ph.D., Chairman of Technical Services Committee; J. Coveney, B.Sc., Chairman of Accommodation Committee; and Gilbert 0. Raasch, Ph.D., Editor. It is hoped that publication of these volumes will meet with the same measure of success as did the meeting of the Symposium which, in calibre of papers presented and attendance, far exceeded our fondest hopes. THEO. A. LINK, Ph.D. Chairman of the Organizing Committee AT THE MEETING

Preface

that culminated in these large volumes is worthy of particular note in this introduction for it was an idea that rose spontaneously from a common need among men working in a field of applied science. Many international congresses come into being mainly through the efforts of members of distinguished universities and renowned institutions of research. The instigators of the present Symposium were not so connected; neither were they, by and large, top executives in the oil companies with which they were affiliated: rather they were plain citizens, citizen-scientists, in an average metropolis of a typical prairie province of Canada. That province, however, happened to be a specially stimulating place to work in in this mid-century. From it, in terms of geological and geophysical research, the horizon each year could be seen to be moving northward. And then - there was no more North. There were only the circumpolar regions; Alaska and Greenland, Scandinavia, Russia and Siberia. This same movement of interest and activity northward was, of course, taking place also in Europe and in Asia. The jigsaw puzzle of the Earth's northern crust could only be completed, it was felt, if the players, in each region, could see what pieces the others had assembled. This, even if they did not express it in so many words, the oil geologists in Calgary understood when they decided, early in 1959, to call the First International Symposium on Arctic Geology, under the auspices of their Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists. It was a daring venture. . The response to their invitation might quite soberly be described as a triumph of a community's initiative. There were representatives from the United States, the United Kingdom, the Scandinavian countries, and from the U.S.S.R. What had been envisaged as little more than a handful of men around a table grew and grew. Scientists from the universities, the research institutions and the field came in such numbers that registration exceeded 1,100. Such a wide participation has enabled the sponsors of these volumes to offer in them a truly inclusive picture of the state of knowledge of Arctic geology and they are happy to present them as a tangible witness to the stimulus of the meeting itself. The Editor was the captain of a large team of colleagues from many specialties in the geological sciences, who patiently and generously read papers in preparation for publication. To all of these and particularly to his editorial assistant, Mrs. Patricia Anne Befus, must go a large share of credit for the appearance in print of these major volumes.

THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA

G.O.R.

LIST

NASEERUDDIN AHMAD, (sees. WARREN CAREY) . K . C. ARNOLD, Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

I . P . ATLASOV, Institute of the Geology ofthe Arctic, Leningrad, U .S.S.R. H. BAADSGAARD, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. H. G . BASSETT, Shell Oil Company of Canada, Ltd., Box 186, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. A. T. BELCHER, The Arctic Institute of North America, 3485 University St., Montreal 2, Quebec, Canada. WILLIAMS. BENNINGHOFF, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U .S.A.

OF

CONTRIBUTORS

J. H. CALLOMON, Department of Chemistry, University College, London, England. N. J. CAMPBELL, Fisheries Research Board of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

S. WARREN CAREY, University of Tasmania, Box 252c, Hobert, Tasmania. A. J . CARSOLA, United States Navy Electronics Laboratory, San Diego 52, California, U.S.A. D. J. CEDERSTROM, United States Geological Survey, Water Resources Division, Washington 25, D .C., U .S.A. A. E. COLLIN, Canada Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, 831 Somerset St. W., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

ASGER BERTHELSEN, Geological Survey of Greenland, Oster Volgade 7, Copenhagen K, Denmark

FRANK A. COOK, Canada Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, 831 Somerset St. W., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

ROLAND E. BESCHEL, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

R. J. COPELAND, British American Oil Co., Box 130, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

D . E . T . BIDGOOD, (see w. B. HARLAND)

J. W.CowIE, Department of Geology, Bristol University, Bristol 8, England.

R . G. BLACKADAR, Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. WESTON BLAKE, JR., Ohio State University, Columbus 10, Ohio, U .S.A . MARGARETE. BOWER, Geophysical Branch, Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. MICHEL BROCHU, Canada Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, 831 Somerset St., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. R. J. E . BROWN, National Research Council of Canada, Montreal Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. H . BUTLER, Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

B.G. CRAIG, Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. WILLIAM J. CROMIE, 310 West 106th Street, New York 25, New York, U.S.A. WILLIAM E. DAVIES, United States Geological Survey, 125 W. Greenway Blvd., Falls Church, Virginia, U .S.A. H . B. DICKENS, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. ROBERTS. DIETZ, United States Navy Electronics Laboratory, San Diego 52, California, U .S.A. WILLIAM L. DONN, Lamont Geological Observatory, Palisades, New York, U.S.A.

X

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

D. T. DONOVAN, Department of Geology, Bristol University, Bristol 8, England.

T . M . HARRIS, University of Reading, Reading, England.

CARL 0. DUNBAR, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A.

T. A. HARWOOD, Defence Research Board of Canada, I 02 Lewis St., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

MOIRA DUNBAR, Defence Research Board of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. J. THOMAS DUTRO, JR., United States Geological Survey, United States National Museum, Washington 23, D.C., U .S.A. A. J. EARDLEY, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A. K. ELLITSGAARD-RASMUSSEN, Geological Survey of Denmark, Oster Volgade F, Copenhagen K, Denmark. MAURICE EWING, Lamont Geological Observatory, Palisades, New York, U.S.A. R . L. FISHER, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, U.S.A. R. E . FOLINSBEE, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

G . HATTERSLEY-SMJTH, Defence Research Board of Canada, 137 Southern Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. BRUCE C. HEEZEN, Lamont Geological Laboratory, Palisades, New York, U.S.A. R. A. HEMSTOCK, Imperial Oil Ltd., Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

G. WILLIAM HOLMES, United States Geological Survey, Washington 25, D .C., U.S.A. D. M. HOPKINS, United States Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California, U.S.A. KENNETH HUNKINS, Lamont Geological Observatory, Palisades, New York, U.S.A. HEIKKI IGNATIUS, Geological Survey of Finland, Helsinki, Finland.

J. A. FRASER,

L. N. INGALL, British American Oil Co., Box 130, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

F. C. FRISCHKNECHT, United States Geological Survey, Denver 3, Colorado, U.S.A.

GEORGE JACOBSEN, Jacobsen-McGill Arctic Research Expedition, 539 Pine Ave. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

BORGE FRISTRUP, University of Copenhagen, Geografiske Institut, Copenhagen K, Denmark.

ERIK JARVIK, Riksmuseet, Stockholm, Sweden.

J. G. FYLES,

J. A. JELETZKY, Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

A. F. GREGORY, Geophysical Branch, Geological Survey of Canada. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

THORN. V . KARLSTROM, United States Geological Survey, 5728-2nd. St. S., Arlington 4, Virginia, U.S.A.

Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

GEORGE GRYC, United States Geological Survey, Washington 25, D.C., U.S.A. JOHN HALLER, Min. Petrogr. Institut, Bernoullianum, Basel, Switzerland. W. B. HARLAND, Sedgwick Museum, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England.

H . R. KATZ, Empressa Nacional Del Petroleo Magellanes, Casilla 247, Punta Arenas, Chile. G. V. KELLER, United States Geological Survey, Denver 3, Colorado, U.S.A. P. E. KENT, British Petroleum Ltd., Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS LAUGE KOCH,

A. L. MATHER, Royal School of Mines, London, England.

E . H . KRANCK,

Grindelwald, Switzerland.

McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

J. G. MEADOR, 231 Sycamore St., Jacksonville, Texas, U.S.A.

Ministry of Greenland, Christians Brygge 24, Copenhagen V, Denmark.

DANIEL B. KRINSLEY,

United States Geological Survey, Washington 25, D .C., U .S.A. ARTHUR H. LACHENBRUCH,

United States Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Rd., Menlo Park, California, U.S.A.

G . ROBERT LANGE,

United States Army Corps of Engineers, 1249 Judson Ave., Evanston, Illinois, U .S.A.

R. F. LEGGET, National Research Council of Canada, Montreal Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. ALFRED C. LENZ,

The California Standard Co., Box 296, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. R. LEWIS, United States Geological Survey, Washington 25, D.C., U .S.A. CHARLES

J. LIPSON, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. DIANE M . LORANGER,

Crosby Hall, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London SW i , England. PETER C. McGILL,

Imperial Oil Ltd., Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

J. Ross MACKAY, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver 8, B.C., Canada. ANDREW H. MCNAIR ,

Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., U.S.A.

W. E. MARKHAM, Department of Transport, Rm. 724, Federal Bldg., Halifax, N .S., Canada. F . G. MARKOV, Institute of the Geology of the Arctic, Leningrad, U.S.S.R. L. J. MARTIN, Geological Consultant, 735-Sth Ave. S.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

WoLFMAYNC,

MAYNARD M. MILLER,

Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, U .S.A. L. W . MORLEY, Geophysical Branch, Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. DONALD R. NICHOLS,

United States Geological Survey, Washington Auditorium-A-32, Washington 23, D .C., U.S.A. EIGIL NIELSEN,

Mineralogisk Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark. LAURENCE H . NOBLES,

Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, U .S.A. BRIANS. NORFORD,

Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. DONALD PLOUFF,

United States Geological Survey, Denver 3, Colorado, U.S.A. GILBERT 0. RAASCH,

Consulting Geologist, Box 100, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. M. I. RABKIN, Institute of the Geology of the Arctic, Leningrad, U .S.S.R. M . G. RAVICH, Institute of the Geology of the Arctic, Leningrad, U .S.S.R. ALAN REECE,

Deceased.

R. W . REX, California Research Corporation, P.O. Box 446, La Habra, California, U.S.A . HANS ROETHLISBERGER,

United States Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, 1215 Washington Ave., Wilmette, Illinois, U .S.A.

A. C. RUSSELL, British Petroleum Ltd. , Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

W.

xi

xii

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

M. SWAIN, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 14, Minnesota, U .S.A.

V. N.SACHS, Institute of the Geology of the Arctic, Leningrad, U .S.S.R.

FREDERICK

C. L. SAINSBURY, United States Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California, U .S.A.

M. K. THOMAS, Canada Department of Transport, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

DENIS A . ST-ONGE, Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, 831 Somerset St., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

D. W.ScHOLL,

United States Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California, U.S.A. WALTER ScHWARZACHER,

Queen's University, Belfast, Ireland.

C. J. SHIPEK, United States Navy Electronics Laboratory, San Diego 52, California, U .S.A. GEORGE SHUMWAY,

R . THORSTEINSSON,

B. V. TKACHENKO, Institute of the Geology of the Arctic, Leningrad, U .S.S.R. E . T. TOZER,

Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. RUDOLF TRUMPY,

Eidg. Technische Hochschule, Geological Institut, Ziirich, Switzerland. R.R. WAHL,

United States Navy Electronics Laboratory, San Diego 52, California, U.S.A.

United States Geological Survey, Denver 3, Colorado, U .S.A.

DAVID D. SMITH,

J. R. WEBER,

Department of Geology, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., U.S.A. (Present address: Coastal Studies Institute, School of Geology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge 3, La., U.S.A.) V. N. SOKOLOV, Institute of the Geology of the Arctic, Leningrad, U .S.S.R.

Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. EDUARD WENK,

Min. Petrogr. Institute, Bernoullianum, Basel, Switzerland. D. W.R. WILSON, Shell Oil Co. of Canada, Ltd., Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

J.C. SPROULE, J. C. Sproule and Associates, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

H. P. WILSON, Canada Department of Transport, Airport Administration Bldg., Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

ERIK STENSI0,

Riksmuseet, Stockholm, Sweden.

J. Tuzo WILSON' University of Toronto, Toronto 5, Ontario, Canada.

TARAS P. STOREY,

THORE S. WINSNES,

Pacific Petroleums, Ltd., Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

s. A. STRELKOV,

Institute of the Geology of the Arctic, Leningrad, U .S.S.R.

Norwegian Polar Institute, P.O. Nr. 2401 S., Oslo, Norway.

A. YEHLE, United States Geological Survey, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

LYNN

CONTENTS

OF

VOLUME

Foreword Preface List of Contributors SOVIET ARCTIC

I

V

vii ix

Section One: Regional Geology

Main Features of the Tectonic Development of the Central Soviet Arctic. By I. P. ATLASOV and V. N. SOKOLOV The Precambrian of the Soviet Arctic. By M . I. RABKIN and M. G. RAVICH The Palaeozoic of the Soviet Arctic. By F. G. MARKOV and B. V. TKACHENKO Mesozoic and Cenozoic of the Soviet Arctic. By V. N. SACHS and S. A. STRELKOV

5

18 31 48

SPITSBERGEN

An Outline Structural History of Spitsbergen. By W. B. HARLAND Radiocarbon Dating of Raised Beaches in Nordaustlandet, Spitsbergen. By WESTON BLAKE, Jr.

68 133

GREENLAND

A Summary of the Geology of North and East Greenland. EDITORIAL FOREWORD Precambrian and Early Palaeozoic Structural Elements and Sedimentation : North and East Greenland. By LAUGE KocH The Carolinides : An Orogenic Belt of Late Precambrian Age in Northeast Greenland. By JoHN HALLER The Lower Palaeozoic Geology of Greenland. By J. W. CowIE Account of Caledonian Orogeny in Greenland. By JoHN HALLER Devonian Deposits of Central East Greenland. By H. BUTLER Devonian Vertebrates. By ERIK JARVIK Continental Carboniferous and Lower Permian in Central East Greenland. By H . BUTLER The Permian of Greenland. By WOLF MAYNC Permian Invertebrate Faunas of Central East Greenland. By CARL 0. DUNBAR Permian Vertebrates. By ERIK STENSI0 Triassic of East Greenland. By RUDOLF TRVMPY On the Eotriassic Fish Faunas of Central East Greenland. By EIGIL NIELSEN The Jurassic System in East Greenland. By J. H . CALLOMON

147 148 155 160 170 188 197 205 214 224 231 248 255 258

xiv

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I

The Rhaeto-Liassic Flora of Scoresby Sound, Central East Greenland. By T. M. HARRIS Cretaceous of East Greenland. By D . T. DONOVAN Tertiary of Greenland. By EDUARD WENK Palaeomagnetic Studies of Some Greenland Rocks. By D. E.T. BIDGOOD and w. B. HARLAND Journeys and Expeditions to Greenland in the Years 1913-59: A Summary. By LAUGE KOCH Late Precambrian to Cambrian Stratigraphy in East Greenland. By H. R. KATZ On the Chronology of the Precambrian of Western Greenland. By ASGER BERTHELSEN

269 274 278 285 293 299 329

CANADA Structural History of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago since Precambrian Time. By R. THORSTEINSSON and E.T. TOZER Precambrian Geology of Arctic Canada: A Summary Account. By R. G. BLACKADAR and J. A. FRASER Lower Palaeozoic Stratigraphy of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. By R. THORSTEINSSON Summary Account of Mesozoic and Tertiary Stratigraphy, Canadian Arctic Archipelago. By E.T. TOZER Pleistocene Geology of Arctic Canada. By B. G. CRAIG and J. G. FYLES Relations of the Parry Islands Fold Belt and the Cornwallis Folds, Eastern Bathurst Island, Canadian Archipelago. By ANDREW H. MCNAIR Geological Interpretation of Aeromagnetic Profiles from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. By A. F. GREGORY, MARGARET E. BOWER, and L. w. MORLEY Gypsum Tectonics on Axel Heiberg Island, Northwest Territories, Canada. By E. H. KRANCK Tectonic Framework of Northern Canada. By L. J. MARTIN Caledonian or Acadian Granites of the Northern Yukon Territory. By H. BAADSGAARD, R. E. FoLINSBEE, and J. LIPSON The Silurian Aulacopleura Socialis in the Yukon Territory. By G. 0. RAASCH, B. s. NORFORD, and D. w. R. WILSON Devonian Stratigraphy, Central Mackenzie River Region, Northwest Territories, Canada. By H. G. BASSETT Devonian Stratigraphy- Norman Wells Region. By TARAS P. STOREY Devonian Rugose Corals of the Lower Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories. By ALFRED C. LENZ Micropalaeontological (Foraminifera) Zonation of the Sans Sault Group, Lower Mackenzie River Area. By PETER C. McGILL and D. M. LoRANGER Eas-tern Slope, Richardson Mountains: Cretaceous and Tertiary Structural History and Regional Significance. By J. A . JELETZKY

339 361 380 381 403

421 427 438 442 458 466 481 499 500 515 532

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I Evaporite Piercement Structures in the Northern Richardson Mountains. By P. E . KENT and w. A. C. RUSSELL

XV

584

ALASKA

Progress Report: A Study of Tectonics of Alaska. By GEORGE GRYC Correlation of Palaeozoic Rocks in Alaska. By J . THOMAS DUTRO, Jr. Newly Recovered Upper Tertiary Non-marine Sediments in Alaska and Northwestern Canada. By WILLIAMS. BENNINGHOFF, G . WILLIAM HOLMES, and D . M. HOPKINS Preliminary Report on Upper Cenozoic Carbonaceous Deposits in the Johnson River Area, Alaska Range. By WILLIAM S. BENNINGHOFF and G. WILLIAM HOLMES Ostracoda from the Pleistocene Gubik Formation, Arctic Coastal Plain, Alaska. By FREDERICK M. SWAIN

596 597

598

599 600

ARCTIC OCEAN BASIN

History of Geologic Thought on the Origin of the Arctic Basin. By A. J. EARDLEY The Mid-Oceanic Ridge and its Extension through the Arctic Basin. By BRUCE C. HEEZEN and MAURICE EWING Former Mountain Connections in the Arctic. By J . Tuzo WILSON Arctic Basin Geomorphology. By ROBERT s. DIETZ and GEORGE SHUMWAY Seismic Studies of the Arctic Ocean Floor. By KENNETH HUNKINS Dredged Gravels from the Central Arctic Ocean. By WALTER SCHWARZACHER and KENNETH HUNKINS Bathymetry of the Beaufort Sea. By A . J. CARSO LA, R. L. FISHER, C. J. SHIPEK, and GEORGE SHUMWAY Preliminary Results of Investigations on Arctic Drift Station Charlie. By WILLIAM J . CROMIE Geophysical Studies on IGY Drifting Station Bravo, T-3, 1958 to 1959. By DONALD PL0UFF, G . V. KELLER, F. C. FRISCHKNECHT, and R. R. WAHL Marine Geological Observations from the Barents Sea. By HEIKKI IGNATIUS Marine Geology and Bathymetry of the Chukchi Shelf off the Ogotoruk Creek Area, Northwest Alaska. By D . W. SCHOLL and C. L. SAINSBURY NOTE Figures too large to be accommodated in the text page may be found in the separate container which accompanies these volumes. References to these figures in the text are marked with an asterisk.

607 622 643 644 645 666 678 690

709 717

718

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I Evaporite Piercement Structures in the Northern Richardson Mountains. By P. E . KENT and w. A. C. RUSSELL

XV

584

ALASKA

Progress Report: A Study of Tectonics of Alaska. By GEORGE GRYC Correlation of Palaeozoic Rocks in Alaska. By J . THOMAS DUTRO, Jr. Newly Recovered Upper Tertiary Non-marine Sediments in Alaska and Northwestern Canada. By WILLIAMS. BENNINGHOFF, G . WILLIAM HOLMES, and D . M. HOPKINS Preliminary Report on Upper Cenozoic Carbonaceous Deposits in the Johnson River Area, Alaska Range. By WILLIAM S. BENNINGHOFF and G. WILLIAM HOLMES Ostracoda from the Pleistocene Gubik Formation, Arctic Coastal Plain, Alaska. By FREDERICK M. SWAIN

596 597

598

599 600

ARCTIC OCEAN BASIN

History of Geologic Thought on the Origin of the Arctic Basin. By A. J. EARDLEY The Mid-Oceanic Ridge and its Extension through the Arctic Basin. By BRUCE C. HEEZEN and MAURICE EWING Former Mountain Connections in the Arctic. By J . Tuzo WILSON Arctic Basin Geomorphology. By ROBERT s. DIETZ and GEORGE SHUMWAY Seismic Studies of the Arctic Ocean Floor. By KENNETH HUNKINS Dredged Gravels from the Central Arctic Ocean. By WALTER SCHWARZACHER and KENNETH HUNKINS Bathymetry of the Beaufort Sea. By A . J. CARSO LA, R. L. FISHER, C. J. SHIPEK, and GEORGE SHUMWAY Preliminary Results of Investigations on Arctic Drift Station Charlie. By WILLIAM J . CROMIE Geophysical Studies on IGY Drifting Station Bravo, T-3, 1958 to 1959. By DONALD PL0UFF, G . V. KELLER, F. C. FRISCHKNECHT, and R. R. WAHL Marine Geological Observations from the Barents Sea. By HEIKKI IGNATIUS Marine Geology and Bathymetry of the Chukchi Shelf off the Ogotoruk Creek Area, Northwest Alaska. By D . W. SCHOLL and C. L. SAINSBURY NOTE Figures too large to be accommodated in the text page may be found in the separate container which accompanies these volumes. References to these figures in the text are marked with an asterisk.

607 622 643 644 645 666 678 690

709 717

718

GEOLOGY OF

Volume I

THE

ARCTIC

Section One

REGIONAL

GEOLOGY

SOVIET

ARCTIC

Main Features of the Tectonic Development of the Central Soviet Arctic I. P. ATLASOV AND

V. N. SOKOLOV

ABSTRACT

The structure of the central part of the Soviet Arctic is a result of prolonged tectonic development which took place in seven main stages (tectonic periods) . The structures formed comprised structural stages during each period respectively. The time limits of each stage were not entirely penecontemporaneous in adjacent regions. The Archaean geotectonic period was completed by a period of folding. A platform structure existed in the second half of the Proterozoic period in the central part of the central Siberian plateau while geosynclinal zones were situated in the rest of the region. In the Sinian and especially in the Lower-Middle Palaeozoic periods the platform which had originated in the Proterozoic spread progressively until it occupied nearly the whole area to the east of the Urals. The Upper Palaeozoic-Lower Mesozoic tectonic period was marked by the development of the Taimyr and the Verkhoyansk geosynclines. In the Urals-Novaya Zemlya area the geosyncline existed till the end of the Palaeozoic. The Meso-Kainozoic tectonic period (J-Tr.) was characterized by a new expansion of the platform at the expense of the Taimyr geosyncline, and in the Cenozoic the whole area represented a platform. Thus, the main features of the tectonic development of the central Soviet Arctic are recurrent changes of the tectonic pattern and erosion processes at the end of each tectonic period and of each phase of its development. In the modern structure of the region in question we distinguish: the Mesozoic Verkhoyansk-Chukotskaya folded area consisting of the Late Mesozoic Verkhoyansk and the Mesozoic-Cenozoic Novosibirsk folded systems and composed of six structural stages; the Early Mesozoic Taimyr-Novaya Zemlya folded area which has six or seven structural stages; the Late Palaeozoic Urals-Novaya Zemlya folded area characterized by five structural stages; the Late Cenozoic Lena-Enisey trough with two structural stages; the northern part of the West-Siberian Epi-Hercynian platform, which has three structural stages; and the northern part of the Precambrian East Siberian platform, consisting of six structural stages. Ore zones both in geosynclines and in the platform are closely related to the basement faults, which served as feeding channels for magmas and hydrothermal solutions. On the platforms and in the Lena-Enisey trough in certain periods of the tectonic development conditions and structural features favourable for oil and gas formation were present. Oil and gas shows have been established in the Sinian and the Lower-Middle Palaeozoic structural stages on the Siberian platform, and in the Upper Palaeozoic-Lower Mesozoic, and in the Mesozoic-Cenozoic structural stages in the Lena-Enisley trough, and on the West Siberian platform.

6

SOVIET ARCTIC

THE SOVIET UNION owns the largest sector of the Arctic, a sector extending through approximately 160 degrees of longitude. The present report is devoted to description of its tectonic development of the central part which is characterized by a complex jointing of different regional structures (Figure 1). The following structural elements can be discriminated: the East Siberian (Siberian) platform with Mesozoic-Cenozoic foredeeps framing it to the north and east, the West Siberian Epi-Hercynian platform, and the fold systems of the Verkhoyansk mountain area, Taimyr, and the Urals, which form a northern semicircle around both platforms. The territory of the central part of the Soviet Arctic is bounded by the Polar Urals and Novaya Zemlya to the west, the northern part of the Verkhoyansk mountain area and the New Siberian Islands to the east, and includes the archipelago of Franz Josefs Land, Severnaya Zemlya, and other islands of the Kara Sea. This enormous part of the earth's crust is composed of Archaean, Proterozoic, Sinian, Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic sedimentary and igneous rocks which have been subjected to different degrees of disturbance in different regions. The examination of the geological structure of this part of the earth's crust enables us to divide its history into seven main geotectonic periods which are common to the whole of the territory : the Archaean, the Proterozoic, the Sinian, the Lower and Middle Palaeozoic, the Upper Paleozoic-Lower Mesozoic, the Mesozoic-Cenozoic, and the Cenozoic. It is probable that some individual geotectonic periods (namely the second, the fourth, and the fifth) will be subdivided eventually into two distinct periods as data accumulates and, for some regions, such subdivision seems already to be justified (Table I). Each period began with regional subsidence of the earth crust, a transgression of the sea, and sedimentation ( the thalassocratic episode), and ended with uplift

FIGURE 1. Tectonic map of the central Soviet Arctic. Scale I : 15000000. Tectonic regions: A . Novosibirsk-Chukchi zone of the Verkhoyansk-Chukchi fold area. B. The Verkhoyansk zone of the Verkhoyansk-Chukchi fold area. C. The Taimyr zone of the Taimyr Severnaya Zemlya fold area. D . The Severnaya Zemlya zone of the Taimyr Severnaya Zemlya fold area. E. The Ural-Novaya Zemlya fold area. F. The Lena-Yenisei depression. G . The northern part of the West Siberian platform. H . The northern part of the East Siberian platform. Structural stages and substages: (I) First structural stage (Archaean-Ar) , (2) lower substage (Pt1 ) of the second (Proterozoic) structural stage, (3) upper substage (Pt2 ) of the second structural stage, (4) second and third (Sinian) structural stages combined, (5) third structural stage (Sinian-Sn) undivided, (6) fourth structural stage (Lower and Middle Palaeozoic-Cm-Ci, in the Ural-Novaya Zemlya area up to C 3 ) undivided, (7) lower substage (Cm) of the fourth structural stage distinguished only in the Ural-Novaya Zemlya area where it is of the same significance as a stage, (8) Middle substage (O-D 1 ) of the fourth structural stage, distinguished only in the Ural-Novaya Zemlya area, (9) upper substage (D-C 1 ; D 2-C3 , in the Ural-Novaya Zemlya area) of the fourth structural stage, ( 10) fifth structural stage (the Upper Palaeozoic-Lower Mesozoic C 2-T 3 ) undivided, (11) lower substage (C 2-P 2) of the fifth structural stage; P 1 -P 2 in the Urals-Novaya Zemlya area distinguished as a stage, (12) upper substage (T1-T3) of the fifth structural stage, (13) lower substage (J-CrI 1 ) of the sixth (Mesozoic-Cenozoic J-Pg) structural stage, (14) upper substage (Cr1 2-Pg) of the sixth structural stage, (15) third, fourth , fifth, and sixth structural stages combined, (16) seventh (Cenozoic N-Q) structural stage, (17) sixth and seventh structural stages combined (on Franz Josefs Land, T 3-Q), (18) thicknesses of the platform mantle of the pre-Upper Palaeozoic deposits, (19) bulk thicknesses of the successions of the MesozoicCenozoic and Cenozoic stages, (20) hight Isolines of the Permian and Triassic lava base in the Tunguska syneclise, (21) faults, (22) hinge lines of the main anticlinoria in fold areas, (23) general strike of folds in fold areas, (24) outlines of structural stages and substages.

~· ~

I~

i

00

OG

m~ 0

-~ -~ ~

~~

~bJ ~~

~. ~ :!:

DB N

~~

TABLE I Structural Unconformity Distribution in Different Regions GeolOf-C Geotectonic lime

fl•rioda

N-Q

Cenowic

"7dt Si&erian ('lat/arm Strudural I VeTK/q" ,.}'//J'ned sedunentary

and voleanic. roe.ks

"

< Metamorphosed

sedimentary rock~

Intrusive roe.ks

C

~

...,i

Acid rocks. Aphle and pegmatite . Keiv porphyroid granites of Voronyi Tundras . Tourmaline pegmatite. Microcline granite (some granite of this group is younger). llastc and ullrabasik intrusions. Pyroxenite peridotite and gabbro of .Salny,e tun1tra and l\olvlclny ma,sit . ' Gabbro, gabbro·norite and labradorite ol Vo!ch•f • Chuna- Monche-Tundra etc. Gabbro -anorthoolte and orthoamphibolite of the eiv, the 'iaga river etc. Keiv formation. 5taurolite- mica slate. Quartzite and. much subordinate carbonate rod-

... ...

.:

:,:

cG

Oktyabrskaya

....

...... :,

:,:, H

,,,"''-'

:z:

Pronchishchevan Actinolite-bioUte. adinolile••rdote-chlorlle and tpidote-chlorile sericile ,late, (metamorphose tut!, porphyrite and basalt). In the north-west of Taimyr metamorphosed tul!itu are In abundance. Metamorphosed sandstone and chlorite-sericite slate occur. Thicllancl) Sinian. Hiatuo, uncontormity

Ordovician. Htatu,, unconformity

Sinian. Hialus , uncontormity

Chlorite mica•calca· rcouo, amphibole·albi te and blot ile-iu.arh

schiSts micaceous mar-

ble; lhiecalcareous schut.s; liiolite and q_uaTh· le (mic.a -amphibolc, ,mphibole, amphibole lhicknw 300·.SOOm amphi bole ·sch uts 1~terbcd.garnet ·amphibolc: and other.s) schist and serpentinitc; thick- about 2000m BioUlc. biolilc-amphi· l-\.nthophyllile · m••· Amphibolilc; thick· . B,ohle· garnet, nc,s ~00·1000 m nts3 200 · 250 m mu3tovitc ·&arnct bolt. .sillimanite- biott IJictile q_u.1rl1.itc ; and amphibolc tc,amphibolc •pyro,.ene, ~uarti-c~loritt •m u..sco garnet gnc.b,c:.s 1 pyro.xenc i:,la&.i0&nei.s • vile .sthut Biotilc and acgiri· Biolile and epidolc- eorditritc -&arnetses, 30metirnc.s earnct mica s.chist, amphi- ne eneh.ses thickneM biohlc and. biolilc!>.:tc~1~cht1~ithfc.sk- bolilc and. migmatitc I00-150m graphite varietiu ncss no lc.ss than Total lhickns 2500 with their mi&mat1tc. 1000m J0O0 m Cry3lalline ~ist, marble and calciphyre with composition .51mi lar to that ot gnciMei ~iotitc amph;bo· le schists, amph;b,Ji.

i:~,m;t~~J:r~!~:-

l~{~~~i

ar, subordinate

Biotltc, biotllc -

~

~

.!;

&aTnct, biotit.c hornblende, horn• blende, apo~pt.r• .sthene and. 1opsid.e ·gnebses mi.A· fma.ble,ca.ki'p~yre

'/ $,hem, ot the Prtc>mbTian ,tra.llg,aphy ot lh• Chukch; pcninoula ha• been modifica° by the aulhoTS

30

SOVIET ARCTIC

two assemblages (Table IV), the lower assemblage being dominant. Apohypersthene gneisses which are included in this lower assemblage provide the evidence which permits us to assign it to the Archaean by analogy with the Aldan shield. Alaskite granites are dominant among the intrusives, and this provides further evidence of similarity with the Aldan Archaean. Minor granodiorite and alkali syenite intrusions which occur in the Omolon block are of Proterozoic age. The other Precambrian outcrops in the territory in question are small in area and are situated within the median stable mass of the Kolyma region (Table IV). A high temperature gneiss facies occurs here together with abundant low temperature slates. The distribution in time of the magmatic rocks of the Precambrian in this area is uncertain. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

( 1 ) Scattered outcrops of the Precambrian basement distributed over an extensive area differ sharply from one another because of rock composition and mode of formation. However, the genetic link between the Precambrian sequences of different regions is the large-scale sedimentation which took place in vast geosynclinal areas, not only in the Proterozoic but also in the Archaean, at the expense of the oldest crystalline blocks which were being eroded. This is borne out by the geological study of the eastern part of the Baltic shield and of the Anabar and Aldan shields in Siberia. However, most Archaean formations were formerly considered to be magmatic in their initial state. (2) All Archaean and Lower Proterozoic formations were affected by intense ultra-metamorphism with related migmatization and granitization of the regionally metamorphosed rocks. The development of the Upper Proterozoic was not accompanied, at least within the Soviet Arctic, by such processes to any considerable extent. This fact permits us to conclude that the absence of regional expression of ultra-metamorphism in the metamorphic assemblages is evidence that the latter are indeed younger and have been formed in structural stages at shallower depth. (3) The hypersthene gneiss series of the Anabar shield and its equivalents, generally called chamockite gneiss in the Aldan shield and other shields of the globe, consist of metamorphic rocks formed under conditions of very deep burial and very high temperature (D. S. Korzhinsky) and formed as a rule only in the Archaean. In spite of both the sedimentary and the magmatic controversy connected with the question of the original source material of hypersthene gneiss, its presence in metamorphic assemblages allows us to assign the latter to the ' Archaean as has been done for the Omolon block. ( 4) Korzhinsky's method of paragenetic analysis of mineral associations in Precambrian rocks, presenting advances in the study of metamorphic facies, has been used by the authors in their study of the Precambrian of the Anabar and Taimyr regions. Use of this method made it possible to reveal numerous common features in the metamorphism of the different regions described above and in other areas where Precambrian suites are found. It is to be anticipated that the results of more extensive application of paragenetic mineral ·analysis in the study of Precambrian formations will contribute an important additional criterion in the correlation of the oldest sequences in different regions.

The Palaeozoic of the Soviet Arctic F. G. MARKOV AND B. V. TKACHENKO

ABSTRACT

Palaeozoic deposits compose the mantles of the Russian and the Siberian platforms and the adjacent Caledonian and Hercynian folded areas, and partly form the basement of the Mesozoic-Cenozoic structures of the northeast USSR. The discussion on the lower contact of the Palaeozoic rocks is not over as yet. The Sinian complex is not proved to belong to the Palaeozoic. On the Taimyr and the northern margin of the central Siberian plateau Cambrian deposits rest unconformably on Sinian rocks, sharply separated from the latter by their mineral composition and by fossils. Complete sections of Cambrian strata represented mostly by carbonate rocks. are known in north-central Siberia. These rocks may be divided into biostratigraphic zones. West of this is a region of continental deposits and volcanic activity, while to the east we have an area of calcareous continental deposits. The breakdown of these formations is limited to series. Sometimes the Cambrian rocks contain bitumen. The same depositional environment persisted into the Ordovician, but in the Urals-Novaya Zemlya and the Grampian geosynclines there was an increase in magmatic activity. The Ordovician deposits can be divided into the European stages. For the Middle Siberia a separate system of stages has been worked out. The Silurian deposits, represented predominantly by carbonate facies, are found on the continent east of the Timan mountain range and also on the Novaya Zemlya, the Severnaya Zemlya and the Novosibirsk Islands. These strata may be divided into series and stages. Magmatic activity took place in the Polar Urals. The Devonian beds were deposited under rapidly changing depositional conditions caused by the Caledonian orogeny. On the Kol'skiy peninsula only Upper Devonian continental formations have been revealed. East of the Timan-Kanin range and on the large islands the deposits of three Devonian series subdivided into stages are developed. The marine carbonateterrigenous strata have been changed by hydrochemical substances, sometimes with the accumulation of salts and bitumen. Magmatic activity took place everywhere. The Carboniferous deposits are mostly represented by carbonate rocks of the Lower series which are developed on Novaya Zemlya, the Novosibirsk Islands and on the continent east of the White Sea. Tournaisean, Visean, and more rarely Namurian deposits are distinguished. Middle and Upper Carboniferous deposits are predominantly continental deposits with poorly preserved fossils, a fact which makes them similar to the higher Permian beds. Magmatic activity took place on the Kol'skiy peninsula and on the Novaya Zemlya. Permian deposits are widespread over the whole region extending from the White Sea up to the Bering Sea and on Novaya Zemlya. The thick continental strata are often coal-bearing and sometimes oil-bearing. The Lower and the Upper series and more rarely the stages are recognized. The division into formations is commonly used. During the Permian period the Pechora, Taimyr, and Tungusska coal-bearing basins were formed. By the end of Palaeozoic time the geosynclinal development of the Urals-Novosemelsk area was completed. The Hercynian orogeny can be seen on the Taimyr, the Verchoyansk mountain area, the Novosibirsk Islands, and in more eastern areas. Magmatic activity was intense, especially in the northern part of central Siberia where a thick formation of volcanic rocks (trap rock complex) had appeared, the development of which was continued until the Mesozoic time.

32

SOVIET ARCTIC

PALAEOZOIC DEPOSITS are widely distributed within the Soviet Arctic and occur not only on the mainland but also in the majority of the islands of the Arctic Ocean. They compose the sedimentary mantles of the Russian and Siberian platforms and form the adjacent Palaeozoic fold systems as well as the basements of the Mesozoic

NE

N

Correlation

sch4me from Harland MS.

I

§

i~~: ti: -:;:: 'WI'

Ma9d1lcntfd.Gn.

~

ISOO

)TEENFJELL oo 270 Q.

MICA SCHIST

£IMFJELL£T

,oRr,tATION

Co. 1soo

1

t-.:iddlt

Lowtr

-{Skblfjollot 5oriu & Yims.odd1n Series~ Gulliktsenfj Series

ISBJ.-RNMAMNA{-Rtvdaltn --Seriu FOAMATION Ariekommtn Ser. to. " 00 Skoddefj. Series

SERIES

?

Congloffl • Congloffltrafe Doi s Dolomite Qi • Quartzite

Gn = Gneiss Sen, Schist a = Quartz

*•

-br • -brtcn (glacier) Canadian faunas -fj a -fJtlltt (mountain) + • L.Cambrion faunas •fd = -fJorden ("bay") A • tillitcs

Thi kn in ~.:r~:'

76

SPITSBERGEN

Harland [1941) Fairbairn [1933), Odell [1927), Tyrrell [1922) as well as early work, notably by Blomstrand [ 1864]). Further papers are in preparation in Cambridge on the Upper Middle Hecla Hoek, the Polarisbreen Series, and the Oslobreen Series. The combined results give a consistent picture of a geosyncline - probably more than 15 km thick in Ny Friesland and apparently thinning considerably in certain parts of the succession in western Nordaustlandet. In that direction, beds thinned further over a platform or foreland area - part of the Barents Shelf ( an extension of the Fenno-Scandian shield). This succession shows remarkably constant facies and thicknesses where these have been measured along the strike from north to south in Ny Friesland, and there is little evidence of angular unconformity within the sequence, ranging from late Precambrian times to at least early Ordovician. The succession in this area seems to be the most complete; it is used above in Table I, and also below as a standard for correlation. It is selected from among alternative sections on the grounds of personal knowledge, completeness, central position, and the fact that it includes the Hecla Hoek rocks originally described and the mountain after which they are named - Heclahuken. A difficulty in nomenclature arises in dealing with a large group of Precambrian rocks. Originally the Hecla Hoek rocks as a whole were described as a "formation." We have mapped about thirty formations within this large unit. They were grouped by us into series and then into the Lower, Middle, and Upper Hecla Hoek groups. This usage may not be currently satisfactory because of developing views on stratigraphic nomenclature; group should perhaps have been reserved for our series. To attempt to iron out the inconsistencies of nomenclature of rock units defined by many independent workers might be a thankless and useless task and it seems better to preserve, for the time being, the names as originally used according to the form in the stratigraphic lexicon. However, as already suggested (Harland, 1960a) the word group is introduced to include the formations combined in a convenient unit throughout Spitsbergen. Thus, the Polarisbreen Series refers to the tillite and associated shale formations in Ny Friesland as originally defined by us (1956), but the Polarisbreen Group would also include those other formations thought to be of the same age within Spitsbergen, for example, the Sveanor Formation, (?) the Gashamna Series, the Kapp Lyell Boulder Bed, and the Comfortlessbreen Schists. Over a large area this might lead to difficulties, but within the comparatively small area of Spitsbergen a single succession of groups should eventually be adequate to describe most of the development. The south and southwest. The other main area in which a succession has been detailed, and which appears to be capable of even more detailed stratigraphic subdivision is the south (Major and Winsnes, 1955) and southwest (Birkenmajer, 1958a and 1959) coast of Spitsbergen where the complications arising from Alpine folding are not too severe. The areas north and south of Hornsund have yielded a succession of the order of 12 km or so, with a variety of facies similar to that in the northeast. Preliminary correlation along the strike indicates lateral constancy in the formations and the presence, apparently, of at least one marked hiatus. The whole succession, if exposed, might well go down nearly as deep as that in Ny Friesland.

W.B.HARLAND

77

The west. Farther north- for example, between Isfjorden and Kongsfjordenthe superposition of Alpine on Caledonian disturbance complicates the stratigraphy so that, although some of the earliest work was done here (Holtedahl, 1913; Orvin, 1934), it seems likely that the succession will have to be interpreted in the light of sequences established to the south and east. Holtedahl subsequently used this west coast area as his typical Hecla Hoek, the age of which was at first assumed only by analogy with the Bear Island section, and then incompletely, so that it was long considered that the main bulk of the Hecla Hoek rocks might be Palaeozoic. Later work by University of Birmingham parties resulted in a structural paper (Weiss, 1953). In the season before his death C. B. Wilson worked out a provisional succession which, together with some observations made in 1959, make it seem that a range of rocks may be present similar to those further south. Prins Karls Forland is an island in a critical position opposite these western outcrops. Earlier work was summarized by Tyrrell ( 1924) and the preliminary results of Atkinson's work have appeared (1956). The northwest. Petrological and structural observations by Hoel (1914), Holtedahl (1926), and Schenk (1937) provide the main knowledge of this metamorphic complex. Its relation with the area to the south is indicated by Orvin (1934). Because of the abounding granites and gneisses, earlier geologists had assumed that this ( along with other metamorphic areas) was part of the Precambrian basement. Holtedahl showed that the granites and gneisses were later than the country rock, which he assumed to be continuous with the rocks he had examined further south and had taken as his type Hecla Hoek. He therefore postulated a Caledonian age. The claim depended on the somewhat tenuous correlations involved in interpreting the stratigraphy of the west coast as mentioned above, but perhaps equally on tectonic intuition. We can now demonstrate this with independent stratigraphic evidence from observations in 1959 (Harland, 1960a and b). On the one hand there seems little doubt that the Liefdefjorden Schists and Marbles which we found at many points along the coasts from Bockfjorden, Liefdefjorden, Raudfjorden and round to Magdalenefjorden are of the same general type and that all belong to the Finnlandveggen group. Wilson, sampling the rocks farther south in Orvin's succession north of Kongsfjorden, as well as those previously examined by Holtedahl and Weiss, confirmed Holtedahl's, assumption of stratigraphic transition. Summary of the Hecla Hoek Succession The local details and some of the qualifications having been discussed elsewhere by the writer, some aspects of the phases in the development of the Hecla Hoek geosyncline are outlined. Finnlandveggen group. It is not clear how to correlate the oldest beds resting on the basement complex in north Nordaustlandet. Elsewhere, the basement is not seen and the oldest rocks are invariably metamorphosed but appear to have been a thick series of argillaceous and silty beds. The lower parts of the succession are obscured by feldspathization, but in Ny Friesland the Eskolabreen gneisses include thick, amphibolitic members, suggesting volcanic activity at an early stage. After possibly turbulent beginnings, the geosyncline appears to have received similar

78

SPITSBERGEN

sediments in relatively quiet conditions throughout a large area and probably at least 2,000-3,000 m were deposited. In the higher parts of the succession, the pelitic rocks are calcareous ("calc-schists" of Bayly, 1957), and a number of marble horizons are found. The marbles in the northwest (Liefdefjorden Marbles, Harland, 1960a, and Steenfjell Dolomites, Orvin, 1934) are thicker than those in Ny Friesland ( Smutsbreen Marbles). It is possible that the whole succession of the group in this direction is thicker, because throughout a large area of highly tectonized rock nothing of sedimentary origin outside this group has been discovered. The similarity of facies in this group in different areas suggests one large interconnecting basin or trough. The Harkerbreen group. In Ny Friesland a very distinctive group of predominantly quartzose sediments follows. These are interbedded with amphibolites, interpreted as metamorphosed basic tuffs and lavas. They are conspicuous because of the colour contrast, but there is evidence of igneous activity also in the rocks beneath in Ny Friesland. Birkenmajer and I have suggested, mutually and independently, correlation between his Eimfjellet Formation and the Harkerbreen Series. In the southwest it seems that the basic rocks ( once attributed to Caledonian orogenic igneous activity) belong to a similar volcanic phase. According to Birkenmajer (1959, p. 130), the Vimsodden Series contains macroclastic deposits with quartzite pebbles. A fuller description of this horizon and its pebbles is awaited with the greatest interest, for Birkenmajer claims it to be a glacial deposit. It could thus be the earliest tillite recorded from Spitsbergen. Birkenmajer in the same publication withdraws the claim that the Slyngfjellet conglomerate might be glacial, which had confused his earlier correlation in 1958. No sign of this horizon has been noticed in Ny Friesland - but if present it could easily have been missed if the pebbles are quartzitic in a highly metamorphosed quartzite formation. If this Lower Hecla Hoek glacial period be established, caution is needed, as already exercised by many, in correlating late Precambrian tillites as Varangian. While the Upper Hecla Hoek tillites seem without doubt to correlate with the late Sparagmitian, upper Eleonore Bay formation, and other tillites further afield where fossiliferous Cambrian deposits follow shortly (Harland and Bidgood, 1959), there may be more than one earlier late Precambrian glaciation. However, it is simpler to assume fewer glaciations until more are established. On this basis it is tempting to correlate the Vimsodden horizon with the glacial horizon discovered recently somewhere below the main development of the Eleonore Bay Formation in East Greenland (communicated privately by Dr. Lauge Koch) and with a boulder horizon, possibly glacial, in Newfoundland ( communicated privately by Dr. McCartney) . On this tentative assumption the Hecla Hoek geosyncline would have at least as long a history as the Caledonian one in East Greenland. The upper Lower Hecla Hoek and the lower Middle Hecla Hoek. The remainder of the Lower Hecla Hoek and the whole of the lower Middle Hecla Hoek is difficult to correlate between Ny Friesland and the west. This seems to be because of a real difference in facies between the two areas. As I have recently suggested (Harland, 1960a), this difference could be due to uplift within the geosyncline. Such uplift could have been initiated with the movements associated with the Harkerbreen

W.B.HARLAND

79

volcanics and thick quartzites, and continued uplift would meet the following requirements: (a) a difference of facies in sedimentation areas previously similar; ( b) the hiatus apparent within the succession in the southwest and possibly north of Isfjorden; ( c) the production of thick and chemically-unsorted sediments, that is, shales, silts, and greywackes; (d) a source of supply of these sediments west rather than east of Ny Friesland; (e) a means of separating the east and west parts of the geosyncline and so allowing different modes of deformation in the Ny Friesland orogeny; (f) a possible explanation of the site of the later Devonian graben. To account for such a late subsidence within the Caledonian belt seems to require some difference in structure and history. We know that the thickest sediments in Ny Friesland have been tectonized, granitized, intruded, metamorphosed, and uplifted, whereas the area of Andree Land subsequently subsided. This contrast in later behaviour might originate in a contrast in sedimentation and uplift in Lower and lower Middle Hecla Hoek times. The succession in the west and southwest appears to reflect conditions of greater instability than in Ny Friesland by evident conglomerates and possibly an important hiatus. The correlation of the Kap Hansteen Formation at the top of the Lower Hecla Hoek in Nordaustlandet is uncertain. It is characterized by pyroclastics in the west (Kulling, 1934) which, however, appear to be more acid than the obvious pyroclastics of the Lower Hecla Hoek in Ny Friesland. The upper Middle Hecla Hoek. Following relatively variable and different elastic facies, uniform and widespread conditions appear to have prevailed over a wide area giving carbonate deposition of more than one distinctive kind. There is little difficulty in correlating the Akademikerbreen Series with the Rysso and Hunnberg Series in Nordaustlandet and the H!

Z

----- ?

TARTARIAN

I

ARTINSKIAN

L

SAKMARIAN

Fvsilino)

1 1 '

MOSCo">VIAN ... : ,.,,~., . AN Fvsv/lno BASHKIRI).

"'Tl

('Tl

~ L

~ DEV.

HIATUS

BRACHIOPOD CHERTS fiPOLVZOA LST]

I

NAMURIAN B SubA Fvsvlina VISEAN

- - ---

TOURNAISIAN

[sPIRIFER

- - -~ - - - - .- - ·

l

J

- - t - - - - - 1 - · -MID-WOROIEKAMM£: . • •• I • ______ UMESTON -Tr1t1_ ~ -_-_c1r•s ;... - - -

GZEI.IAN IAN

-

HIATUS

UPPER 1· MIDDLE

---L Pstudo- (LST.~UPPER _~hwog I

BEAR /$LAND.

[WITTENBERG SERIES)

LOWER ( UT.A)

--

HOIIIZOH$

uT]I SPIRIFER LST. ~

UPPER GYPSIF'EROUS $ERIES

JICUII\N 10RENBURGIAN 1 ,

?

[OTHER SP/TS8Elf-6Nll

CARNIAN

EC-TRIAS

(KUNGURIAN ?) (Para-

~

.SUCCESSION IN CENTRAL. VESTSPITSBERGEN

CYATHOPHYLLUM ,. LIMESTONE

------?CORA LST

iFUSUUNA LST

I

I

1 YELLOW ssT

(BLACK CRAG) ______ j ___ CAMPBELL [MOSQUrNSis-1 ?AMBIGUA LST PASSAGE BEDS -KALK] PYRAMIDEN CONGI.DMSJ -RYGGEN[OtAar.sNUNI r110 CONGLOMS

Cl

SANDSTONES

-

CULM

~ ---··-

.

CULM

SSTS TUNHllM

HIATUS Bo#d on Forbu, Harland, and Hvgh•1 1958

SIRIIS MISUUI . SHIES

:::0

~ c,,

c,,

-I

100

SPITSBERGEN

supplied the following notes from their manuscript: "spores seen are closely comparable with Tournaisian (Lowermost Mississippian) of Canada and Russia and Visean of Russia. This confirms the view expressed in Forbes, Harland and Hughes (1958) on the basis of plant macrofossils, only." The situation appears to be different in the west and south in several respects. First, according to Dineley (1958, p.207), "the dominant rock type in the Culm is quartzose or quartzitic sandstone and conglomerate, pale grey or yellowish in colour. The basal conglomerates, however, include quantities of well rounded Hecla Hoek and Devonian fragments." Clearly a more normal situation prevailed with the supply of Hecla Hoek detritus. Supply from the west would account for both quartzites and conglomerates. Supply from the west, where it is likely that the Hecla Hoek metamorphic grade was low, would account for the lack of metamorphic minerals in the western Culm and in the Billefjorden sandstones. In any case in the latter it is difficult to conceive an easterly component in the supply of sediment and quite feasible to postulate a westerly one. East of Billefjorden there is evidence of great stability reflected in the apparent gradual transgression eastwards. In contrast it would appear that the situation in the west was less stable, judging from the accounts given by Orvin and Dineley. However, it must be remembered that much of the western outcrop is limited to one steeply-dipping limb of a syncline and the variation over much of the area is known in one dimension only. The Mid-Carboniferous Movements Orvin ( 1940) referred to strong earth movements after Culm times resulting in the dislocation by faulting of the Culm deposits into the isolated patches now known. His map ( 1940, Figure 3) shows a series of faults following the pattern of the Svalbardian movements. The effect he argued was to remove the Culm from the area occupied by the Devonian graben, thus implying that uplift reversed the dominant pre-Carboniferous movement. The only area where this can be tested is along the belt of Carboniferous outcrops north of Isfjorden. Culm is present in mid-Dickson Land as far west as Kulmdalen but is absent further west (P. F. Friend, private communication), in Ekmanfjorden (Bates and Schwarzacher, 1958), and probably also at Dronningfjella (Holtedahl, 1913). Therefore the Devonian graben area was relatively uplifted if not faulted. The principal evidence for faulting at this time comes from Br!llggerhalv!llya, where the Middle Carboniferous in the west rests partly on Culm and on Devonian in the east. Here is evidence of the considerable pre-Culm faulting of the Svalbardian phase, but post-Culm movement is only inferred. It is possible that here pre-Culm movements formed a basin possibly without faulting. This is conjecture. The other main evidence in Spitsbergen for considerable movement at this time - namely, in the Billefjorden area - has been modified as a result of studies since 1940. This problem was discussed by McWhae (1953), whose diagrammatic sections show the situation in which the Culm is largely confined and possibly controlled in initial sedimentation by the small trough which occupies the belt of depression along the eastern margin of the main Devonian graben (along Billefjorden and Wijdefjorden).

W. B. HARLAND

101

From Billefjorden there is evidence of continued subsidence during Early and possibly Middle Carboniferous times, much accentuated at the time of formation of the Pyramiden conglomerates - a local deposit apparently deriving from the western margin of this small trough. This is the principal evidence we have in central Vestspitsbergen of ·mid-Carboniferous uplift. Dineley, who worked south of Brfllggerhalvfllya (1958, p. 209), appears not to have found any evidence for mid-Carboniferous movements in the west for he writes without comment: "While deposition was continuous from Culm times into the Middle Carboniferous in western Vestspitsbergen, it was interrupted by earth movements and elevation in the central and eastern areas." Evidence of erosion is mentioned from Ekmanfjorden in the centre. Orvin mentions evidence of instability at this time farther south, namely conglomerates at about this horizon in the Bellsund and Hornsund region. Taking the evidence as a whole it seems that there was some instability during Culm deposition to allow slight subsidence, followed possibly by uplift along the Devonian graben region sufficient to produce coarse local conglomerates. This is . strong movement in contrast to the stability that follows, but slight compared to any of the earlier movements we have been considering. The mid-Carboniferous movements are not in any sense an orogenic phase. Middle Carboniferous to Upper Permian

Middle Carboniferous rocks show a great variety of facies, possibly reflecting slight movements - for example, the localized Lower Gypsiferous Series. By Upper Carboniferous times conditions were becoming uniform and deposition very ·slow with a small elastic fraction so that the Triticites zone is only about 120 m thick. These Lower Wordiekammen limestones are widespread and certainly extend across the Devonian graben; indeed throughout the whole of Spitsbergen so far as can be seen. Sandford (1926, et seq.) drew attention to the importance of the peneplain and the "Upper Carboniferous" transgression in Nordaustlandet. The Permian continues without change of facies to reflect increasingly uniform marine conditions in which corals and fusulinids give way to brachiopods and polyzoans as the dominant fauna. There is a slight interruption in central Vestspitsbergen with the Upper Gypsiferous Series, which suggests a time of regression, and it is possible that this might be correlated with one of the breaks in the succession on Bear Island before or after the Cora Limestone. The succeeding Brachiopod Cherts show widespread and uniform conditions throughout Svalbard and indeed the Arctic. The determination of the age of the top of the succession has depended on a study of the brachiopods and polyzoans. Fusulinids are absent and corals scarce, and correlation with American or Eurasian successions is difficult. K. S. W. Campbell, from a preliminary study of the material in Cambridge, pointed to a close correlation with the Greenland material which Dunbar (1955) has correlated with the Kazanian. Frebold (1937) had claimed an Artinskian age and Stepanov (1937) claimed a Lower Kazanian age and more recently (1957) has proposed a new stage - the Svalbardian - for the marine equivalents of the Kungurian between the Artinskian and the Kazanian. More precise conclusions depend on a

102

SPITSBERG EN

thorough reinvestigation of some of the genera involved. Part of this task is being undertaken by D. J. Gobbett. The relation of the Brachiopod Cherts to the overlying so-called Eotrias is a question which cannot be solved without further evidence. A pronounced lithological break is evidently widespread owing to a change from a marine series with very little detritus to detrital deposits. This suggests uplift and the proximity of continental conditions. No evidence has been quoted to show that there is any marked discordance suggestive of more than epeirogenic uplift. But so much is clear. The question as to whether there is a significant gap in the succession depends on an estimate of the age of the beds above and below. It has been generally assumed that the Upper Permian is missing. It has been suggested above that the Brachiopod Cherts may go up to the Kazanian. Dineley (1958, p. 214) throws doubt on the age of the Eotriassic, which suggests that he and Garrett have palaeontological evidence for Upper Permian or lowermost Triassic age for at least some of the beds. Evidence along these lines might narrow down the supposed hiatus to minor proportions. A priori it would seem unlikely that earth movements and facies changes generally coincide with system boundaries. Most work on the Permian and Triassic succession has been done where the fjords cut the steep western limb of the main basin in Spitsbergen so that known variation is limited to a linear outcrop. The difference in the succession as a whole at Hornsund ( Orvin, 1940) suggests that this area has behaved differently and that the apparent lack of much of the Permian and Triassic is due to thinning, differential subsidence, and non-deposition rather than to removal in a later uplift. There is as yet little or no direct evidence for either an important non-sequence or a disconformity in the central area- certainly nothing to suggest a distinct orogenic phase. MESOZOIC SEDIMENTARY AND IGNEOUS ACTIVITY

In southernmost Spitsbergen and in Bj!1lrn!1lya there appears to be a distinct hiatus between the Palaeozoic and the Mesozoic, as the earliest dated beds resting on the Brachiopod Cherts or their probable equivalent are Carnian. Elsewhere, while we may yet be unaware of any evidence suggesting an important unconformity near the Palaeozoic-Mesozoic boundary, there is nevertheless a sharp change in lithology and the Mesozoic succession as a whole is distinguished from that of the Permian and Upper Carboniferous in being of predominantly detrital continental and epicontinental facies. Evidently some change had taken place resulting in a long continued reduction in relative sea-level - some of which might have come about as a result of deposition in the area. In the south-central part of Spitsbergen a broad basin of Mesozoic and Cenozoic deposits is preserved. Its western margin is upturned by later movements, but elsewhere there is a continuous series of gently dipping beds. South of Billefjorden, where the regional dip is of the order of two degrees to the south, Mesozoic sediments attain a total thickness of between 2,000 and 3,000 m. The best-known section is that from the steep western limb where it is exposed along the south shore of Isfjorden by Festningen. The "Festungs-profil" (Hoel and Orvin, 1937) has become a standard, but few other sections elsewhere are suffi-

W. B. HAR-LAND

103

ciently known to allow comparison and so give a three-dimensional view of the rocks. This will no doubt one day be obtained. Frebold, who has made the major contribution to our knowledge of the Mesozoic in Spitsbergen, concluded ( 1951) that open seas must have communicated throughout Mesozoic time so as to allow the many necessary faunal connections in the Barents Sea area. There is slight evidence that the source of sediments lay at times to the southeast or southwest, and at times to the north, and, in sum, Frebold concludes a changing pattern of transgressions and regressions, with changing directions of currents which induced differing facies throughout epicontinental seas. Both marine and continental facies obtain. Although, in common with Palaeozoic and Tertiary faunas and floras, warm and even subtropical climates are suggested, a detailed examination shows that the Mesozoic faunas tend to be of a distinctively boreal type, suggesting a higher latitude than, say, the Tethys. The Mesozoic succession until the end of the Lower Cretaceous does not indicate any important local tectonic event and it will not therefore be discussed in detail. Tables VII to IX summarize the known successions, which no doubt reflect the part played by eustatic change in response to tectonic and gradational processes elsewhere. TABLE VII THE TRIASSIC SUCCESSION

(after Frebold, 1951, and Major et al., 1956) Rhaetic Norian Carnian Ladinian Anisian

Younger Eotriassic Older Eotriassic

plant-bearing beds in part with coal and bonebed unknown ? Uplift marine, more or less sandy, beds with ironstone concretions with Nathorstites div. sp., Cladiscites, Halobia, etc. existence questionable ? Uplift Upper Saurian Niveau Daonella Layers Eutomoceras Horizon Gymnotoceras Horizon Lower Saurian Niveau Grippia Niveau Arctoceras Horizon } Posidonomya Layers Anasibrites Horizon Retsia Limestone Pseudomonotis Shale Myalina Shale Claraia Zone

The Triassic Succession

The important contributions to knowledge of the Triassic rocks are as follows: Bohm, 1903; Frebold, 1929a and b, 1930a, 1936, and 1939; Rozycki, 1959; Save-Soderbergh, 1936; Stensio, 1921; Wiman, 1916; and Wittenburg, 1910. The lowest part of the succession (sandstones, marls, and limestones) is poor in fossils, which were once thought to be of Permian age and may well turn out to be so. These so-called Eotriassic beds are widespread except in the south where at SS?Jrkapp and Bear Island only Upper Triassic beds are demonstrated . .Orvin (1940) gives the following thicknesses: Sassendalen, 150 m; Festningen section, 245 m; Bellsund, about 400 to 500 m; and Hornsund, 180 m.

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SPITSBERGEN

The overlying beds, varying from 100 to 400 m, are sandy marls with a rich fauna of reptiles, fish, ammonites, and lamellibranchs. These are followed by a thinner series of sandstones and shales with coal seams. There is some evidence in Edge~ya (Falcon, 1928) of an unconformity within this series, and this probably corresponds to the larger gap in the south. The uppermost Triassic is marine throughout the whole of Svalbard. The principal regressions then fall in or at the top of the Scythian, and in the Ladinian and the Norian, neither of which is represented by fossiliferous deposits. The maximum thickness for the Triassic is at Festningen, where it is about 1,150 m. The Jurassic Succession The Jurassic standard succession, like the Triassic is at Festningen, and totals only about 500 m. Again the principal descriptions derive from Frebold ( 1928, 1930b), Frebold and Stoll (1937) , and Arkell (1956, pp. 739-40) who gave a full bibliography. From a study of this literature he reassessed the age of the beds. This is the most recent study. His interpretation has been taken as the basis of Table VIII. Rozycki ( 1959) described the succession in northwest Torrell Land in the light of Arkell's work. Following widespread basal conglomerates, a uniform facies, the Aucella Shales, continues into the Cretaceous. These bear ammonites, and collections, partly by Frebold, some identified by Spath, were reassessed by Arkell from the published accounts. Briefly there is a regressive phase during the Lower and Middle Lias followed by a Toarcian transgression with a phosphatic conglomerate. There is a further slight transgression in the Bajocian and then the most important transgression in the Lower Callovian. A non-sequence appears to occur between the Lower Kimmeridgian and Lower Volgian. The Cretaceous Succession The uppermost part of the Aucella shales (21 m) are lowermost Cretaceous. Within these shales there appears to be a gap at the top of the Jurassic, followed by a marine transgression with the Berriasian. A lithologic change is marked by the overlying Festungs Sandstone of continental facies and of upper V alanginian to lower Barremian age, totalling up to 150 or 200 m, with rich plant-bearing beds and coal measures. A further marine transgression in Aptian and Albian times is known from deposits reaching 790 m in south Spitsbergen. There is no record of any Upper Cretaceous deposits in Spitsbergen. The principal references are Frebold 1928; Frebold and Stoll (1937), Hagerman (1925), Nathorst (1910), Sokolov and Bodylevsky (1931), Stolley (1912), Rozycki (1959), and the succession in Table IX is summarized from that given by Frebold ( 1951). Late Mesozoic (? and early Tertiary) Vulcanicity and Diastrophism There is no datable sedimentary record between Albian and Palaeocene, and in Vestspitsbergen Lower Tertiary rocks rest on Aptian in the southwest and Albian in the southeast. Here, as elsewhere, is evidence of some movement during the interval. The possibility of considerable movements cannot be ruled out, for there

W . B. HARLAND

105

TABLE VIII THE JURASSIC SUCCESSION (after Arkell, 1956)

= ===== =============:-,-,======= = ·-·--..=-=c_--c·.·=cc==---Upper Craspetides zones

Absent

Volgian

Blakei Scythicus Dorsoplanus

} l

K.immeridgian

Rotunda Pectinatus Subplanites spp. Beckeri Pseudomutabilis Raseniae

J

Transervarium Cordatum Mariae Lamberti Athleta

Callovian

Coronatum and Jason Calloviense Koenigi Macrocephalus

Bathonian

Discus Aspidoides Subcontractus Zigzag

} }

Pliensbachian Sinemurian Hettangian

AUCELLA

black shales, 193m SHALE

not proved, 23m, no fossils Horizons 2 and 3, * 35m

I

j Seymourites Arctocephalites

}

Bajocian Toarcian

not yet proved

Horizons 4 and 5* 23m

Bimammatum Oxfordian

Absent Dorsoplanites spp.

pelecypod faunule

widespread transgression limited transgression

Absent Absent

Upper and Middle Toarcian ammonites in basal first Jurassic transgression conglomerate not found at Festningen

}

Absent

*Refers to beds in "Festungsprofil" at Festningen (Hoel and Orvin, 1937).

are Tertiary beds resting on Hecla Hoek in Forlandsundet ~ though this latter discordance probably reflects the main Alpine phase in Spitsbergen. Throughout much of Spitsbergen, including the northeast, especially south Billefjorden, eastern Ny Friesland, Olav V Land, and Hinlopenstretet, dolerite sills are found in Carboniferous to Triassic rocks. Tyrrell and Sandford, in describing the petrology of these dolerites (1933) , postulated a late Jurassic or early Cretaceous age. Their view depended on the lack of intrusions in the Cretaceous rocks coupled with arguments about laval flows from two localities: (i) in Wilhelmfllya, where it has been claimed unbaked Lower Cretaceous sediments overlie them, and (ii) in Andree Land, where they rest on a supposed Cretaceous peneplain. Both these latter arguments arise from de Geer's account ( 1923), and are not supported by detailed descriptions. These are all claimed to belong to the same eruptions as they appear to be of the same general composition (but many basic rocks approximate to a similar composition). Regarding the lavas on the Andree Land peneplain

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SPITSBERGEN

TABLE IX THE CRETACEOUS SUCCESSION (after Frebold, 1951)

Upper Cretaceous

{

Stage

Deposits

Events

Danian Senonian Turonian Cenomanian

no deposits

uplift and? intrusion of dolerites

Barremian Hauterivian Upper Valanginian

Parahoplites, etc. Crioceras spp. Aucellina missing? plant beds Festungs Sandstone

Middle and Lower Valanginian Berriasian

Polyptichites Aucella Subcrespidites

Albian Aptian Lower Cretaceous

}

marine transgression coal forests continental ( top of Aucella Shale) transgression

it will be argued below that a better case can be made for placing these in the late Cenozoic. Orvin ( 1940) argued a late Cretaceous or Laramide age, as the form of the sills implied a much greater sedimentary cover than now obtains, and so prevented the sills reaching the surface. (Such an age would fit the Cretaceous/Tertiary unconformity.) Against this Tyrrell and Sandford argued that, whereas in the Carboniferous beds the sills are very uniform, in the later beds they show a great variety of structure, suggesting shallower intrusion. In reviewing the evidence and the arguments, the first point is to consider whether to explain all such igneous manifestations as of the same age. There is evidence for at least two eruptions in Kong Karls Land (Nathorst, 1910) and elsewhere in the Thulean province. There is good evidence to assume at least two in Spitsbergen. The age of the main sills is the most difficult question, if they are all sills. In this respect the report that one is a pre-Cretaceous lava flow is critical, but the evidence is not full enough to be convincing. The structural argument of the form of intrusion and amount of overburden seems to favour a later age, but this is not conclusive. The different behaviour of the post-Permian country rock could well be the result of a marked difference in competence between the two. The age of the country rocks (predominantly Triassic and earlier) may not have this significance. The pattern of intrusions is distinctly localized geographically as well as stratigraphically, and some deeper crustal structure may account for their distribution. For instance, the intrusions appear to avoid the uplifted Caledonian belts of Ny Friesland and the northwest, and their presumed continuation southward, and to be confined to the graben between them and to the platform deposits to the east. In view of the detailed knowledge of the transgressions and regressions during the Mesozoic succession, and the widespread correlation of deposits throughout much of the Barents Shelf area, it seems unlikely that these rocks could have been emplaced without giving more evidence of discordance or variation of facies in surrounding regions. I prefer Orvin's view, but on stratigraphic rather than on structural grounds.

W. B. HARLAND

107

This is the most obvious problem to be solved by palaeomagnetic means, and rocks for this purpose were collected some time ago. However, there are a number of difficulties in the interpretation of Spitsbergen rocks and until a more complete picture is obtained too much reliance should not be placed on a few pole positions. However, it may be said that results to date are consistent with the later age. The structure of the sills as well as their age is worth noting. Transgression, archings, abrupt terminations, and fingering extensions all occur. The uniform sills average about 30 to 50 m but have been recorded from 10 to 100 m. In Hinlopenstretet thicknesses may be far greater, for often only the dolerite is exposed throughout a whole island. Some of these may be more massive ( e.g., small lacoliths) or vertical structures, possibly feeders. There is a 200-metre dyke in Barentsf/.lya. De Geer and others have speculated on the fault system which he assumed to have brought this material to its present position. It may be said that the only faults known in these affected areas truncate the sills, and in any case there is no need to postulate faults to bring this material to the surface. CENOZOIC SEDIMENTARY, TECTONIC, AND IGNEOUS ACTIVITY ( THE ALPINE 0ROGENY)

The Sediments Tertiary sediments occupy two areas-one in the main Mesozoic basin and the other isolated in Forlandsundet. (i) The main outcrop of Tertiary strata (about 2,000 m) now occupies the centre of the main sedimentary basin cut by Isfjorden and Bellsund and it is here that the Tertiary coals are exploited. The succession recorded by Nathorst (1910) is given in Table X. The flora was first described by Heer ( 1869) and referred to the Miocene. Nathorst (1910) defined the succession, and collections by him of marine molluscs from horizons ( 1 ) and ( 5) were examined by Ravn ( 1922) who suggested a Palaeocene or Eocene age. A collection by Hoel in 1914 from horizon ( 3) gave the best fauna and Ravn suggested middle and possibly upper Palaeocene age. A TABLE X THE TERTIARY SUCCESSION

(After Nathorst, 1910) No. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.

Description Upper plant-bearing sandstone series (the youngest member of the sequence), 500 to 600 m Flaggy sandstone series, 200 m thick, consisting of marine, shallow-water sandstones Upper black shale series, about 300 m, mainly argillaceous, with chert concretions Green sandstone series, about 200 m, consisting of shallow-water sandstones with some marine fossils in the upper part Lower dark shale series, varying from 20-110 m, including mainly a shaly marine sequence with subordinate sandstones Lower light sandstone series ( at the base), 110-I 20 m thick, consisting of light-coloured and buff sandstones with some greenish fissile sandstones, shales, and thin coal seams near the base. The conditions of deposition appear to have been both marine and lacustrine

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SPITSBERGEN

long time-span could be assumed, but there is nothing in the succession itself to suggest that it was not rapidly deposited over a relatively short period. Further material described by Hagg (1925) does not clarify the problem. It must be presumed that official Norwegian investigations into these economically valuable rocks are by now far more advanced. (ii) Isolated outcrops, predominantly of coarse sandstones and conglomerates, are known from both shores of Forlandsundet. Unfortunately, little is known of the age of these beds, but from plant remains they are generally presumed to be either equivalent to or younger than the main succession. These beds occupy a critical position in several respects. They are the thickest Tertiary sediments known in Spitsbergen, probably approaching 3,000 m (Tyrrell, 1924, p. 476). Such coarse deposits suggest uplift in the position of the west coast. They are found to rest directly on Hecla Hoek at Br!llggerhalv!llya, or in much of the area to be faulted against it, being let down in a graben.

Tertiary Diastrophism (The Main Alpine Orogeny) The orogenic belt. The main outcrop of the Tertiary rocks lies in an asymmetrical basin or syncline with rocks dipping gently into it from the north, east, and south. Along the western margin, however, the beds are upturned and the limb is vertical or overfolded. This is only part of the evidence for an intense Tertiary diastrophism the length of the west coast from Kongsfjorden down to Sj11rkapp. The best illustration of this structure is the series of transverse sections by Orvin ( 1940, Plate III). Some useful sections are given also by Rozycki (1959). In the south, in Sf,'Jrkapp Land, the western margin of the basin is bounded by a relatively simple, faulted anticline. Further north the structures become more complex, the folding steeper, with inverted limbs and faults frequent. These suggest a major overthrusting and overfolding from the west as though the axis of the deformed belt lay along or to the west of the obvious fold belt. Wherever the Carboniferous or later rocks are distinguished, the structures may be followed with the certainty that they are entirely Tertiary in age. Unfortunately, from this point of view, the wide coastal strip is occupied by Hecla Hoek rocks and in these it is difficult to distinguish Alpine from Caledonian deformation. The difficulty of this is underlined by the discovery between Isfjorden and St. Jonsfjorden of a strip of highly-deformed, Carboniferous rocks between Hecla Hoek rocks (Baker, Forbes, and Holland 1952 and Weiss 1953), giving the impression of an attenuated thrust sheet or limb. From a detailed examination of this area Weiss concluded that the Alpine deformation was dominant-particularly in the west. Weiss distinguished a more intensely metamorphosed western series from an eastern series. In neither group of rocks was a succession given. While there is little doubt about the Hecla Hoek age of the eastern series (the author's impression confirmed this from a brief inspection in 1959), Dineley suggested (1958, p. 203) that the western series are indeed metamorphosed Carboniferous rocks. Observations by the late C. B. Wilson, as well as my own in 1959, suggest that in the areas examined - especially in north Oscar II Land - the dominant metamorphism and deformation is Caledonian. The tectonic facies suggests deeper burial than the later Alpine structures, where they are seen to affect the same rocks in

W. B. HARLAND

109

thrust and shear zones. The metamorphic grade appears to increase eastward. Although this might simply be the result of uplift and exposure of successively lower beds eastward, the effect is the same at the present surface. Conversely, the Alpine deformation increases in intensity westward, possibly exceeding that of the Hecla Hoek, if Weiss and Dineley are correct. A critical area from this point of view is Prins Karls Forland, the first full account of which was made by Tyrrell (1924). D. J. Atkinson worked there in 1950, 1951, and 1953, and so far the main results have not appeared (except a note in 1956). Published information gives the impression that the Caledonian structures are still dominant, but this remains to be seen. The Tertiary deposits in the Forlandsundet area are critical to a full understanding of the Alpine cycle. It would appear that they are let down into the already deformed structures by faults which post-date the main folding and thrusting. On the other hand, Orvin ( 1934) pointed out that they rest unconformably on Hecla Hoek rocks in the Brf/lggerhalvfllya region. He took this to be evidence of postCretaceous, pre-Tertiary uplift in the north, with the removal of Mesozoic rocks in that area before the Tertiary rocks were deposited. This seems to be essential if the Forlandsundet Tertiary is Palaeocene. If it is Palaeocene, it is difficult to imagine that the thick deposits preceded such violent events as the intense folding of the western belt, which is. demonstrably post-Palaeocene since the main Palaeocene beds are involved in the folding. The possibility is, therefore, to be considered that the Forlandsundet beds are later than the main Tertiary deposits, in which case they could well represent an orogenic molasse-like deposit consequent upon the post-Palaeocene folding, uplift, and erosion. It would be reasonable to assume a subsequent gravity regime to fault these post-orogenic deposits down into the fold belt. The epeirogenic structures. Outside the main coastal orogenic belt the relatively gentle dips in the post-Devonian rocks, which predominate, are probably due to warping which accompanied this compressive phase. Although this warping seldom exceeds a few degrees and is commonly about one or two degrees, the net effect of the warping, followed by subsequent erosion, is to give the map of Spitsbergen its outstanding feature - namely an outcrop of older rocks along the northern part of the islands and the preservation of the younger ones essentially in the south. The general flatness of Mesozoic deposits in the east gives the impression that the Barents Shelf was a stable foreland throughout this time. It extended further westwards than in Caledonian time since much of the worn-down Caledonian mountains had been added to it. Apart from the general warping, demonstrated by the sub-Carboniferous surface or any later bedding planes, the area outside the main orogenic belt was affected by faulting and associated folding. Wherever this has been examined it appears that these are not compression structures but essentially reflects a gravity regime. This phase would probably succeed the compressive phase and coincide with the Forlandsundet rifting. The faults generally trend north-south with the Caledonian and Alpine structure of the islands. The faults north of the Carboniferous outcrops are not easy to date. Apart from the main faults associated with the compressive phase of the Svalbard

110

SPITSBERG EN

movements, the other faults associated with the Devonian graben could be Devonian and/or Tertiary. Such structures as the Raudfjorden trough could be Devonian, or Tertiary, or both. Recent vulcanism and hot springs along the western margin of the Devonian graben suggest that Tertiary movements are likely. In central Vestspitsbergen a number of distinct faults can be recognized, arranged in two main systems. (i) One system runs along the site of the main boundary fault belt. It had long been known that the post-Carboniferous fault belt ( traced west of MittagLefflerbreen, through Cheopsfjellet, past Pyramiden, and possibly across Billefjorden to Gipshuken) follows the pre-Carboniferous disturbance. McWhae ( 1953) assembled the evidence to date and expeditions in 1953, 1955, 1957, and 1958 traced this belt northwards. The Gipshuken fault shows a downthrow of 70 to 170 m to the west, and, if it be a continuation of the Cheopsfjellet fault to the north, a pivotal movement must be assumed, for the latter fault and flexure is a downthrow from 300 to 1,000 m to the east. This anomaly is not serious, as the displacement is concentrated in a distinctive fault farther north, while in the south it is a complex fault and flexure zone. In the north the fault trends nearly parallel to the preCarboniferous thrust, leaving a conspicuous narrow wedge of crystalline rocks between them. The faults have nearly parallel dips. Both these features suggest some control by the underlying Hecla Hoek gneisses and schists, which have, where exposed, a parallel foliation. The faults are not quite parallel, however, for the Tertiary movement truncates the crystalline wedge in Bulmanfjellet, leaving no surface trace of the main boundary thrust except for the massive overfolding and slickensiding in the Devonian. The Billefjorden Sandstones which flank southwest Austfjorden and Mittag-Lefflerbreen, just east of the fault zone, dip to the west, thus suggesting some degree of rotational faulting about a horizontal axis. The basement control suggested would not induce such a cylindrical fault and the explanation of this is not easy to see. The anomalous dips are, however, confined to small narrow belts, and it is possible that locally some rotational slipping has taken place in response to Quaternary erosion. If so, this is only one example of many late Tertiary or Quaternary slips accommodating excessive relief in response to glacial undercutting. To the east of Austfjorden I discovered, in 1938 (1941), a faulted outcrop of Culm on Lemstromfjellet, with a downthrow of about 500 m to the west by a normal fault again parallel to the westerly-dipping Lemstromfjellet schists. Such strike faults would be difficult to detect in the Hecla Hoek structures unless marked and dated by later deposits, and it is reasonable to postulate a faulted boundary along the eastern shore of Wijdefjorden. (ii) Odell (1927) mapped a fault system in eastern Ny Friesland and this is extended in Orvin's map ( 1940) . Our work modified this pattern slightly as summarized in Figure 4 (see also plate XIV, Harland, 1959a). The structure is graben, made conspicuous by the light-coloured, flat-lying Permian rocks with black sills, resting on, or faulted against, dark Hecla Hoek rocks of high dip. The effect of these faults and flexures is to bound the axial belt of Ny Friesland, giving a net downthrow to either side. On each side of this rejuvenated horst is a small graben. The symmetrical arrangement of these structures suggests basement

I •

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Schematic map of Alpine structures in Spitsbergen. (Scale: original 1/1 m.) Outline and most detail from Orvin (1940), with some modifications. Conventions. Volcanics in northwest : lavas-solid black L; central vent volcanos-V; hot springs-S. Tertiary faults: thick line with ticked downthrow. Earlier faults with ? renewed movement in Tertiary: thick dashed line and ? . Rock boundaries to indicate strike of post-Devonian fold limbs: thin line. Area of intense folding and thrusting after Orvin (1934) : stipple. Late Mesozoic ? Thulean Dolerite sills: solid black in east and south.

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SPITSBERGEN

control by the Caledonian structures. It is tempting to speculate on the mechanism involved in this apparent late rejuvenation of an ancient structure after a long period of comparative stability. Possibly the granite and gneiss content of the belt, coupled with a predominance of quartzites, contrasted with rocks of higher density (for example, carbonates) to the east, and the basic gneisses along the Austfjorden belt to the west. Such a contrast at approximately the present level of erosion must have been there since early Carboniferous times, but following the Svalbardian compressive phase the late Alpine cycle may have been the first marked tensional phase affecting this particular area. The development of small graben may have allowed for the slight continued rise between them of the extremely tectonized part of the Caledonides with a large proportion of granite. The Tertiary Peneplain

One of the most dramatic features of Spitsbergen is the rugged appearance of the mountains when seen from below and the apparent flatness of the summits seen from a height of between 500 and 1,500 m in different parts. This is undoubtedly an uplifted and dissected peneplain which truncates all the rocks and structures already considered. It is seen to be post-Alpine from the continuity of the surface which cuts the west coast fold belt and also cuts the succession of gently warped rocks from Lower Tertiary to Lower Hecla Hoek as they outcrop steadily northwards in the tops of the mountains. It also cuts the late faults and flexures in the east. To produce such a regular surface the present summit height must have been near to sea-level during the Tertiary era. There has been time subsequently for several events, and the preceding events within the Tertiary era are not inconsiderable, so that one is forced to place this peneplanation somewhere in middle or late Tertiary time. De Geer's classic study of the physiographical evolution of Spitsbergen ( 1919) describes the conspicuous surface which joins most of the peaks or shows as flattopped mountains in the north. This conformity of summit heights is obvious from the sea and detailed topographic maps now appearing show this to be the case inland. On the basis of supposed Neocomian basalt lavas resting on the surface north of Lomfjorden, de Geer attributed much of this surface to Cretaceous base levelling. In contrast to this, he minimizes the importance attached in 1902 to "the discovery of extensive pre-Carbonian so-called base level plains around northern Hinlopen and probably also at the northwest comer of Spitsbergen" (1919, p. 168). Our own studies, based on more evidence than was available to de Geer, underline the importance of the sub-Carboniferous surface; in southern and central Ny Friesland the peneplain, where preserved with ice carapaces, often reveals a thin Carboniferous capping. It is clear that in this region the sub-Carboniferous surface, which emerges from beneath the later sediments as a result of Alpine warping, approximates over a large area, to the present summit level, and further north it is difficult to infer how much has been removed. Using a forthcoming topographical map of southern Ny Friesland (Harland and Masson Smith, MS) and the newly available Norwegian surveys, it is hoped to make a new attempt at the study .de Geer began, that is, drawing contours over the

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whole of Spitsbergen for the present peneplain and for what can be inferred of the sub-Carboniferous one. Such a map would depict the effect of Tertiary movements - the Alpine compressive phase deforming the sub-Carboniferous surface and the later uplift warping the present peneplain. By subtracting the second surface from the first, the net effect of the main Alpine movements would be shown. One can already conclude that while these movements have a profound effect on the appearance of the geological map today, the angular displacements, except for the west coast belt, are generally trivial. Thus intense local disturbances are not necessarily transmitted for any distance. The contrasting competent and incompetent behaviour of neighbouring parts of the crust suggests a sharp margin to the (Tertiary) Barents Shelf. The movements involved in, say, the inner lsfjorden area would normally be classed as epeirogenic. They involve subsidence of about 5,000 m at the centre of the basin, between Devonian and mid-Tertiary times, followed by uplift of the same amount at the periphery, coupled with about another 2,000 m (above sea level) during mid-Tertiary times. Post-Peneplain Events

The uplift and warping of the peneplain has resulted in the highest mountains where the ancient granite intruded, or granitized cores of the Caledonian belts are exposed, in both Ny Friesland and northwest Spitsbergen. High mountains also abound along the west coast where the Alpine structures have been added to the earlier ones. Resting on this surface in Andree Land and possibly also west of Hinlopenstretet are outcrops of porphyritic and highly vesicular or amygdaloidal basalts. In Andree Land they are clearly relics of a larger extent of lava flows and show that at some late stage volcanic activity was renewed. This was probably part of the same sequence as the conical volcanoes and hot springs today seen south of Bockfjorden (Hoel and Holtedahl, 1911) . The latter volcanic and tuffaceous deposits rest on the present erosion surface at a level some hundreds of metres below the peneplain. The eruptions are clearly Quaternary, following the main dissection of the uplifted peneplain, and giving approximately the present topography about the beginning of the Quaternary. Movements continued to recent times and apparently are continuing, as is evident from the raised beaches and strandflats around the coast. The interpretation of these features is not without its difficulties, but the latest Pleistocene events may be interpreted by the abundant Quaternary deposits with organic remains, some of which are datable by radiocarbon methods and others by analysis of molluscan faunas. Floating pumice (presumed from Iceland) has also been recorded and may provide an additional correlation aid. However, pending stratigraphic correlation, it is already clear from simple geomorphological observations that a sequence of warping, uplift, and tilting has continued since the last main glaciation, and possibly largely in response to the unloading when the ice retreated to its present fluctuating position. Papers summarizing some of these points are Balchin ( 1941), Feyling Hanssen (1950 and 1955), Dineley (1954), Donner and West (1957), and Birkenmajer (1958).

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SPITSBERGEN SUMMARY OF STRUCTURAL SEQUENCE IN SPITSBERGEN

The Stratigraphic Sequence The first problem in structural history is to place the various movements in order and then, ideally, progress from a kinematic picture to a dynamic interpretation. However, the latter is seldom possible without knowing the pattern of movements extensively in space as well as in time. TABLE XI STRATIGRAPHIC FRAMEWORK OF EARTH MOVEMENTS Quaternary deposits

Volcanic activity Dissection of peneplain LAVA FLOWS/ uplift of peneplain Peneplanation

? Forlandsundet beds ? Eocene and Palaeocene deposits

Lower Cretaceous succession Upper Jurassic (Aucella shale) Middle Jurassic Rhaetic Upper } Triassic succession Middle Lower Upper } Permian succession Lower Upper } Carboniferous succession Middle Lower Middle} Lower

Devonian-mostly

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Ordovician

? Upper } Cambrian ? Middle Lower Polarisbreen group Upper Middle Hecla Hoek Lower Middle Hecla Hoek Planetfjella group Harkerbreen group Finnlandveggen group

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MAIN ALPINE FOLDING continental beds (coals) UPLIFT AND INTRUSIVE DOLERITES ? Aptian transgression plant beds ? Berriasian transgression marine succession Callovian transgression ? Bathonian transgression ? Toarcian transgression ? Norian uplift ? Ladinian uplift

? top Permian uplift Middle Carboniferous uplift SVALBARD FOLDING in lower Upper Devonian or top Middle Devonian Taphrogeosyncline Pink granites NY FRIESLAND OROGENY between basal Devonian and mid-Ordovician probably top Silurian

carbonate deposition VARANGIAN GLACIATION carbonate deposition quartzites and greywackes silts and greywackes (?) volcanics quartzites and basic volcanics ? Vimsodden glaciation widespread marbles, shales, and silts GREY GRANITES (?), GABBROS, etc. NORDAUSTLANDET OROGENY (?) silts and shales

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This leads to the attempt to correlate movements over a wide area by stratigraphy very largely based on palaeontology. The opposite process has often been used, that is, to correlate rocks by unconformities. This may work roughly but is liable to serious error and begs the critical question - namely the relation in time between movements in different places, that is, whether they are simultaneous, alternating, or related in any way. The question often arises as to whether palaeontological correlation is capable of setting sufficiently precise time limits to give significant results (for example, Gilluly, 1949). Stratigraphic palaeontology has hitherto provided all the international correlation with Spitsbergen and the limits of this method have by no means been reached. Indeed, palaeontological investigations have only just begun on a wealth of material collected and not described, while there are innumerable possibilities of improving collections which were often obtained on rapid reconnaissance. Indeed, the stratigraphic record of Spitsbergen is remarkable for the number of fossiliferous horizons represented which, on further investigation, will undoubtedly provide a connection of great value in correlation, with neighbouring lands across the Arctic. Table XI summarizes the structural events outlined above mainly in terms of gaps in the stratigraphic record. Even if the correlation of deposits is perfect, the sequence of deposits is incomplete and the question arises as to how the various events fit into the gaps. Do they occupy a small part of the time interval as a pulse, or are they long, slow movements giving only the appearance of sharp discontinuities by the very nature of the stratigraphic record? By the principle of tectonic uncertainty (Harland, 1956), the more precisely a structure is known, the less precisely can its date be fixed by ordinary stratigraphic methods. However, radiometric methods may give a rate and timing of tectonic processes. The pattern of movements (Table XI and Figure 5) underlines the author's contention (1959a) that following a great Caledonian sequence, with Precambrian to Ordovician deposition followed by deformation until Upper Devonian times, there was comparative stability throughout Carboniferous to Lower Cretaceous times. This was then followed by renewed diastrophism, limited, however, in intensity and in the area affected. The lack of orogenic movements corresponding to the Hercynian disturbances elsewhere is as important in relating Spitsbergen in its Arctic setting as are the Caledonian and Alpine cycles. This may have been overlooked in the temptation to mark evidence for any movement in the stratigraphic column without at the same time specifying its nature and magnitude, and this may well have led to the finding of epeirogenic and eustatic changes with only a remote structural significance for the area in question.

The Radioactive Time Scale It would be instructive to know the intervals involved in these complex processes and Figure 5 indicates these, according to the geological time scale of Kulp (1959). The possible range of movements gives the uncertainty and/or duration of events. Hitherto the radioactive time scale has served simply to distinguish ( and even then with some uncertainty) orogenic epochs widely separated in time. At this time no scale is regarded as absolute and Spitsbergen may yield results which contribute to a better understanding of this problem.

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The use of potassium/ argon and rubidium/ strontium dating, which depends on common crystalline rocks, has been considered. Interest at first naturally centres around the age of the metamorphic rocks associated with the main Caledonian phase, which can be dated stratigraphically in all probability to somewhere between Canadian and Downtonian. While diastrophism might stretch through much of that time, the date of the relevant crystallization might well be nearer the Downtonian than the Canadian, probably Upper Silurian, by analogy with Scandinavia and North Greenland. The tectonic sequence is known in some detail and the successive stages of regional metamorphism of biotite schists, feldspathization and migmatization thereof, and finally discordant granites might ultimately be dated if spread over a long time. Samples of these rocks are now being investigated in Oxford and Cambridge. Rocks from the west are demonstrably pre-Downtonian and those from the east, although proved only pre-Carboniferous, are demonstrably post-Canadian or later. Ultimately these rocks may yield a time scale for the understanding of deformation in a complex tectonic belt, while immediate interest lies in the calibration of the method itself in more precise geological terms and rough correlation of events within the Caledonian regions elsewhere. Of equal, if not greater, value would be the determination of samples from Nordaustlandet in order to determine the age of the gneisses and granites subjacent to the Lower Hecla Hoek.3 This could not only establish forthwith their Precambrian age but also relate this Precambrian diastrophism outside Svalbard and set a limit to the duration of part of the Hecla Hoek succession. Such treatment of all but the late Precambrian (which might be correlated palaeomagnetically) seems to be the only hope for international correlation. In this connection, dividing the Precambrian into I, II, and III seems better than redefining the term Proterozoic in terms of absolute age. The latter seems premature, inopportune, and misleading if dependent only on radioactive dates. Experimental · difficulties may be too great, but the use of granite and other boulders in the Hecla Hoek tillites may serve to distinguish the range of rocks exposed at that time. Other igneous or metamorphic rocks in Spitsbergen are not so useful from this point of view. 3Tbe first sample for this purpose collected by Dr. Winsnes is to be analysed at Oxford and Cambridge.

5. Schematic sequence of events in Spitsbergen. 1. Absolute age in hundreds of millions of years. 2. (a) Geological systems with age plotted according to geological time scale of Kulp, 1959; (b) Hecla Hoek succession-the Precambrian part of which is plotted according to an arbitrary scale. 3. Sedimentary rocks : (a) carbonate or elastic (dots); (b) thickness of sediments in standard sections. Each rectangle proportional to approximately 250 m. In this way the area is independent of the time scale adopted and the width of the band indicates rate of sedimentation. 4. (a) Continental sediments; (b) marine sediments. 5. (a) Orogenic compression (the area of the curve is intended to represent the degree of compression so that narrower time range would give correspondingly greater orogenic intensity); ( b) possible indications of extension from faulting and igneous activity. 6. Igneous activity : (a) acidgranite batholiths and migmatites; (b) basic--dolerites and basalts-or volcanic tuffs in Lower Hecla Hoek and "porphyrite" agglomerates. N.B. In the author's opinion the time range of the Hecla Hoek geosynclinal deposits shown is probably a minimum. The whole diagram is intended to give an indication of comparative events and should not be used as a source of data.

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SPITSBERGEN

Palaeoclimatic and Palaeomagnetic Considerations

The study of palaeoclimatology and palaeomagnetism together increase the reliability with which either kind of data is assessed. The stratigraphic sequence in Spitsbergen suggests that throughout most of geological time the rocks were formed under warm conditions. Coal seams and plant beds known from Devonian, Carboniferous, Rhaetic, Lower Cretaceous, and Lower Tertiary rocks suggest at least mild if not warm humid conditions. The red beds of the Devonian and some Culm suggest possibly lateritic weathering. The evaporites, with much anhydrite of midCarboniferous and mid-Permian times, suggest a hot climate during those periods. Abundant dolomites and limestones in Middle Hecla Hoek and Upper Hecla Hoek (Cambro-Ordovician), and again in Upper Carboniferous and Permian times suggest the same thing, though not so forcibly. Possibly also the extensive Permian Brachiopod Cherts have a climatological significance. The nature of life as deduced from the fossil record indicates favourable conditions in the region throughout much of its history. This is especially true of the abundant coral, brachiopod, and fusuline facies of the Permo-Carboniferous, the fish and reptiles of the Triassic, and possibly of the Old Red Sandstone fish. Evidence elsewhere suggests that climates during much of geological time were warmer and more uniform than today, but it is difficult to imagine all the above conditions at a latitude of 78° + 2°. The ringless tree, Dadoxylon spetsbergense ( Gothan, 1910), suggests a low latitude. Samples have been collected for palaeomagnetic studies from a number of horizons in Spitsbergen (Harland, 1959b), and D. E. T. Bidgood is engaged in the measurements. Preliminary results from this and similar earlier work in Greenland give results consistent with a low latitude for much of the time, as is also indicated by palaeomagnetic results from Europe and America (Harland and Bidgood, 1959). A considerable movement relative to the geographical pole is implied during later geological time. Fuller discussion must await the publication of these results. COMPARISON WITH OTHER AREAS

Much of stratigraphic tectonics makes use of arguments by analogy with neighbouring areas. It has been the author's intention to restrict this paper to the discussion mainly of internal evidence before looking outside. Much light is thrown on the history of Spitsbergen by comparison with surrounding areas; the following section draws attention to only a few arbitrarily selected points. Elsewhere in Svalbard4 Bear Island (Bj¢rn¢ya) lies midway between Spitsbergen and Norway and although small in area it exposes a valuable succession of rocks at a strategic place. The best accounts of it are by Nathorst (1910) and Horn and Orvin (1928). We have discussed the correlation of the various horizons recently (Harland and Wilson, 1956; Forbes, Harland, and Hughes, 1958). More work is needed to determine the ages of the rocks and further collections were made in 1959 (Harland, 1960b). 4The official Norwegian form of place names has been used only in Spitsbergen. The other islands in Svalbard are given their usual English form in conformity with the "other areas."

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The succession is: Upper Tria.ssic Spirifer Limestone (iii)

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Tunheim Series(? U. Devonian) Miserie Series (U. Devonian) (i)

. . . . . . . . Discordance Tetradium Limestone (240 m) Younger Dolomite Series (400 m) Slate-quartzite Series (175 m) Older Dolomite Series ( 400 m)

Black River Canadian-Beekmantown Akademikerbreen group

The above rnccession reveals three main discordances. (i) In the interval between Mid-Ordovician and Upper (possibly uppermost) Devonian, the Hecla Hoek rocks were deformed. The slates were folded while the limestones and dolomites were fractured and not folded. The dominant structure is in the form of a series of steeply-dipping overthrusts on which the older dolomite series overrides from the northeast. The general strike of the structure is northwestsoutheast. It is difficult to date these structures within this interval, though the presumption is that they would correspond, in part at least, with the Ny Friesland phase. (ii) There is a marked angular unconformity with a broad north-south fold below the Cora limestone which must fall within the Permian and almost certainly in the Lower Permian. Some post-Hecla Hoek faults could be older or younger than the Cora limestone. (iii) The Spirifer limestone oversteps various of the underlying rocks. There are thus two phases of movement during the Permian in contrast to stable conditions in Spitsbergen generally at that time. The Upper Gypsiferous Series in Spitsbergen might be regarded as a regressive phase equivalent to one of them. The Carboniferous instability in Spitsbergen was earlier. There is a hiatus with no apparent angular movement between the Spirifer limestone and the Upper Triassic. Apart from gentle tilting,- probably in Tertiary time, and uplift, there appears to have been no further tectonic incident. Hope Island (Hopen), which is over 200 km east of Sorkapp Land, is composed entirely of flat-lying Cretaceous rocks. This suggests a direct continuation of a stable shelf eaITSBERGEN AND THE ORIGIN OF CONTINENTS AND OCEANS

Two kinds of origin are generally envisaged. One assumes that the various areas have maintained approximately the same relation to each other. This we may call the hypothesis of permanence and includes the possibility of subsidence ( or uplift) on a large scale. The other assumes a considerable degree of horizontal displacement or drift . Figure 6 may be referred to in this discussion.

The Hypothesis of Permanence Assuming no continental drift ( on a scale sufficient to open up the Arctic and Atlantic basins), smaller horizontal displacements must be allowed for in such a hypothesis to accommodate known crustal shortening. Recent views on the rigidity of the earth make it no longer necessary to regard some palaeoclimatic and palaeomagnetic anomalies as evidence against permanence, for a hypothesis of permanence should include the possibility of polar wandering without intercontinental drift. The distribution of similar facies is usually considered in relation to palaeogeographical reconstruction, and proximity of like rocks is often thought to be a desirable consequence in reconstructions involving drift. We have abundant evidence of simfarities over great distances in directions where no drift could be postulated and such similarities derive from analogous histories and conditions. Common to the geological interpretation of coastlines of the Pacific type is often the problem of the source of sediments for developing geosynclines along oceanic margins. For Spitsbergen a source of supply of many sediments from the west would be desirable and the converse has often been argued for Greenland; for example, Frankl (1956) argues in favour of permanence and postulates an earlier Scandic land mass, since foundered to the floor of the Greenland Sea. The need for a previous continent where an ocean now is may in places be overcome by the prevalent view concerning the possibility of island arcs. These could suprly detritus from the oceanic side towards the continent and be renewed continuously by volcanic activity. This theory works well for many Pacific coastlines, but the sedimentation in Spitsbergen after the Hecla Hoek geosyncline does not suggest a volcanic source. The difficulty of postulating a mechanism for sinking a land mass should not be taken as a decisive mechanical obstacle ( any more than failure to think of an adequate mechanism for continental drift should argue too heavily against that hypothesis). Soviet geological opinion on the structure of the Arctic Ocean inclines to a hypothesis of subsidence of shield. In a recent summary (Hope, 1959), Spitsbergen is outside the supposed realms of the Hyperborean ridges, Hercynian folding, and Mesozoic folding of the Lomonosov range. The hypothesis that these systems cross the Arctic basin depends on the assumed Hercynian and Mesozoic structures in North Greenland and Ellesmere Island. However, Thorsteinsson and Tozer report (for example, 1957) a belt of Tertiary orogeny east of a mid-

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Palaeozoic fold belt and no evidence for later Palaeozoic or Mesozoic folding. Thus the foundation on which the hypothesis of Saks, Belov, and Lapina (1955) (Hope, 1959) rests are not sure. The Soviet evidence for faulted margins to the Arctic basin could have another interpretation, as could the Lomonosov range also (for example, Carey's Nematath, 1958). The Hypothesis of Continental Drift

The following brief points refer only to particular aspects of particular reconstructions and not to their consistency with other evidence or mechanism. A fuller discussion of these points will accompany the presentation of our palaeomagnetic results for Greenland and Spitsbergen. The following points mainly concern possible positions in space. It is also necessary to formulate a scheme of timing. No case has been made for assuming that the Greenland Sea had opened appreciably in Palaeozoic time. Late Mesozoic and Tertiary time seem to remain open. The argument that there is little evidence palaeoclimatologically or palaeomagnetically for movements in the Tertiary would not preclude them; for according to some of the reconstructions below there need be little difference of latitude during the movements postulated. The widespread basalts of the Thulean province are generally held to indicate a phase of tension which would be presumed to precede the Alpine compression of west Spitsbergen and elsewhere in the Arctic. This could be a local effect due to independent rotation of part of the Barents Shelf area. The Spitsbergen Alpine compression is followed by further tension. Various possibilities are open, from an intermittent drift through much of Mesozoic and early Tertiary time to a more pronounced movement restricted in time. It does not necessarily follow that a pattern established in one part of the world must apply elsewhere. The precise dating of movements is essential to a further understanding of these possibilities. Wegener (1924). From geodetic evidence in East Greenland, Wegener, with experience in Greenland, supposed it now to be drifting westwards from Eurasia at a rate which would require the present Greenland Sea to open within the Quaternary era. This led to his familiar reconstruction of the North AtlanticArctic region (Figure 20, p. 111) . While the geodetic argument has been discounted, so removing the need for such recent separation, the reassembly of areas as he suggested is worthy of note although not precise in detail. The position of Bear Island would be opposite the northern part of the fjord region of East Greenland. His concept of such a recent drifting made it necessary for him to accommodate Iceland in his reconstruction. Du Toit (.1937) shows a different closure of the Greenland Sea (Figure 16, p. FIGURE 6. Diagrammatic map of Arctic and neighbouring regions to show position of Spitsbergen. A : 0 ;.rey's Alaskan Orocline (i.e., axis of rotation and opening out of Arctic and Atlantic basins). B: local axis of rotation of Greenland and Spitsbergen in relation to each other supposed to accompany drifting apart according to hypotheses of Bailey and Holtedahl, and Carey. Fine stipple: areas of Arctic and Atlantic oceans liable to have opened out according to Carey (his Sphenocasms). Open stipple: Barents Sea and Kara Sea supposed to have extended according to Carey. Line of dots : Sinistral megashears suggested by Carey. Line of rectangles : Line of shear postulated in drift hypotheses as formulated by du Toit and Wegmann. Belt of square shading: Lomonosov ridge.

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134) in which he reasonably ignored Iceland. His hypothesis places the northern sector of the east coast of Greenland opposite Norway, and Spitsbergen would have been north of Peary Land, opposite and parallel to the North Greenland geosyncline and fold belt. This arrangement was based partly on fitting the -1,000 and -2,000 contours and partly on the geomorphological line extending from north Norway to the Mackenzie River (see Figure 6), sometimes known as de Geer's line, which was thought to be great dextral shear. Many of the points he listed (pp. 137-8) would apply also to Wegener's reconstruction. The Lomonosov ridge now tends to dominate geological thinking about the Arctic basin and it shows no sign of this shear. Bailey and Holtedahl (1938). From a review of available evidence concerning the Caledonides, Bailey and Holtedahl reconstruct the distribution of Ordovician sediments approximately according to Wegener's interpretation, but show a rotation of Greenland with respect to Europe of about 40° about a point just off the northeast corner of Greenland, coupled with westerly translation. Iceland is suitably omitted. Wegmann (1948) made a specific study of the drift hypothesis with respect to East Greenland to determine whether the evidence warranted a hypothesis of drift or of permanence. He did not consider sufficiently the possibilities of drift, and selected for examination a reconstruction more on the lines of du Toit, with sliding along the de Geer line bringing Spitsbergen opposite the North Greenland fold belt. From more evidence than was available to earlier writers he points to many difficulties in this reconstruction and is therefore somewhat in favour of permanence. Other writers on Greenland have taken this as a starting point in considering drift and have concluded against it. Donovan (1957), from a thorough analysis of the Jurassic and Cretaceous conditions, argues against this hypothesis and (with Arkell, 1956) in favour of permanence. The same evidence would not conflict so obviously, however, with the Wegener reconstruction, and the Mesozoic record of Spitsbergen makes a better comparison with East Greenland than does that of Western Scotland. Carey (1958) has produced the most recent reconstructions concerning continental drift, in which he pays due regard to the difficulties resulting from reconstructions in two dimensions of the earth's surface. He has also taken into account the more recent evidence from palaeomagnetism, though it is perhaps used somewhat optimistically to support his view. His view of the Alaskan orocline (Figure 6, p. 200), with a 28° rotation about mid-Alaska, gives an opening of the Arctic Ocean (his Arctic and still greater Atlantic rhombochasms) with some sinistral shear in the gap between Greenland and Europe. His reconstruction (Figure 10) places Spitsbergen in relation to Greenland so that the west coast of Spitsbergen is near to and parallel with the coast of Kong Frederik VIII Land of northeast Greenland. It is unnecessary, however, to place Iceland in the middle of the Barents Sea. This reconstruction is largely a geometrical exercise, since in so comprehensive a world reconstruction little consideration can be given to details of the structure of Spitsbergen or surrounding regions. Spitsbergen and Greenland are treated in much the same way as Wegener proposed. On the other hand, the Barents Shelf is not treated as a

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unit and part of the Eurasian block. He allows Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya to festoon out from positions nearer to Siberia. A degree of rotation is suggested in this process which we find attractive. Palaeomagnetic Investigations

It has seemed to the author that the best test in d~ciding the acceptability of alternative hypotheses of the history of the earth's crust is to consider critical areas more thoroughly than is p9ssible in a general investigation, and in this process to add palaeomagnetic evidence to stratigraphic data. On grounds other than palaeomagnetic, the author favours reconstruction, as between Spitsbergen and Greenland, as proposed by Wegener, Bailey and Holtedahl, and Carey. On general grounds and from palaeomagnetic results elsewhere, he thinks some hypothesis of continental drift and polar wandering is not only possible but necessary. Therefore, to elucidate the history of the Greenland Sea, it is desirable to test, and possibly formulate more closely, any such hypothesis. On this basis, the investigation of rock magnetism has been applied to other Arctic studies (Harland, 1959b) . D. E.T. Bidgood has made substantial progress in measuring the rocks already collected from Greenland and Spitsbergen, but it seems best to consider these more fully in a later paper after the inevitable inconsistencies have been more fully examined. The results of our studies in rock magnetism are not inconsistent with the kind of hypothesis already favoured. These conclusions are not unlike those expressed at a recent symposium held under these same auspices (Raasch et al., 1958). REFERENCES ARKELL, W. J. 1956. Jurassic geology of the world; London, Oliver and Boyd Ltd. AsKLUND, B. 1956. Contribution to discussion; Norsk Geol. Tidsskr., vol. 36, pp. 86-7. ATKINSON, D. J. 1956. The occurrence of chloritoid in the Hecla Hoek formation of Prince Charles Foreland, Spitsbergen; Geo!. Mag., vol. 93, pp. 63-71. BACKLUND, H. 1920. On the eastern part of the Arctic basalt plateau; Acad. Abamsis, Math. et Phys. 1, pp. 1-53. BAILEY, E. B., and HoLTEDAHL, 0 . 1938. Northwestern Europe, Caledonides; Regionale Geologie der Erde, vol. 2, Palaeozoische Tafeln und Gebirge, Absch. 11, Leipzig. BAKER, B. H., FORBES, C. L., and HOLLAND, M. F. W. 1952. Fossiliferous strata at Kapp Scania, Daudmannsj11yra, Vestspitsbergen; Geo!. Mag., vol. 89, pp. 303-4. BALCHIN, W. G. V. 1941. The raised features of Billefjord and Sassenfjord, West Spitsbergen; Geog. J., vol. 97, no. 6, pp. 364-76. BATES, D. E. B., and ScHWARZACHER, W. 1958. The geology of the land between Ekmanfjorden and Dicksonfjorden in central Vestspitsbergen; Geo!. Mag., vol. 95, pp. 219-33. BAYLY, M. B. 1957. The Lower Hecla Hoek rocks of Ny Friesland, Spitsbergen; Geo!. Mag., vol. 94, pp. 377-92. BIRKENMAJER, K. 1958a. Preliminary report on the stratigraphy of the Hecla Hoek formation in Wedel-Jarlsberg Land, Vestspitsbergen; Bull. Acad. Polonaise Sci. : Serie des Sci., Chim., Geo!. et Geog., vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 143-50. 1958b. Preliminary report on the raised marine features in Hornsund, Vestspitsbergen; Bull. Acad. Polonaise Sci. : Serie des Sci. Chim., Geol. et Geog., vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 151-7. - - - 1959. Report on the geological investigations of the Hornsund area, Vestspitsbergen, in 1958 : Part I, The Hecla Hoek Formation, Part II, The post-Caledonian succession, Part Ill, The Quaternary geology; Bull. Acad. Polonaise Sci. : Serie des Sci., Chim., Geo!. et Geog., vol. VII, no. 2, pp. 129-36, 191-6, 197-202, Quat. map. BISSETT, C. B. 1930. Geological notes on North-East Land and Franz-Josef Land : British Arctic Expedition of 1925; Trans. Geo!. Soc. Edinb., vol. XII (1932), chapter xx1v, pp. 196-206.

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BLOMSTRAND, C. W. 1864. Geognostiska iakttagelser under en resa till Spetsbergen ar 1861; Kung!. Svenska Vetensk Akad. Hand!., vol. 4 ( 6) , pp. 1-46. BLiiTHGEN, J. 1936. Die Fauna und Stratigraphie des Oberjura und der Unterkreide von Konig Karl Land; Pub. Grimmen, pp. 1-75, 8 tables. BOHM, J. 1903. Ueber die obertriadischen Fauna der Baren Insel; Kung!. Svenska Vetensk Akad. Hand!., Bd. 37, no. 3, 76 pp., Stockholm. 1912. Ueber Triasverstemungen von Bellsunde auf Spitsbergen; Kung!. Vetensk Akad. Ark. Zool., Bd. 8, no. 2, 15 pp., Upsala and Stockholm. . BiiTLER, H. 1959. Das Old Red-Gebiet am Moskusoksefjord; Medd. om Grj!lnland, Bd. 160, Nr. 5, pp. 1-188. 1958. The tectonic approach to continental drift; in Continental drift, a ·CAREY, S. W. symposium (ed. S. W. CAREY); Hobart, Univ. Tasmania. CowIE, J. W., and ADAMS, P. J. 1957. The geology of the Cambro-Ordovician rocks of central East Greenland: Part I, Stratigraphy and structure; Medd. om Grj!lnland, Bd. 153, no. 1, 193 pp. DE GEER, G. 1919. On the physiographical evolution of Spitsbergen; Geog. Annaler, vol. 1, Stockholm, 1919, Pt. II, pp. 161-92. 1923. Topographie et geologie; Mission suedoise pour la mesure d'un arc de meridien au Spitsberg, vol. 2 (9), Stockholm. DINELEY, D. L. 1954. Quaternary faunas in the St. Jonsfjord-Eidembukta region, Vestspitsbergen; Norsk. Geol. Tidsskr., Bd. 34, pp. 1-14. 1958. A review of the Carboniferous and Permian rocks of the west coast of Vestspitsbergen; Norsk. Geol. Tidsskr., Bd. 38, Heft. 2, pp. 197-217. 1960. The Old Red Sandstone of eastern Ekmanfjorden, Vestspitsbergen; Geol. Mag., vol. 97, no. 1, pp. 18-32. DONNER, J. J., and WEST, R. G. 1957. The Quaternary geology of Brageneset, Nordaustlandet, Spitsbergen; Norsk Polarinstitutt Skr., Nr. 109, pp. 1-37. DONOVAN, D. T. 1957. The Jurassic and Cretaceous systems in East Greenland; Medd. om Grj!lnland, vol. 155 (4), pp. 1-214. DUNBAR, C. 0 . 1955. Permian brachiopod faunas of central East Greenland; Medd. om Grj!lnland., Bd. 110, Nr. 3, pp. 1-169. Du ToIT, A. L. 1937. Our wandering continents; Edinburgh, Oliver & Boyd, Ltd. FAIRBAIRN, P. E. 1933. The petrology of the Hecla Hook formation in central Spitsbergen; Geol. Mag., vol. 70, pp. 437-54. FALCON, N . L. 1928. Appendix III, The Cambridge expedition to Edge Island; Geog. J., vol. 72, pp. 134-9. FEYLING-HANSSEN, R. w., and JjilRSTAD, F . A. 1950. Quaternary fossils from the Sassen area in Isfjorden, West-Spitsbergen; Norsk Polarinstitutt Skr., Nr. 94, pp. 1-85. 1955. Stratigraphy of the marine Late-Pleistocene of Billefjorden; Norsk Polarinstitutt Skr., Nr. 107. FLEMING, W. L. S., and EDMONDS, J. M. 1941. Hecla Hoek rocks of New Friesland (Spitsbergen); Geol. Mag., vol. 78, pp. 405-28. FoRBES, C. L., HARLAND, W. B., and HUGHES, N. F. 1958. Palaeontological evidence for the age of the Carboniferous and Permian rocks of central Vestspitsbergen; Geo!. Mag., vol. xcv, no. 6, pp. 465-90. FORBES, C. L. 1960. Carboniferous and Permian Fusilinidae from Spitsbergen; Palaeontology, vol. 2, Part II, pp. 210-25. Fj!IYN, S., and HEINTZ, A. 1943. The Downtonian and Devonian vertebrates of Spitsbergen: VIII, The English-Norwegian-Swedish Expedition, 1939, Geological results; Skr. Norges Svalb. og. Ishavs-unders., vol. 85. FRANKL, E. 1956. Some general remarks on the Caledonian mountain chain of East Greenland (Danske Eksped. 1947-55; Medd. om Grj!lnland, Bd. 103, Nr. 11, pp. 1-43. FREBOLD, H. 1928. Das Festungsprofil auf Spitzbergen, Jura und Kreide : II, Stratigraphie; Skr. Svalb. og Ishavet, no. 19, pp. 1-40. 1929a. Untersuchungen ueber die Fauna die Stratigraphie und Paliiogeographie der Trias Spitzbergens; Skr. Svalb. og lshavet, no. 26, pp. 1-66. 1929b. Faunistisch-stratigraphische Untersuchungen Ueber die Trias Spitzbergens und der Edge Insel; Abhandl. Naturw. Hamburg, Bd. 22, pp. 293-312. 1930a. Die Altersstellung des .Fischhorizontes, des Grippia niveaus und des unteren Saurien-horizontes in Spitzbergen; Skr. Svalb. og Ishavet, no. 28, pp. 1-36. 1930b. Verbreitung und Ausbildung des Mesozoikums in Spitzbergen (Nebst einer Revision der Stratigraphie des Jura und der Unterkreide in Norwaja Semlja und einen

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Entwurf der mesozoischen Entwiekelungsgeschichte des Barentsseeschelfes); Skr. Svalb. og lshavet, no. 31, pp. 1-126. --1931. Fazielle Verhiiltnisse des Mesozoikums im Eisfjordgebiet, Spitzbergens; Skrifter Svalb. og lshavet, no. 37, pp. 94. --1935. Geologie von Spitzbergen, der Biireninsel, des Konig Karl- und FranzJoseph-Landes; Geol. der Erde, Berlin, pp. 1-195. 1936. Ztir Stratigraphie des oberen Jungpaliiozoikurns und der Alteren Eotrias Spitzbergens; Stille Festschr., Stuttgart, pp. 314-46. 1937. Das Festungsprofil auf Spitzbergen : IV, Die Brachiopoden und Larnellibranchiatenfauna und die Stratigraphie des Oberkarbons und Unterperms, nebst Beschreibung anderer Vorkomrnen in Svalbard; Skr. Svalb. og Ishavet, no. 69, pp. 1-94. 1939. Das Festungsprofil auf Spitzbergen: V, Stratigraphie und lnvertebraten fauna der iilteren Eotrias, nebst Beschreibung anderer Vorkommen in Spitzbergen; Skr. Svalb. og lshavet, no. 77, pp. 1-58. 1951. Geologie des Barentsschelfes; Abhandl. deutsch. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1950, no. 5; Abhandl. zur Geotektonik, no. 4, pp. 1-151. FREBOLD, H., and STOLL, E. 1937. · Das Festungsprofil auf Spitzbergen: Ill, Stratigraphie und Fauna des Jura und der Unterkreide; Skr. Svalb. og Ishavet, no. 68, pp. 1-85. FRIEND, P. F. (in press) . The Devonian stratigraphy of north and central Vestspitsbergen; Proc. Yorks. Geol. Soc. GEE, E. R., HARLAND, W. B., and McWHALE, J. R. H. 1953. Geology of central Vestspitsbergen: Part I, Review of the geology of Spitsbergen with special reference to central Vestspitsbergen, Part II, Carboniferous to Lower Permian of Billefjorden; Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. 62, pp. 299-356. GILLULY, J. 1949. Distribution of mountain building in geologic time; Bull. Geol. Soc. Arner., vol. 60, pp. 561-90. GOBBETT, D. J. 1960. A new species of trilobite from the Lower Oslobreen Limestone, Spitsbergen; Geol. Mag., vol. 97, pp. 457-60. GoBBETT, D. J., and WILSON, C. B. 1960. The Oslobreen Series, Upper Hecla Hoek of Ny Friesland, Spitsbergen; Geol. Mag., vol. 97, pp. 441-57. GoTHAN, W. 1910. Die Fossilen Holzreste von Spitzbergen; Kungl. Svenska Vetensk Akad. Handl., vol. xiv, no. 8, pp. 1-56. HAGERMAN, T. H . 1925. Results of the Swedish expedition to Spitzbergen 1924 : II, Stratigraphic and structural investigations within southwestern Spitzbergen; Geog. Ann. Stockholm, Bd. 7, pp. 195-221. HXGo, R. 1925. A new Tertiary fauna from Spitsbergen; Bull. Geol. Inst. Univ. Upsala, vol. 20, pp. 39-56. HALLAM, A. 1958. A Cambro-Ordovician fauna from the Hecla Hoek succession of Ny Friesland, Spitsbergen; Geol. Mag., vol. 95, no. 1, pp. 71-6. HALLER, J. 1955. Der "Zentrale Metarnorphe Kornplex" von NE Gronland: Tei! I, Die Geologische Karte von Suess Land, Gletscherland und Goodenoughs Land; Medd. om Gr9Snland, vol. 73 , no. 3, pp. 1-174. HARKER, P., and THORSTEINSSON, R. 1958. Permian section on Grinnell Peninsula, Arctic Archipelago, Northwest Territories, Canada; Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. 69, no. 12, Part 2, p. 1577 (abstract). HARLAND, W . B. 1941. Geological notes on the Stubendorff Mountains, West Spitsbergen; Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. B, vol. 51, Part 2, no. 10, pp. 119-29. 1953. Contribution to the discussion of McWhae, 1953; Quart. J. Geol. Soc. London, vol. 108, no. 431, p. 232. 1956. Contribution to the discussion of Sandford, 1956; Quart. J. Geol. Soc. London, vol. 112, pp. 360-1. 1959a. The Caledonian sequence in Ny Friesland, Spitsbergen; Quart. J. Geol. Soc. London, vol. 114 (for 1958) , Part 3, no. 445, pp. 307-42. 1959b. Palaeomagnetic investigation of Arctic rocks at Cambridge; Polar Record, vol. 9, no. 63, pp. 556-61. 1960a. The development of Hecla Hoek rocks in Spitsbergen; Report of XXI Int. Geol. Congr., Copenhagen, Part XIX, pp. 7-16. 1960b. The Cambridge Svalbard Expedition, 1959; Polar Record, vol. 10, no. 64, pp. 40-4. HARLAND, W. B., and BAYLY, M. B. 1958. Tectonic regimes; Geol. Mag., vol. 95, pp. 89-104. HARLAND, W. B., and BIDGOOD, D. E. T. 1959. Palaeomagnetism in some Norwegian Sparagmites and the Late Pre-Cambrian Ice Age; Nature, vol. 184, no. 4702, pp. 1860-2.

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HARLAND, W. B., and MASSON-SMITH, D. (MS) . Topographical map of southern Ny Friesland, Vestspitsbergen; Geog. J. (in press). HARLAND, W. B., and WILSON, C. B. 1956. The Hecla Hoek succession in Ny Friesland, Spitsbergen; Geo!. Mag., vol. 93, no. 4, pp. 265-86. HEER, 0. 1869. La Flore Miocene du Spitzberg; Arch. des Sci. phys. et oat. Nouv. per 1869, pp. 289-300. HoEG, 0 . A. 1942. The Downtonian and Devonian flora of Spitsbergen; Skr. Norges Svalb. og Ishavsunders, no. 83, pp. 1-228. HoEL, A. 1914. Exploration du nord-ouest du Spitsberg (Mission Isachsen) ; Resultats des campagnes scientifiques, Prince of Monaco, Fasc. XLII, Part III, Geology. 1925. The coal deposits and coal mining of Svalbard (Spitsbergen and Bear Island) ; Resultater av De Norske Statsunderst9Sttede Spitsbergen ekspeditioner, Bd. 1, no. 6, pp. 1-92. - - - 1942. The place-names of Svalbard; Skr. Svalb. og lshavet, vol. 80. HOEL, A., and HoLTEDAHL, 0. 1911. Les Nappes de lave, Jes volcans et Jes sources thermales dans Jes environs de la Baie Wood; Videnskatsselser Skr. M.N .KJ., Nr. 8, Kristiania. HOEL, A., and ORVIN, A. K. 1937. Das Festungsprofil auf Spitzbergen. Karbon-Kreide: I, Vermessungsresultate; Skr. Svalb. og. Ishavet, no. 18. HoLTEDAHL, 0 . 1911. Zur Kenntnis der Karbonablagerungen des Westlichen Spitzbergens: I, Eine Fauna der Moskauer Stufe; Skr. Vidensk. Selsk. Kristiania I. Math. Naturw. Kl., no. 10, pp. 1-46. 1913. II, Allgemeine stratigraphische und tektonische Beobachtungen; Skr. Vidensk. Selsk. Kristiania I. Math. Naturw. Kl., no. 23, pp. 1-91. 1914a. On the Old Red Sandstone series of north-western Spitzbergen; C.R. Congr. geol. intern. XII, Toronto, 1913, pp. 707-12. 1914b. New features in the geology of north-western Spitzbergen; Amer. J. Sci., 4th. series, vol. 37, no. 221 , pp. 415-24. 1920. On the Palaeozoic series of Bear Island, especially on the Heclahook system; Norsk. Geol. Tidsskr., vol. V, pp. 121-48. 1925. Some points of structural resemblance between Spitsbergen and Great Britain and between Europe and North America ; Avh. Norske Vidensk. Akad. Oslo, no. 4, pp. 1-20. 1926. Notes on the geology of north-western Spitsbergen: Result, Norske Spitsbergen eksped. i.; Skr. Svalb. og Ishavet, no. 8. HoPE, E. R. 1959. Geotectonics of the Arctic Ocean and the great Arctic magnetic anomaly; J. Geophys. Research, vol. 64, no. 4, pp. 407-27. HORN G. 1932. Some geological results of the Norwegian Expedition to Franz-Josef-Land; Norsk Geol. Tidskkr. HoRN, G., and ORVIN, A. K. 1928. Geology of Bear Island; Skr. Svalb. og lshavet, no. 15. HUGHES, N . F., and PLAYFORD, G. 1961. Palynological reconnaissance of the Lower Carboniferous of Spitsbergen; Micropalaeontology, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 27-44. KAY, G . M. 1951. North American geosynclines; Mem. Geo!. Soc. Amer., vol. 48, pp. 1-143. KENNEDY, W. Q. 1958. The tectonic evolution of the Midland valley of Scotland; Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow, vol. 23 , pp. 106-33. KocH, L. 1920. Stratigraphy of northwest Greenland; Medd. Dansk. Geolgisch. Forening, Bd. 5, no. 17, pp. 1-78. 1929a. The geology of East Greenland; Medd. om Gr9Snland, Bd. 73, pp. 1-201. 1929b. Stratigraphy of Greenland; Medd. om Gr9Snland, Bd. 73, pp. 205-320. - - - 1935. Geologie von Gronland; Geol. der Erde, Berlin, 1935. KULLING, 0. 1934. Scientific results of the Swedish-Norwegian Arctic Expedition in the summer of 1931: vol. II, Part XI, The "Hecla Hoek Formation" round Hinlopenstredet; Geog. Ann., Stockholm, 1934, Arg. XVI, Haft 4, pp. 161-254. KuLP, J. L. 1959. Geological time scale [abstract]; Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. 70, p. 1634. MAJOR, H ., and WJNSNES, T. S. 1955. Cambrian and Ordovician fossils from S9Srkapp Land, Spitsbergen; Norsk Polarinstitutt Skr., vol. 106. MAJOR, H ., HARLAND, W. B., and STRAND, T. 1956. Lexique stratigraphique internationale, vol. 1, Europe, fasc. Id, Svalbard. McCARTNEY, W. D. 1958. Geology of Sunnyside map-area, Newfoundland; Geo!. Surv. Can., Paper 58-8. McWHAE, J. R. H. 1953. The major fault zone of central Vestspitsbergen; Quart. J. Geo!. Soc. London, vol. 108, no. 431, pp. 209-32.

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NATHORST, A. G. 1910. Beitrage zur Geologie der Bliren Insel, Spitzbergens und des Konig-Karl-Landes; Bull. Geo!. Inst. Univ. Upsala, vol. 10, pp. 261-416. 1913. Die pftanzenfiihrenden Horizonte innerhalb der Grenzschichten des Jura und der Kreide Spitzbergens; Geo!. foren. Stockh. forhandl., Bd. 35, pp. 273-82. NILSSON, T. 1941. The Downtonian and Devonian vertebrates of Spitsbergen, VII, Order Antiarchi; Norges Svalb. og Ishavs-Undersf1Sk., vol. 82, pp. 1-54. NoRDENSKI0LD, A. E. 1875. Utkast till lsfjordens och Bellsunds geologi; Geo!. Foren. Stockh. forhandl., vol. 2, pp. 243-60, 301-22, 356-73. (Translation in Geol. Mag., 1876.) NORSK PoLARINSTITUTT. 1958. Topographical Map: Svalbard og Jan Mayen; Scale 1; 2,000,000; Oslo, 1958. ODELL, N. E. 1927. Preliminary notes on the geology of the eastern parts of central Spitsbergen, with special reference to the problem of the Hecla Hoek Formation; Quart. J. Geo!. Soc. London, vol. 83, pp. 147-62. ORVIN, A. K. 1934. Geology of the Kings Bay region, Spitsbergen, with special reference to the coal deposits; Skr. Svalb. og Ishavet, no. 57, pp. 1-195. - - - 1940. Outline of the geological history of Spitsbergen; Skr. Svalb. og Ishavet, no. 78, pp. 1-57. - - - 1947. Bibliography of Literature about the geology, physical geography, useful minerals and mining of Svalbard; Norges Svalb. og Ishavs-Undersf1Sk., vol. 89, pp. 1-121. PRESTON, J. 1959. The geology of the Snf1Sfjella and Dovrefjella in Vestspitsbergen; Geol. Mag., vol. 96, pp. 45-57. RAASCH, G . 0. (ed.) . 1958. Polar wandering and continental drift-A symposium; J. Alta. Soc. Pet. Geol., vol. 5, no. 6 (Part I), pp. 137-62 and no. 7 (Part II), pp. 169-87. RAVN, J. P. J. 1922. On the mollusca of the Tertiary of Spitsbergen; Result. Norske Spitsbergen Eksped., Bd. l, no. 2, pp. 1-28. RozvcKI, S. Z. 1959. Geology of the north-western part of Torell Land, Vestspitsbergen; Studia Geologica Polonica Warsaw, vol. 2, pp. 1-98. SANDFORD, E. S. 1926. The geology of North-East Land (Spitsbergen); Quart. J. Geol. Soc. London, vol. 82, pp. 615-68. 1950. Observations on the geology of the northern part of North-East Land (Spitsbergen); Quart. J. Geol. Soc. London, vol. 105, pp. 461-91. 1954. The geology of Isis Point, North-East Land (Spitsbergen); Quart. J. Geol. Soc. London. vol. 110, pp. 11-19. 1956. The stratigraphy and structure of the Hecla Hoek Formation and its relationship to a subjacent metamorphic complex in North-East Land (Spitsbergen); Quart. J. Geo!. Soc. London, vol. 112, pp. 339-60. SXvE-SODERBERGH, G. 1936. On the morphology of Triassic stegocephalians from Spitsbergen, and the interpretation of the endocranium in the Labvrinthodontia; Kung!. Svenska Vetensk. Akad. Hand!., 3rd Series, Bd. 16, no. 1, pp. 1-181. SCHENK, E. 1937. Kristallin und Devon im nordlichen Spitzbergen; Geol. Rdsch., Bd. 28, pp. 112-24. SCORESBY, W. 1820. An account of the arctic regions: vol. I , Chronological list of voyages, vol. II, Account of whale fishing; Edinburgh. SoKOLOV, D., and BoDYLEVSKY, W. 1931. Jura und Kreidefaunen von Spitzbergen. Skr. Svalb. og Ishavet, no. 35, pp. 1-151. STENSIO, E. A. 1918. Zur Kenntnis des Devons und des Kulms an der Klaas Billenbay, Spitzbergen; Bull. Geo!. Inst.Univ. Upsala, vol. 16, pp. 65-80. - - - 1921. Triassic fishes from Spitzbergen, Part I; Vienna, Adolf Holzhausen, pp. xxviii, 307. STEPANOV, D. L. 1937. Permiskie Brachiopody Spitsbergena; Trans. Arct. Inst. Leningr., vol. 76, pp. 105-92. 1957. 0 novom yaruse permskoy sistemy Arktiki (A new stage of the Permian in the Arctic); Vestnik Leningradskogo Universiteta, no. 24, Seriya Geologii i Geografii, Vypusk 4, pp. 20-4. STOLLEY, E. 19 I 1. Zur Kenntnis der arktischen Trias; N. Jb. Min. Geo!. u. Palaont. Jahrg. 1911, Bd. 1, pp. 115-25. 1912. Ueber die Kreideformation und ihre Fossilien auf Spitzbergen; Kung!. Svenska Vetensk Akad. Randi., Bd. 47, no. 11, pp. 1-29. SCHLOEMER-JAGER, A. 1958. Alttertiare Pflanzen aus Flozen der Brogger-Halbinsel Spitzbergens; Palaeontographica, Abt. B, vol. 104, pp. 39-103. SUTTON, J., and WATSON, J. 1954. Ice-borne boulders in the Macduff group of the Dalradian

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of Banffshire; Geol. Mag., vol. XCI, no. 5, pp. 391-8. THORSTEINSSON, R., and TOZER, E. T. 1957. Geological investigations in Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg Islands, 1956; Arctic, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 2-31. TRoELSEN, J. C. 1956. Lexique stratigraphique international, vol. l, Europe, Pase. la, Greenland, pp. 1-116. TYRRELL, G. W. 1922. The pre-Devonian basement complex of central Spitsbergen; Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. 53, Part I, no. IO, pp. 209-29. The geology of Prince Charles Foreland, Spitsbergen; Trans. Roy. Soc. 1924. Edin., vol. 53, Part 2, no. 23, pp. 443-78. - - - 1950. Discussion of Sandford, 1950; Quart. J. Geol. Soc. London, vol. 105, pp. 491-2. TYRRELL, G. W., and SANDFORD, K. S. 1933. Geology and petrology of the dolerites of Spitsbergen; Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. (Session 1932-3), vol. 53, Part 3, no. 21, pp. 284-321. V1scHER, A. 1939. (Tagungsbericht), Greenland, 1939; Mitt. Naturforschenden Gesellschaft Schaffhausen (Schweiz), Bd. XVI, Jahrg. 1940, 231 pp. VOGT, Tu. 1926. Beretning om en ekspedisjen tit Spitsbergen i 1925; Norsk. Geog. Tidsskr., Bd. 1, Haft 4, Oslo, pp. 193-208. 1928. Den Norske Fjellkjedes revolusjons-historie; Norsk. Geol. Tidsskr., Bd. 10, pp. 97-115. 1936. Orogenesis in the region of Paleozoic folding of Scandinavia and Spitsbergen; Rept. Internat. Geol. Congr. XVI U.S.A., 1933, vol. 2, pp. 953-5. 1941. Geology of a Middle Devonian cannel coal from Spitzbergen; Norsk. Geol. Tidsskr., Bd. 21, pp. 1-12. WXNGSJj,1, G. 1952. The Downtonian and Devonian vertebrates of Spitsbergen: IX, Morphologic and systematic studies of the Spitsbergen cephalaspids (Results of Th. Vogt's expedition, 1928, and the English-Norwegian-Swedish expedition, 1939), vol. A, 616 pp., vol. B, pp. 42, 118 plates; Norsk Polarin&tittut Skr., Nr. 97. WEGENER, A. 1924. The origin of continents and oceans (English translation by J. G. A. SKERL), pp. 1-212, London. WEGMANN, C. E. 1948. Geological tests of the hypothesis of continental drift in the Arctic regions; Medd. om Grj1Snland, Bd. 144, Nr. 7, pp. 1-48. WEISS, L. E. 1953. Tectonic features of the Hecla Hook formation to the south of St. Jonsfjord, Vestspitsbergen; Geol. Mag., vol. 90, pp. 273-86. WESTOLL, T. S. 1951. The vertebrate-bearing strata of Scotland; Rept. Internat. Geol. Congr. XVIII, G . B., Part XI, pp. 5-21. WILSON, C. B. 1958. The lower Middle Hecla Hoek rocks of Ny Friesland, Spitsbergen; Geol. Mag., vol. 95, no. 4, pp. 305-27. (in press) . The upper Middle Hecla Hoek rocks of Ny Friesland, Spitsbergen; Geol. Mag., vol. 98. WILSON, C . B., and HARLAND, W. B. (MS). The Polarisbreen series in Ny Friesland, Spitsbergen (in preparation). WIMAN, C. 1916. Notes on the marine Triassic reptile fauna of Spitzbergen; Bull. Dept. Geol. Univ. Calif., vol. 10, no. 5-6, pp. 63-73. WITTENBURG, P.v. 1910. Ueber einige Trias fossilien von Spitsbergen; Trav. Mus. geol. Pierre le Gr. T. 4, pp. 31-9 (St. Petersburg, 1910). REFERENCES ADDED IN PROOF ATKINSON, D. J. 1960. Caledonian tectonics of Prins Karls Forland; Int. Geol. Congr., Rep. of XXI Session, 1960, Part XIX, pp. 17-27. BIRKENMAJER, K. (ed.). 1960. Geological results of the Polish 1957-1958 Spitsbergen Expedition, Part I (5 papers), Studia Geol. Polonica, vol. IV, Warszawa 1960, 123 pp. Part II, Studia Geol. Polonica, vol. V, 95 pp. and 3 maps in pocket. - - - 1960. Relation of the Cambrian to the Pre-Cambrian in Hornsund, Vest-Spitsbergen; Int. Geol. Congr., Rep. of XXI Session, 1960, Part VIII, pp. 64-74. 1960. Recent vertical movements of Spitsbergen; Int. Geol. Congr., Rep. of XXI Session, 1960, Part XXI, pp. 281-94. WINSNES, T. S., HEINTZ, A., and HEINTZ, N. 1960. Aspects of the geology of Svalbard, with supplement by K. BIRKENMAJER; Int. Geol. Congr., Guide to Excursion A 16, Oslo.

Radiocarbon Dating of Raised Beaches in Nordaustlandet, Spitsbergen 1 WESTON BLAKE, Jr.

ABSTRACT

Raised beaches up to more than 100 metres above sea-level are exceptionally well developed in the narrow, ice-free, coastal zone of Nordaustlandet, Spitsbergen. Radiocarbon determinations on imbedded driftwood, shells, and whale bones, as well as the tentative correlation of pumice fragments with dated pumice in Denmark and Norway, have provided a means of dating certain beach levels. The pumice occurs at three different levels which serve as excellent horizons for correlating widely separated beaches. The uppermost pumice level is particularly clearly defined and often occurs on a broad beach which also usually marks the upper limit of driftwood. Because of differential uplift following deglaciation this beach rises from 5 metres at the outer coast to l O metres in the inner parts of the fjords. The radiocarbon dates on driftwood (4000 to 7000 years) show that this beach cannot be older than 7,000 years B.P. , and the pumice has been dated elsewhere at 4,000 years B.P. Thus, the beach formed in the Hypsithermal Interval (Tapes Sea). Wood at 36 metres and shells at 8-44 metres are dated at 9,000 to 10,000 years B.P., and shells at 44-47 metres are dated at 35,000 to 40,000 years B.P. The absence of material between 10,000 and 35,000 years (or more) in age is probably the result of a more extensive ice cover during that period.

(North-East Land) is situated on the eightieth parallel to the northeast of the main island of Vestspitsbergen and is the second largest island in the Spitsbergen group (Figure 1). Despite its rather inaccessible location it has been visited by a number of scientific expeditions during the last one hundred years. Notable among these are the Swedish Polar Expedition ( 1872-3) led by A. E. Nordenskiold, the Swedish-Russian Arc of Meridian Expedition ( 18991902), the Swedish-Norwegian Arctic Expedition ( 1931) led by H. W: son Ahlmann, and a series of expeditions from Oxford University in 1924, 1935-6, 1949, 1951 , and 1955. (For a summary of all but the last of these see Thompson, 1953, p. 213-22.) According to Ahlmann ( 1933, p. 157) about 80 per cent of Nordaustlandet is covered by ice, mostly in the form of ice-caps. The highest elevations of the two main ice-caps, Vestfonna and Austfonna, are more than 650 and 800 metres above sea-level, respectively. Much of the northwest coast of the island is ice free, and the area studied most intensively by the writer is that around Murchisonfjorden and Lady Franklinfjorden (Figure 2) . The bedrock geology of this area has been studied in detail by Kulling of the 1931 expedition (1934, pp. 161-254) . The rocks are predominantly quartzose sandstones, shales, dolomites, and limestones of the Hecla Hoek succession, but NORDAUSTLANDET

1 Contribution No. 2 from the Institute of Polar Studies, the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

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SPITSBERGEN

the basal member, the Kapp Hansteen formation, also contains some volcanic rocks. These strongly folded beds strike north-northwest and often have nearly vertical dips. The fossiliferous Kapp Sparre formation, the youngest of the Hecla Hoek rocks, is thought to be Lower Cambrian (Kulling, 1932, p. 142) . The presence of striae and erratics indicates that at some time the Murchisonfjorden-Lady Franklinfjorden area was completely covered by ice, and a discontinuous and thin covering of till was left by this ice-cap. The highest elevation in the area studied is 430 metres, and the topography is generally rolling. RAISED BEACHES

The till deposited during the last glaciation has been reworked by wave action into shingle beaches and because of the uplift of the land following deglaciation a series of these beaches rises from sea-level to more than 100 metres. The higher beaches are discontinuous owing to the nature of the topography, and in some

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places they have been destroyed by frost action and solifluction. The beaches are in general remarkably well preserved, however, and they are the dominant feature of the landscape (Figures 3 and 4). Tilting of the Beaches Tilting of the beaches has accompanied uplift of the land and is most strikingly demonstrated on the lower beaches where fragments of pumice are found. This pumice, which the author believes has come from Iceland, occurs at three levels that serve as excellent horizons for correlating widely separated beaches (Figure 5). The pumice is most widespread at the uppermost of the three levels. Here it is commonly found on a broad, well-developed beach which is often cut into bedrock at its inner edge. The nature of this beach clearly indicates a balance between the

136

SPITSBERGEN

isostatic uplift of the land and the eustatic rise of sea-level for a considerable period of time. In Lady Franklinfjorden this beach can be traced continuously along the entire length of the fjord, a distance of 20 kilometres (Figure 2). It rises from 6.4 metres at Kapp Lady to 10.3 metres in the inner part of the fjord. The same pumice horizon occurs at 4.9 metres on Lagf/lya. 1 The beaches in Murchisonfjorden are also tilted, and two of the pumice levels were found farther south in Nordaustlandet and in adjacent Vestspitsbergen by Donner and West in 1955 (1957, p. 17-23). They recorded the upper pumice level at 13.8 metres at Brageneset, 30 kilometres southeast of Murchisonfjorden (Figure 1).

FIGURE 3. View southeast in Lady Franklinfjorden with Vestfonna in the background. The large glacier entering the fjord is Spre Franklinbreen. Raised beaches are prominent all along the south side of the fjord, and at Tverrberget (the hill in the right foreground with a snowbank) the beaches rise to about 100 metres above sea-level. (B. Luncke photo, copyright Norsk Polarinstitutt.) lThe elevations of the pumice as well as of most of the samples collected for radiocarbon dating were determined by precise levelling and were reduced to mean sea-level. The elevations of the shell samples above 22 metres were determined by Paulin altimeter, and were corrected for barometric changes and temperature.

WESTON BLAKE, JR.

137

-

FIGURE 4. View northwest along the south side of Lady Franklinfjorden from Sevrinberget in May 1958. The prominent beach (arrow) near the frozen fjord is the _ 7,000- to 4,000-year-old Tapes level on which driftwood and pumice are found.

The beaches below the upper pumice level also tilt, although at a smaller angle. Presumably the higher beaches are more steeply inclined, but here no pumice occurs to serve as guide horizons. RADIOCARBON DATING

A number of samples of driftwood, whale bones, and shells were collected from the raised beaches, and these have been dated by Dr. Ingrid Olsson at the C-14 Laboratory, Uppsala, Sweden (Olsson, 1959, pp. 90-1; Olsson, 1960, pp. 116-21). It should be emphasized that the dated samples were all imbedded in the beaches, and thus they were deposited by natural means when the beaches were forming, although the bone and shells may have arrived even earlier ( Figures 6 and 7). They were not lying on the surface where they could have been carried by the wind or by some other agency such as storm waves, man, or polar bears. It is evident that any of these remains give a maximum age to the beach in which they lie. The beach may be younger than the dated material, but it cannot be older unless, as will be shown later, the beach took a long time to form. That the beach may be younger is clearly seen when it is considered that the driftwood, most of which probably came from Siberia, may have taken some time to reach Spitsbergen, although this time is most likely insignificant in terms of the age of the wood. Likewise, the whales did not necessarily die right at the shore. Finally,

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SPITSBERGEN

FIGURE 5. Abundant dark brown pumice (especially to the left of the hammer) at the upper pumice- level (6.7 metres) in Franklindalen, Lady Franklinfjorden.

FIGURE 6. View south at the highest driftwood (36.5 metres) near Sveanor on the south shore of Murchisonfjorden. Note how the log is imbedded in this wide, flat beach.

WESTON BLAKE, JR.

139

most of the shells found, such as Saxicava arctica L. and Mya truncata L., are species which can live at varying depths (Odhner, 1915, pp. 120--9; FeylingHanssen, 1955, pp. 148, 150), and these shells may also have been washed downward from their original living place by wave or current action; hence they may be much older than the beach in which they were found. Driftwood

Most of the driftwood occurs at or below the upper pumice level, and only one piece was found at any appreciably higher elevation. All the wood samples studied are Larix, Picea, and Pinus. The results of the dating are shown in Table I. The driftwood samples were collected from several different localities as shown in Figure 2, and six of the samples were found together with pumice at the upper pumice level. The fact that the youngest sample was found at a higher elevation than some of the other driftwood at the upper pumice level is because it came from the inner part of Murchisonfjorden where the uplift has been greater. In spite of the fact that the dates give a maximum age for this beach, the near grouping of several samples between 6,200 and 6,900 years B.P. suggests that the beach was forming during that time, but the 4,020-year-old log indicates that the beach was also forming at a later date. 2

7. Whale bones (to the right of the tripod) imbedded in the beach at the upper pumice level (9.5 metres) on the west side of lndre Russ¢ya. Driftwood was also found here with the whale bones and pumice.

FIGURE

2The writer is indebted to Dr. D. M. Hopkins of the United States Geological Survey for pointing out that this 4,020 date might be erroneous as the five other logs at the upper pumice level are all 6,200 to 6,900 years old. This possibility exists, but, according to Dr. Olsson, all of the measurements pertaining to this sample seem to be valid (personal communication, January, 1960).

140

SPITSBERG EN

TABLE I RADIOCARBON DATES ON DRIFTWOOD

Age (years B.P.)

Sample No.

Elevation (metres)

U-70

36.5

Sveanor

9270 ± 130

U-38 U-175

12.8 11.3

K valrosshalvj11ya K valrossha]vj1lya

7830 ± 120 7500 ± 150

U-34 U-116 U-36 U-111 U-107 U-112

9.8 9.0 8 7.6 6.2

K valrosshalvj1lya lndre Russj1lya S91re Russj1lya Oddneset Vestre Tvillingneset Kapp Lady

4020 6650 6490 6740 6200 6900

U-33

2.0

K valrosshalvj11ya

6780 ± 100

8.8

·Location

l J

Upper Pumice Level

± ± ± ± ± ±

90 110 110 110 100 110

Further evidence for the dating of this beach is provided by the pumice, which the author believes to be similar to that found in Denmark and Norway. In Norway it has been correlated with the late Tapes transgression, and in Denmark it has been found covered by peat from sub-Boreal time. On this basis NoeNygaard (1951, pp. 43-4) has dated the Icelandic eruption which produced the pumice at about 4,000 years B.P. This date is the same as that determined for the youngest driftwood from the upper pumice level in Nordaustlandet. The age of the driftwood and pumice are good evidence that this beach was forming between 7,000 and 4,000 years B.P., that is, during the Hypsithermal Interval. The grouping of dates between 6,900 and 6,200 years B.P. and at 4,000 years B.P. also suggests that two separate transgressions may have occurred. This hypothesis is supported by the known fluctuations of sea-level according to Lundqvist (1954, p. 4, summarizing the work of 0yen and Tanner in Scandinavia) and Fairbridge (1958, pp. 477-8). A long period of balance between land and sea is in agreement with the well-developed character of this beach relative to neighbouring beaches, as noted earlier. The log at two metres elevation, dated at 6,780 years, provides a good example of the erroneous impression which could result if only one log were dated. This log is the same age as those lying higher up on the beaches at the upper pumice level, and so it has very obviously been redeposited. As shown in Table I the other pieces of driftwood are progressively older with increasing elevation. The log at 36.5 metres, dated at 9,270 years B. P., occurs on another very prominent flat beach. The nature of this beach indicates that it also took considerable time to form, and that it too developed during a time of isostatic-eustatic balance (Figure 6) . According to Lundqvist and Fairbridge the peak of another transgression was reached about 9,100-9,000 years ago.

Whale Bones Two samples of whale bone were dated as a check on the driftwood, and the results are shown in Table II. One piece of bone was found with wood and shells at the upper pumice level in Murchisonfjorden, the other was from 17.6 metres in Lady Franklinfjorden (Figure 2). Datings were made on both the inorganic and

WESTON BLAKE, JR.

141

the organic fractions, but the latter are considered more valid as the inorganic fraction is more subject to contamination. The age of the lower bone sample is nearly the same as that of the driftwood (U-107, 6,200 years) with which the bone was found. The dates on the 17 .6-metre sample are intermediate in age between the 12.8- and 36.5-metre driftwood samples. TABLE II RADIOCARBON DATES ON WHALE BONES Elevation (metres)

Sample No. U-109 ;U-110

7.5

Age (years B.P.)

Location Vestre Tvillingneset

6220 ± 110 ( organic fractionafter partial combustion) { 6380 ± 150 (organic fractionafter complete combustion) 4570 ± 100 (inorganic fraction)

Teodolitkollen

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Shells

Dates were also obtained on ten shell samples from the raised beaches. Both the inner and outer parts of the shells were dated and, in every case except one, the outer part was found to be younger. As the outer part is obviously more subject to contamination, only the dates on the inner parts of the shells will be discussed here. The results are shown in Table III. TABLE III RADIOCARBON DATES ON SHELLS Sample No.

Elevation (metres)

U-120 U-173 U-162

Dominant shell type

Saxicava arctica L. Mytilus edulis L.

9540 ± 130 9070 ± 190

Saxicava arctica L. Saxicava arctica L. Mya truncata L. Saxicava arctica L.

9730 9660 9830 9640

39 700 + 1500 ' - 1300

U-179 U-95 U-166

22 31 44

Tollenbukta Langgrunnodden Vestre Tvillingneset Kvalrosshalvfllya Weaselbukta Weaselbukta

U-89

44

Sevrinberget

Saxicava arctica L.

52

Teodolitkollen

Saxicava arctica L.

U-118 U-172 U-72 U-181

U-87

8.5 9 9

} }

Age (years B.P.)

Location

57

Wargentinfl.ya

Saxicava arctica L.

77

Wargentinfl.ya

Saxicava arctica L.

± 130 ± 130

± 130 ± 120

{ {

40 300 + 4100 ' - 2900

>

37,000

37 000 + 3000 ' - 2000 35 400 + 2400 ' - 1600 38 500 + 3500 ' - 2500

142

SPITSBERGEN

Strictly speaking it is impossible to say that any of the shells are in situ, because in most areas they are found where frost action has pushed plugs of till up through the beach shingle or in extensive flat areas where beach shingle is lacking (Figure 8). The valves are rarely joined together, and these pelecypods never occur in living position owing to the churning effects of the freeze-thaw process in the till. Those which were found on slopes may have suffered from the effects of solifluction or washing, although no collections were made in areas which had very obviously been disturbed in this way. Samples U-120 and U-162 were collected from the upper pumice level, but the dates show that these animals lived at about the same time as those represented by the higher level shells at 22, 31, and 44 metres. This is not surprising in view of what has been said in regard to the depths at which these animals can live plus the fact that the shells may have been washed downward. Because these shells are all older than the highest wood sample, sea-level when they lived was above what is now the 36.5-metre beach. However, absolute sea-level was of course lower than at present, and the present elevated position of this beach is a result of land uplift having exceeded the eustatic rise of sea-level. As Table III shows, no shells in the 9,000- to 10,000-year range have been found above 44 metres. In the Lady Franklinfjorden area four collections of shells provided dates exceeding 35,000 years B.P. These shells were all found in localities which were mostly covered by patterned ground (Figure 8); a shingle beach was generally lacking although all samples were collected below the marine limit. As yet it is not

FIGURE 8. Patterned ground south of Lady Franklinfjorden. Some of the high level + 3500 + 4100 shells (Samples nos. U-72 and U-181 : 57 metres, 38,500 _ 2500 and 40,300 _ 2900 years old, respectively) were collected at this point. A shingle beach is lacking here. Views north towards Sevrinberget.

WESTON BLAKE, JR.

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known for certain whether these shells occur where the animals once lived or if they have been moved by a glacier, but the latter possibility seems more probable. In a stream cut nearer sea-level in the same area shells and shell fragments were observed in the till 1-2 metres below the overlying beach shingle. These shells have been scraped up from the fjord bottom by the glacier, and now they form part of the matrix of the till. They have not been dated, but because of the field relations it is believed that they are of the same age as the dated shells and that the latter attained their present positions in the same way. Land Uplift and Glacial History

If the radiocarbon dates are plotted on a time-elevation diagram ( Figure 9), the resulting curve shows the probable course of land uplift for the period between 10,000 and 6,000 years B.P.; that is, a progressively slower rate of uplift with time. In addition, the presence of a Russian hunting hut known to be at least 100 years old, and which is now only 1.2 metres above high tide level and 8 metres from a tidal lagoon, indicates that little or no uplift is taking place now (Blake, 1961). No corrections for the eustatic fluctuations of sea-level, particularly the rapid rise of sea-level between 14,000 and 5,500 years B.P. (Godwin, et al., 1958, p. 1518), have been applied to this diagram. The older shell dates cannot be fitted into this scheme. They indicate merely that ice did not cover this area when the mollusks were living. 3 The absence of shells, driftwood, and whale bones for the period prior to 10,000 years B.P . is, as 31n all of the old shells the core was older (sometimes significantly) than the adjacent layer, and hence the poosibility of contamination exists, and the C-14 dates must be regarded as minimum ages. The ages of one of the old samples (U-118, U-172) , as well as two of the younger shell samples (U-120 and U-162), have been checked by Dr. W. S. Broecker of the Lamont Geological Observatory using the uranium-radium method. The preliminary results of these determinations agree rather closely with the radiocarbon ages (9,500 to 9,700 years) of the younger shells but suggest that the old shells are very much older than the C-14 dates indicate (personal communication, February, 1960). Thus the ice-free period was in all probability pre-40,000 years ago.

144

SPITSBERGEN

far as can now be judged, primarily because of the more extensive ice cover which existed in Nordaustlandet during that time. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The field work upon which this report is based was carried out during the summers of 1957 and 1958 while the writer served as glacial geologist with the Swedish Glaciological Expedition to Nordaustlandet, Spitsbergen, led by Dr. V. Schytt of the Department of Geography, University of Stockholm. Appreciation is expressed to all the members of the expedition, especially R. Bergstrom, for assistance in the field. Dr. Ingrid Olsson of the Department of Physics, University of Uppsala, kindly carried out the C-14 determinations, and Professor G. Burns, Department of Botany, Ohio Wesleyan University, identified the driftwood samples. The writer's stay in Sweden was made possible by a grant from the Foreign Field Research Program, Division of Earth Sciences, National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council - with financial support provided by the Geography Branch, Office of Naval Research. The expedition itself was financed mainly by the Swedish Natural Science Research Council, as well as by other government and private organizations in Sweden and Finland, and the glacial geological work in particular was supported by Svenska Sallskapet for Antropologi och Geografi. The manuscript has been critically read and helpful suggestions offered by Professors R. P. Goldthwait and G. Hoppe, Dr. V. Schytt, and Messrs. J. Hollin and R. L. Cameron. REFERENCES AHLMANN, H. W :soN. 1933. Scientific results of the Swedish-Norwegian Arctic Expedition in the summer of 1931, Part 8, Glaciology; Geografiska Annaler, Arg. 15, pp. 161-216. BLAKE, Jr., W. 1961. Russian settlement and land rise in Nordaustlandet, Spitsbergen; Arctic, v. 14. DE GEER, G . 1923. Missions scientifiques pour la mesure d'un arc de meridien au Spitzberg, entreprises en 1899-1902 sous Jes auspices des gouvernements suedois et russe; Mission suedoise, Tome 2, 9• section, Topographie. Geologie: Stockholm, Centraltryckeriet. DONNER, J. J., and WEST, R. G. 1957. The Quaternary geology of Brageneset, NordaustIandet, Spitsbergen; Norsk Polarinstitutt Skrifter, Nr. 109. FAIRBRIDGE, R. W. 1958. Dating the latest movements of the Quaternary sea level; Trans. New York Acad. Sci., Ser. 2, vol. 20, pp. 471-82. FEYLING-HANSSEN, R. W. 1955. Stratigraphy of the marine late-Pleistocene of Billefjorden, Vestspitsbergen; Norsk Polarinstitutt Skrifter, Nr. 107. GLEN, A. R. 1937. The Oxford University Arctic Expedition, North East Land, 1935-6; Geog. J., vol. 90, pp. 195-222, 289-314. GODWIN, H ., SuGGATE, R. P., and WILLIS, E. H. 1958. Radiocarbon dating of the eustatic rise in ocean-level; Nature, vol. 181, pp. 1518-19. KULLING, 0. 1932. Nagra geologiska resultat fran expeditionen till Nordostlandet 1931; Geologiska Foreningens i Stockholm Forhandlingar, Bd. 54, pp. 138-45. - - - 1934. Scientific results of the Swedish-Norwegian Arctic Expedition in the summer of 1931, Part 11, The "Hecla Hoek Formation" round Hinlopenstredet; Geografiska Annaler, Arg. 16, pp. 161-254. LuNDQVIST, G. 1954. Riifflor, iindmoriiner och isrecessionslinjer; Stockholm, Generalstabens Litografiska Anstalts Forlag, Atlas over Sverige, Blad 21-2. NOE-NYGAARD, A. 1951. Sub-fossil Hekla pumice from Denmark; Medd. fra Dansk Geologisk Forening, Bd. 12, pp. 35-46. ODHNER, N. H. 1915. Zoologische Ergebnisse der schwedischen Expedition nach Spitzbergen 1908, Teil 2, I., Die Molluskenfauna des Eisfjordes; Kung!. Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar, Ny Foljd., Bd. 54.

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OLSSON, I. 1959. Uppsala natural radiocarbon measurements I; Am. J. Sci. Radiocarbon Supplement, vol. 1, pp. 87-102. 1960. Uppsala natural radiocarbon measurements II; Am. J. Sci. Radiocarbon Supplement, vol. 2, pp. 112-28. ORVIN, A. K. 1940. Outline of the geological history of Spitsbergen; Skrifter om Svalbard og Ishavet, Nr. 78. THOMPSON, H. R. 1953. Oxford Expeditions to Nordaustlandet (North East Land), Spitsbergen; Arctic, vol. 6, pp. 213-22. WRIGHT, J. 1939. Methods of survey in North East Land; Geog. J., vol. 93, pp. 210-27.

GREENLAND

A Summary of the Geology of North and East Greenland EDITORIAL FOREWORD

IN THE OPENING PARAGRAPH of his article on "Precambrian and Early Palaeozoic Elements and Sedimentation of North and East Greenland," Dr. Lauge Koch remarks: "The present summary, dealing especially with . . . North and East Greenland, is based on discoveries made over a period of many years. Topographic and geological mapping were carried out at first by dog-sledge, since 1929 principally by ship, after 1932 mainly by aeroplane. Twenty-four expeditions, many of them winter-based, contributed to these studies and involved numbers of eminent geologists." This is a highly laconic epitome of one of the most concentrated efforts towards co-ordinated regional geology of a significant segment of the earth's surface which the geological science has experienced, and one made in the face of exceptionally unfavourable geographic and climatic conditions. Dr. Koch's investigations began in 1913, only four years after Peary's "discovery" of the North Pole, and it is therefore most fitting that the summary of the current work of the "Koch group" be presented in connection with the First International Symposium on Arctic Geology, held on the fiftieth anniversary of this historic date. As remarkable as the expeditions themselves is the splendid series of publications resulting from them that have appeared down to the present time under the title Meddelelser om Grr/mland and under the sponsorship of the Kommisionen for Videnskabelige Undersoegelser i Groenland. It is fitting at this time to call attention to the published summaries of this literature which appeared in the Meddelelser and elsewhere, as follows:

Fortegnelse over Meddelelser om Gr¢nland (to April 1950); H. F. Kliar, 1950, plus a supplement through December 1957. Literature from Danish East Greenland Expeditions published in the Meddelelser om Gr¢nland; Lauge Koch, 1954. Lauge Koch's expeditions to East Greenland, 1926 to 1958; J. W. Cowie, in Polar Record, IX, pp. 547-52.

In addition, we call attention to Dr. Koch's article, "Journeys and Expeditions to Greenland in the Years 1919-59: A Summary" which appears in the present series.

Precambrian and Early Palaeozoic Structural Elements and Sedimentation: North and East Greenland LAUGE KOCH

ABSTRACT

Considering Greenland as a part of the Canadian shield, we find in North and East Greenland three geosynclines each with its own geological history. (1) Northwest geosyncline (eastern part of Innuitian). Archean shield exposed in Thule district and Inglefield Land. Sedimentation: psammites with basalt (Upper Thulean, 3,000 m). Lower, Middle, and Upper Canadian, Mohawkian, Richmond (1,500 m), Llandovery, Wenlock, Ludlow (3,000+ m). In Silurian disconformities, and sedimentation from the rising mountain range (530 km) along the north coast. Caledonian folding in west mild, in east stronger. No Devonian sediments north of 76° Nin Greenland. (2) Northeast geosyncline (Archean shield exposed Victoria Fjord and Dronning Louise Land). (a) Sedimentation: semi-petites (3,000+ m) and coastal plain psammites (3,000+ m), basalt= Lower and Upper Thulean. (b) Folding + granites + faulting + basalt= Carolinidian mountain chain (800 km) at the northeast comer of Canadian shield, may or may not continue on the north coast of Ellesmere Island. (c) Denudation: to the east a basin; semipelites (4,500 m); to the west a elastic wedge 1,700 m (= Hagen Fjord group) + Lower Cambrian, Champlainian, Wenlock, and Ludlow. (d) Strong Caledonian folding with granites and great overthrust to the west. (e) Denudation to the east; Dinanthian + Namurian (?) (continental), Middle Carboniferous, Lower Permian, Triassic, Cenozoic (?) (marine). (/) Mild Tertiary folding faulting + basalt (400 km). (3) Central east geosyncline (Archean shield exposed in Dronning Louise Land and southwest Scoresby Sound). (a) Sedimentation: tillite, semi-pelites, and pelites with two limestone horizons and psammites, pelites, limestone, and dolostone = Lower and Upper Eleonore Bay group and Tillite group (12,000+ m), Lower Cambrian, Canadian, and Champlainian (3,000+ m). (b) Strong Caledonian folding first in Silurian with granites, later folding with granites in Middle and Upper Devonian, and molasse basins 13,000 m with Givetian, Frasnian, Famennian, Strunian, Toumaisian, Namurian, Westphalian, Stephanian, and Lower Permian; last folding in Toumaisian, but faulting to the end of Middle Permian. (c) Calm period with Upper Permian marine transgression in Mesozoic basins and coastal plains up to the end of Senonian. (d) In Tertiary widespread plateau basalt, local acid plutons. Strong faulting, local folding, local Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene marine sediments.

dealing especially with the Precambrian sediments in North and East Greenland, is based on discoveries made over a period of many years. Topographic and geological mapping was carried out at first by dog-sledge, since 1929 principally by ship, after 1932 mainly by aeroplane. Twenty-four expeditions, many of them winter-based, contributed to these studies and involved numbers of eminent geologists. During my travelling in Greenland from Cape York in the west, along the north and east coasts to some distance south of Scoresby Sound, it developed ( 1 ) that THE PRESENT SUMMARY,

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there was more ice-free land area than expected, and (2) that the sediments nearest the inland ice were largely Precambrian. In 1929, the Precambrian sediments were divided by the author into the Thule group (then termed Thule formation) and the Eleonore Bay group (then termed Eleonore Bay formation). In 1930 all the Precambrian sediments were included under the name of Greenlandian. A paper entitled "Greenlandian," a Precambrian symposium, which will contain a comprehensive list of references, is now in press. The symposium cannot be termed "Proterozoic" for it excludes such more or less metamorphic groups as the Etah (Koch, 1929) and Agpat (Kriiger, 1928) formations, the extensions of which are entirely unknown, and probably also several mountain chains in southwest Greenland. All of these, located below the peneplain that forms the surface of the Greenland shield ("Archean"), possibly belong to the Proterozoic as now defined in Canada. The shield occurs: ( 1 ) In the Thule district as fault blocks more or less covered by Thule sediments. (2) Inglefield Land, where it forms a peneplain sloping gently towards the north, and partially covered by Greenlandian and Lower Palaeozoic sediments. (3) In Victoria Fjord, where a small area of the shield occurs at its head. ( 4) A minor portion of the shield is exposed in the southwestern part of Dronning Louise Land, but it is more or less covered by horizontal beds of Thulean sediments. ( 5) A small inlier of the shield is exposed in southwestern Scoresby Sound. Southward from 68° N, as well as south of Cape York, the coast is formed entirely by the shield. Along a stretch of more than 3,000 km between Cape York in the northwest, and Scoresby Sound in East Greenland (south of 70° N, Greenlandian sediments (typical cover rocks; cf. J. Tuzo Wilson in The Proterozaic in Canada, ed. Gill, Toronto, 1957) are widely distributed. The sediments occur as flat-lying beds in deltaic coastal plains on the shield north of 76° N. They crop out along the coast to both the west and the east, and must be assumed to be very widely distributed below the inland ice, for large quantities of erratic boulders, sometimes with basalt of the Thule type, are encountered everywhere in the moraines near the inland ice and on the ice-free land. In addition to the deposits of the Thulean coastal plain north of 76° N, accumulation in three geosynclines is suggested on Figure 1, namely in one to the northwest, one to the northeast, and one in central East Greenland. The boundaries of the geosynclines below the inland ice are rather theoretical and must, of course, be accepted with great reservation. Thule Group

LOWER GREENLANDIAN

It has long been assumed that north of 76°N the entire shield is covered by nearly horizontal-lying psammites (red sandstones with conglomerates), with siltstones, dolostones, and shales present near the edge of the shield. Ripplemarks and crossbedding as well as suncracks are common.

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In recent years it has become evident that the coastal plain sediments are underlain by at least 3,000 m of semi-pelites laid down in a geosyncline which forms a curve from 76° Non the east coast to near Victoria Fjord on the north coast. The basal beds in the geosyncline would seem to be carbonate rocks and green schists. Like the shield, this geosyncline was overlain by Thulean coastal plain sediments, which in the Thule district and in northeast Greenland above the geosyncline attain thicknesses of up to 3,000 m. Later, the Thulean sediments were pierced by numerous sills and dykes of basalt (including all the basic eruptives) . The northeastern geosyncline was subsequently subjected to folding. Especially towards the south, the sediments were metamorphosed and plutonized, while the folding sinks down and shows less intensity towards the northeast. The folding was succeeded by a period of strong faulting, and a fresh basalt generation intruded, chiefly between the fault blocks. This folding, which forms a Precambrian mountain chain about 800 km long around the northeastern comer of the Greenlandian shield, and perhaps has a continuation in northern Ellesmere Island, was termed the Carolinides by Haller (19 59) . During the subsequent period of denudation, 4,500 m of sediments of different types were deposited in an eastern basin. Later on, in Caledonian time, these sediments were thrust westward in the form of a nappe and now rest as allochthonous rocks on Lower Palaeozoic sediments. On the foreland to the west, up to 1,700 m of pink sandstone, purple siltstone, and yellow and grey dolomite were deposited (Hagen Fjord group; Haller, 1959) . On top of these, over 2,500 m of sandy Cambrian and coarsely banked Ordovician and Silurian beds (up to Lower Ludlow) were laid down. No younger beds have been found in this geosyncline, which was afterwards affected by folding in Caledonian time. UPPER GREENLANDIAN

The Eleonore Bay geosyncline is traceable in central East Greenland from about 76° N southward to about 68° N. The Precambrian sediments deposited in this geosyncline (12,000+ m) seem to be younger than the Thule group. In one place only has the base of this enormous Precambrian series been found, namely, in an inlier in southwestern Scoresby Sound. The lower tillites, deposited for the most part in pockets on the shield, are found at the base (Wenk, 1958). Varves likewise seem to be present, and on a nunatak in the west a glacier-polished surface possibly occurs below the tillites. The tillite is overlain by limestone, which is succeeded upward by dark-coloured pelites and semi-pelites. The series, which has a thickness of more than 5,800 m, terminates with quartzites showing ripplemarks and current bedding. The eastern section within the fjord area has been investigated in great detail, especially after the war. Here the section has a thickness of about 12,000 m. The basal tillite is not exposed, but the overlying limestones are. Above follows a lower division, the Alpefjord series, with argillaceous shales, succeeded by a limestone horizon and arenaceous shales. The Alpefjord series lacks the phyllites present among the western sediments. It would seem that these huge sedimentary sequences are derived from an eastern erosion area which is unknown today. The upper part of the Eleonore Bay group is found to have been deposited in a

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very regular basin from about 72° to some distance north of 75° N. The numerous fjord sections, with steep walls some 1,500-2,000 m high and intensely coloured sediments, rendered it possible to carry out a detailed stratigraphic division of these beds. They consist, at the base, of grey quartzite (2,100 m). Then follow shales alternating with beds of massive quartzite (1,000 m), overlain by dolostones and limestones (1, 100 m) . Although the Upper Eleonore Bay group is stratigraphically consistent, the Lower Eleonore Bay group shows considerable deviation between its eastern and western facies. The provenance and environment of deposition of these lower beds are therefore less obvious than is the case for strata higher up in the group, where the sediments seem to have come entirely from the west. The two limestone horizons, a lower and a middle, play an important stratigraphic role; and some sediments, especially those at Isfjorden and Eleonore Lake, previously referred to the Upper Eleonore Bay group, probably represent the lowest limestone horizon above the Lower Tillite. The Upper Eleonore Bay dolostones and limestones are overlain disconformably by a tillite group about 200 to 1,000 m thick, which in East Greenland has always been referred to the Precambrian. The group is a shaly, sandy succession including two boulder beds. Varves are present. Thus it will be seen that the Eleonore Bay group both begins with and is followed by a tillite series. Then follows, with a slight unconformity, 3,100 m of sandstone, dolomite, and limestone containing fossils of Lower Cambrian and Lower and Middle Ordovician age. The beds with the youngest fossils seem to represent the top of the Middle Ordovician. The Caledonian folding activity in central East Greenland may have started as early as the Upper Ordovician. It is characteristic of this whole Precambrian and Lower Palaeozoic sedimentation that, with the exception of ophiolite, which seems to be distributed in some measure in the basal part of the Precambrian, this huge sedimentary series was on the whole deposited under tectonically quiet conditions. There is not the slightest trace here of Precambrian, Cambrian, or Ordovician orogeny and volcanism. The two east coast geosynclines were subjected to Caledonian folding, traceable along a stretch of 1,400 km from southernmost Scoresby Sound to the Northeast Foreland. Two orogenic systems have been ascertained in East Greenland : ( 1 ) an older orogeny culminating in the Silurian time, and (2) a younger orogeny especially intense in the region between 73° N and 75° N, and culminating in Middle and Upper Devonian time. Both orogenic systems show strong metamorphism, several granite generations, and, in most places to the west, overthrusts. South of the area of Devonian orogeny, a large molasse basin was formed between 72° N and 74° N, which during the period from the Middle Devonian to the Middle Permian, was filled with non-marine sediments. The thickness of the sediments exceeds 13,000 m, but no single section develops a full sequence, for the deposits were laid down in a number of local basins. These reflect some of the later movements, notably folding and faulting. For example, in this basinal area two periods of folding occurred in the Middle Devonian, two in the Upper Devonian, and one in the Lower Carboniferous. Intrusions of granite took place in

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the Middle Devonian, and extrusions of rhyolite and basalt in the Middle and Upper Devonian. Especially in Carboniferous and Lower Permian times, some very large north-south striking faults arose which are traceable over several hundreds of kilometres. Many of these faults were reactivated later, in Tertiary times. Thus, in East Greenland the term Caledonian folding sensu lato comprises strong orogenic movements within a time interval ranging from Upper Ordovician to Middle Permian. Strong folding, metamorphism, and granitization, probably took place first in Silurian and subsequently in Devonian time, with faulting in the Carboniferous and Lower Permian. The next chapter in the development of the central East Greenland geosynclines begins with an Upper Permian marine transgression across a very disharmonious relief. Numerous marine transgressions with deposition of coastal plain sediments during the whole of the Mesozoic show that the geosyncline experienced a quiet period, although warping developed some shallow basins. Farthest northward, this quiet period began earlier and likewise left its traces. Thus, from 80° N to 83° N, Lower Carboniferous and Namurian (?) shales are found, and traces of marine Middle Carboniferous, Lower Permian, and Middle Triassic transgressions are known. The last chapter of the East Greenland geosyncline was initiated after the Senonian by the formation of extensive plateau basalts (68°-70° N) with intercalation of plateau beds, and also, in the most easterly portion, of marine beds of Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene age. To the north, north and south of 74 ° N, plateau basalts of minor extent were extruded and many of the ancient faults reactivated; acid plutons intruded; and in the extreme north, gentle folding and faulting, probably also accompanied by basalt intrusions, occurred. Local Tertiary folding also took place in an area south of 72° N. Both the East Greenland and the North Greenland Caledonian folding pass seaward without convergence, but they must have had a common Precambrian history ( the Carolinides). THE NORTHWEST GREENLAND GEOSYNCLINE

The Northwest Greenland geosyncline no doubt forms the northeastern part of the Innuitian geosyncline on the Canadian shield. The fault zone in the Thule district is probably associated with the downwarp of Baffin Bay. The age of this faulting is unknown, but it must be assumed to be relatively young, possibly Cenozoic. As in Canada, the geosyncline shows no sharp boundary towards the shield, which here seems to lie at a very low level. The foreland, which is for the most part covered by inland ice, is built up of older, and probably also younger, Greenlandian beds overlain by Cambrian strata (apparently not particularly thick) followed by over 5,000 m of Ordovician and Silurian rocks forming a large plateau extending from Kane basin in the west to the central part of Peary Land. The majority of movements within the shield, at any rate from the late Precambrian up through the Cambrian and Ordovician, have been slight. Paraconformities normally occur between the various formations. In North Greenland no sediments are present that might date the culmination of the folding and its aftermath.

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In northwest Greenland the conditions within the Silurian are different. Here we find at the base two disconformities, and higher up in the Wenlock a very great disconformity, above which occur graptolite shales that grow increasingly sandy upwards. The youngest known fossils are of Ludlow age. The beds in which they occur are overlain by several hundreds of metres of sandstones that gradually become very coarse. These can be traced south of the folding zone, northwestward from Hall Land for a distance of about 270 km. They probably represent a flysch facies associated with the initial folding. The Greenland part of the folding has a length of 530 km. The western part is gently folded, while in western Peary Land the folding is much more intense, with some metamorphism and thrusting; the eventual discovery of granite here is not improbable. As will be seen from the above, the Precambrian sediments are widely distributed in North and East Greenland. Apart from the whole of North Greenland north of 76° which was covered by coastal plain sediments, three geosynclines developed in Precambrian time. The oldest geosyncline to the northeast contains over 6,000 m of Precambrian sediment and was folded in Precambrian time (the Carolinides). The mountains thus formed were broken down, to supply an additional 4,000+ m of Precambrian sediment. The northwestern geosyncline probably contains about 3,000 m of Precambrian sediments, and the central eastern geosyncline about 12,000 m. These two geosynclines were not folded until Caledonian time, sensu lato. Studies to enable us to date the Precambrian sediments are continuing, and it is hoped that it will be possible to determine the time of origin within the Proterozoic of the various Greenlandian geosynclinal and coastal plain sediments. The most important questions for consideration concern the age of ( 1) Lower Thule geosyncline sediments and Upper Thule coastal plain sediments, (2) Carolinidian folding, (3) Hagen Fjord group sediments (all north of 76° N), and (4) Eleonore Bay sediments, beginning and ending with tillite between 68°-76° N.

The Carolinides: An Orogenic Belt of late Precambrian Age in Northeast Greenland JOHN HALLER

ABSTRACT

Subsequent to the planation of the "shield" area in northeast Greenland a marginal strip of the stable region became strongly negative. Cover rocks (Thule group) accumulated in a geosynclinal structure running north-northwest-south-southeast. The sandy upper part of these strata encroached upon the cratonic area far to the west, and to the south as well. A later erupted basaltic magma penetrated these cover rocks everywhere. . In the later Precambrian an orogenic welt, called the "Carolinides," raised along the geosynclinal tract. In northeast Greenland a broad folded strip is traceable over a distance of 800 km. The author presumes that its westerly extension reappears in North Ellesmere Island. The Carolinidian chain, in the progress of denudation, acted as a long-enduring positive area, which had its essential influence on the depositional environments in northeast and central East Greenland during the latest Precambrian and the lower Palaeozoic.

(80° N. lat.), Fraenkl (1954, p. 72) elucidated a major stratigraphic break within the Precambrian sedimentary succession and showed its relationship to tectonic disturbances followed by prolonged emergence. He called this period of tectonic unrest "Hekla Sound Phase" (1956, p. 29). Later, Peacock (1956 a, 1958 a and b) and Wyllie (1957) ascertained a shallow folding in western Dronning Louise Land as well, which had taken place before the deposition of a younger Precambrian group of sediments. The two authors have not introduced any special name for that period of folding. In the summer of 1955, the writer investigated the metamorphic terrains along the east coast between the seventy-fifth and the seventy-eighth parallel. Based on the petrogenetic relationships and the structural pattern, I postulated ( 1956 b, p. 15) a spasm of mountain building which affected the area north of the seventysixth parallel in a period following the deposition of the Precambrian Thulean beds, but preceding the Caledonian drama. The making of this ancient fold belt was accompanied by granitization and metamorphism. The structural pattern produced by this orogenic action is widely distributed in central Dronning Louise Land, Dove Bay, and Germania Land (cf. Haller, 1956b, text Figure 2, signature "B"). In 1958, I was able to continue the survey towards the north. This enabled me to correlate the "pre-Caledonian" structural disturbance with the stratigraphically dated Precambrian pattern in the Hekla Sound area. Moreover, I recognized a shallow folding, related to this pattern, in the Precambrian terrains between Kronprins Christians Land and Peary Land. IN KRONPRINS CHRISTIANS LAND

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These relict structures, therefore, constitute a Precambrian fold belt, 800 km in length. In search of a suitable name for this mountain chain, I first considered the type-locality of Fraenkl, but a combination with the name Hekla Sound seemed unfavourable for obvious reasons. I preferred a derivation from the name "Prinsesse Caroline Mathildes Alper," which form the backbone of the coast mountains of Kronprins Christians Land. Accordingly the name "Carolinidian disturbance" is proposed. Thus the concept of an intra-Greenlandian belt in northeast Greenland resulted from continuous team-work in addition to which Dr. L. Koch's experience also contributed greatly. STRATIGRAPHY

Two stratigraphic units antedate the Carolinidian disturbance : (1) a complex of crystalline basement rocks belonging to the ancient stable block ( Greenland shield), and (2) a group of overlying Precambrian sediments, with intrusive dykes and sills.

Precambrian Basement Complex In the western part of Dronning Louise Land and in northwest Greenland (Thule district, Inglefield Land), patches of the undisturbed basement block occur. An outcrop of similar appearance, which we tentatively refer to the shield, is known from the head of Victoria Fjord ( 44 ° long.) . Distorted fragments of the basement, which had undergone transformations, are widely distributed along the east coast between Dove Bay and Kronprins Christians Land. Precambrian Cover Rocks The basement complex is overlain with profound unconformity by Precambrian sediments collectively named Greenlandian according to Koch ( 1930, p. 346). In northeast Greenland, we have to deal with two individual groups of Greenlandian strata produced by two dominant cycles of sedimentation. Older strata ("Thule formation," Koch, 1929), redefined as "Thule group" by the writer (in press), is, throughout, a elastic accumulation of considerable thickness. The lower part is a pelitic to semi-pelitic assemblage, up to 3,000 m thick, laterally restricted to a geosynclinal tract trending on present topography from Dove Bay to the head of Independence Fjord. The upper part of the sequence is a widespread psammitic accumulation which is up to 3,000 m thick. To the east, in the area between Dove Bay and Kronprins Christians Land, the lithogenetic data sup-port a littoral environment. To the west the strata take the form of coastal plain deposits. Everywhere the Thulean beds are invaded by dykes and sills of Precambrian basalts. Subsequent to this eruption the Thulean strata underwent tectonism as well as local metamorphism ( Carolinidian orogeny) . The orogenic consolidation was followed by a second basaltic invasion, and some acidic intrusions also occurred. Younger strata. After a long period of denudation the Carolinidian trunk was submerged and the subsidence gave rise to a new major cycle of Precambrian

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sedimentation. The younger group of Greenlandian strata, named "Hagens Fjord group" by the writer (in press), overlaps the denuded mountain belt. At the base, angular unconformities show in northwestern Dronning Louise Land, in Kronprins Christians Land, and in the inner part of Independence Fjord. In southwestern Dronning Louise Land and in Inglefield Land as well, the Thulean beds are untouched and the Hagens Fjord group overlays them paraconformably. This fact supports the conclusion that those places were once parts of the foreland plate in front of the ancient Carolinidian chain. STRUCTURE

General Features

The mobile belt essentially occupied the geosynclinal tract where the lower Thulean strata had accumulated. Its general trend runs from Dove Bay to South Peary Land, that is, from south-southeast to north-northwest. On the whole the fold belt welts the cratonic border of the former geosynclinal basin. In the coastal area between 76° and 75° N the Carolinidian welt strikes southeastward towards the Greenland Sea. In North Greenland, in the environs of Peary Channel, the welt disappears below a cover of late Precambrian and Palaeozoic strata. A westerly extension of this ancient chain may be existent in the Precambrian pattern involved in the "North Ellesmere Fold Belt" ( cf. Blackadar, 1954; Fortier et al., 1954; Christie, 1957). lnff,uence of Caledonian Disturbance

Actually the Carolinidian framework is traceable in the whole area of northeast Greenland. In most places, however, the ancient structural pattern is broken. Hence we are not able fully to restore its arrangement or its style of deformation. The Carolinidian pattern was essentially confused and modified by the main Caledonian orogeny, which affected the present coast area by thrusting and folding. In places metamorphic action has suffused and obliterated the older structure, as well. Thus, considerable portions of the Carolinidian trunk were thrown into thrust blocks and wedges which underwent transportation along low-angle faults in a westerly direction. In most places the amount of displacement is unknown. The Caledonian tectonics of thrust plates and nappe structures cause quite different parts of the truncated Carolinidian chain to lie beside and over one another. At the Caledonian thrust planes, segments from various ranges of deformation and metamorphism of the ancient structure meet. · If we try to reconstruct the Carolinidian pattern, we have, therefore, to distinguish, on principle: (a) Carolinidian segments which were not affected by the Caledonian orogenesis and which are still today at the place of their Precambrian origin; (b) Carolinidian segments which were transported to the west by Caledonian thrust movements and which, therefore, find themselves in allochthonous position; ( c) isolated fragments, involved in the fundamental structure of the Caledonian belt, which are bounded by mobile strips concerning which it is impossible to determine any syngenetic spatial position.

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Arrangement of Carolinidian Structures

In the environs of the head of Independence Fjord, the Thulean strata are mildly folded, or locally nearly flat-lying. The axes trend east-west to east-northeast to west-southwest. The bends of the arches lie 20 to 25 km apart. In the coastal section between 81 ° and 79° N structural remnants from different storeys of the ancient fold belt are preserved. The axes diverge and join in a complex pattern. The predominant trend is northeast-southwest to north-south. South of 79° N, the structural elements trend north-northwest-south-southeast to northwest-southeast fairly uniformly. In the coastal area and also in central Dronning Louise Land, we have to deal mainly with plastic folded systems indicating deep-seated movement. In northwestern Dronning Louise Land, along the border of the ancient chain, we find, on the other hand, open fold-structures attributable to superficial tectonics. There, the axes trend near northwest-southeast. The intensity of folding distinctly increases towards the northeast. The post-Carolinidian cover oversteps a truncated stratigraphic section of at least 500 m in thickness. After the orogenic edifice had congealed, block-faulting took place, and disturbed the structural system. A post-orogenic generation of basalt, mainly rising along fracture planes, traverses the fold belt in the form of extensive dykes of considerable thickness. Metamorphic Action Related to Carolinidian Folding

Based on the arrangement of the Carolinidian segments at present, we may conclude that the most intense folding and metamorphism was operative within the tract between 78° and 76° N. Therefore we have to consider (a) that the syngenetic spatial position of these segments must be placed farther east, and ( b) that the shear plates of the Carolinidian trunk were not only pushed westward, but at the same time were also shifted to an upper crustal level. North of 78° N, the front of Carolinidian metamorphism generally plunges. In Tuborgfondets Land and Lambert Land the Thulean beds experienced only low-grade metamorphism. Accordingly the basal unconformity between the cover and its pavement is not seriously obscured by metamorphic action. Within the coastal mountains of Kronprins Christians Land, gneissified sediments of the Thule group are restricted to the fundamental parts of large-scale upfolds. In this area the bulk of Thulean beds is slightly altered and in part entirely unmetamorphosed. REFERENCES BLACKADAR, R. G . 1954. Geological reconnaissance, north coast of Ellesmere Island, Arctic Archipelago, Northwest Territories; Geol. Surv. Canada, Paper 53-10. CHRISTIE, R. L. 1957. Geological reconnaissance of the north coast of Ellesmere Island, District of Franklin, Northwest Territories; Geo!. Surv. Canada, Paper 56-9. FORTIER, Y. 0 ., McNAIR, A. H., and TH0RSTEINSS0N, R. 1954. Geology and petroleum possibilities in Canadian Arctic islands; Bull. Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol., vol. 38, pp. 2075-109. FRANKL, E. 1954. Vorlaufige Mitteilung ueber die Geologie von Kronprins Christians Land (NE-Gronland zwischen 80-81° N und 19-23° W); Medd. om Grfllnland, Bd. 116, Nr. 2. - - 1956. Some general remarks on the Caledonian mountain chain of East Greenland; Medd. om Grfllnland, Bd. 103, Nr. 11.

JOHN HALLER

159

HALLER, J. 1956b. Die Strukturelemente Ostgronlands zwischen 74° und 78° N; Medd. om Grf1,lnland, Bd. 154, Nr. 2. - - - In press. The geology of northeast Greenland, Medd. om Grf1,lnland. Koce, L. 1929. The geology of East Greenland (no. 1), Stratigraphy of Greenland (no. 2); Medd. om Grf1,lnland, Bd. 73, Anden Afd. 1930. Die tektonische Entwicklung Gronlands; Geo!. Rundschau, Bd. 21, pp. 345-7. PEACOCK, J. D. 1956a. The geology of Dronning Louise Land, N.E. Greenland; Medd. om Grf1,lnland, Bd. 137, Nr. 7. 1958a. Some investigations into the geology and petrography of Dronning Louise Land, N.E. Greenland; Medd. om Grf1,lnland, Bd. 157, Nr. 4. 1958b. Geology of Dronning Louise Land, in Venture to the Arctic (R. A. HAMILTON), Pelican Books A 432 (Bungay) . WYLLIE, P. J. 1957. A geological reconnaissance through South Germania Land, Northeast Greenland; Medd. om Grf1,lnland, Bd. 157, Nr. 1.

The Lower Palaeozoic Geology of Greenland J. W. COWIE

ABSTRACT

The locations of outcrops are noted and the main workers on the Lower Palaeozoic of Greenland are mentioned. The stratigraphical successions in the east, northeast, and northwest are summarized and the age relationships are discussed with reference to the fossil faunas and the breaks in the sequences. New conclusions emerge from this examination and the correlations between Greenland and North America and Europe are tabulated. The contribution of the stratigraphy to the dating of the orogenies is noted.

STRATA OF LOWER PALAEOZOIC AGE have been discovered (Figure 1) in (1) East Greenland between latitudes 72° and 75° N, (2) northeast Greenland between latitudes 79° and 82° N, (3) Peary Land, (4) along the northern coast between Peary Land and the Kennedy Channel, ( 5) northwest Greenland - Washington Land and Inglefield Land. The known outcrops are thus confined to the northern half of Greenland and are there more extensively developed in the east and north than in the west. The following workers and others too numerous to mention, have investigated the Lower Palaeozoic rocks in the field: east Greenland - Lauge Koch, Poulsen, Btitler, Frankl, Adams, and Cowie; northeast Greenland- Nielsen, Frankl, Adams and Cowie; Peary Land-Lauge Koch and Troelsen; northwest GreenlandLauge Koch, Troelsen, and Cowie. Palaeontological studies have been carried out mainly by Poulsen, but Troedsson described the rich Middle and Upper Ordovician collections from North Greenland. EAST GREENLAND Lower Palaeozoic strata (to a maximum thickness of 3,000 m) occur as part of the belt of thick pre-Devonian sediments which have been folded and, in places, metamorphosed; the outcrops are scattered along a roughly north-south zone halfway from the main inland ice-cap to the outer coast between latitudes 72 ° 15' and 74°30' N. The Cambrian and Ordovician systems in this fjord zone are represented by a remarkably uniform succession which belongs to one facies and displays very little lateral variation in lithology and faunal content. The Ordovician is overlain with strong angular unconformity by Devonian rudaceous rocks which overstep across the Lower Palaeozoic beds onto the Precambrian rocks. The position of the base of the Cambrian system in East Greenland was for some time uncertain, as there was apparently no stratigraphic break of any signi-

J. W. COWIE

Formation and Maximum Thickness (metres)

Subdivision

Age

Angular unconformity Grey limestones Lower limestones Dolomitic limestones Basal dolomites (Limestones and dolomitic limestones)

Heimbjerge (320) Narhvalsund (460) Cape Weber (1100)

{

Cass Fjord (230)

Upper transition limestones Limestone-shales Lower transition limestones

Hyolithus Creek (210)

(Dolomites) .... .. ...

Ella Island

Upper limestones Shaly beds Lower limestones

(90)

Upper Bastion (140)

Ordovician } Middle (Mohawkian)

}

}

Stratigraphical break Upper dolomites Calcareous dolomite Lower dolomites

Dolomite Point (400)

J

Middle Ordovician (Chazyan) Lower Ordovician (Upper and ?Middle Canadian) Lower Ordovician (Lower and ?Middle Canadian)

?Middle Cambrian ·· ·· ······•··•·

{

Upper shales Upper shell-limestone Lower shales Lower shell-limestone Lower Cambrian

Stratigraphical break

L Lower

161

{

Glauconitic shales Glauconitic sandstones

----------~-.tratigraphical break--Klf,'lftelv

(70)

(Quartzites and sandstones)

j

--------------Unconformity-------------Spiral Creek ( 25) Canyon (300) } Precambrian Upper Tillite

ficance in the sequence of the strata followed upwards from the Upper Tillite into beds with Lower Cambrian faunas. Significant sedimentary and diastrophic changes were suggested by the incoming of quartzites and sandstones in the Kl~ftelv formation and this was often taken to be the earliest Cambrian formation. Field work in the last decade has, however, shown that a major unconformity exists at the base of the Kl~ftelv formation although no angular discordance of bedding surfaces is observable in any exposure. This deduction is based on a number of criteria ( Cowie and Adams, 1957, pp. 148-50). One of the most important is the contrast between the uniform development of the Kl~ftelv formation throughout its occurrence in East Greenland and the development of the underlying Spiral Creek and Canyon formations, found in the central part of the north-south belt of outcrops but partly or wholly missing from the sequence to the north and to the south. The Kl~ftelv

162

GREENLAND

formation evidently was the first deposit of a new marine transgression and the unconformity at its base represents a break in sedimentation of varying duration accompanied by erosion of underlying strata; no fossils have been found in the formation. The glauconitic sandstones and shales of the lower part of the Bastion formation are also unfossiliferous, but the lower subdivisions of the upper part- the Lower Shell - Limestone and the Lower Shales -:-Yield olenellid trilobite fragments, horny brachiopods and hyolithids. The absence of trilobites other than olenellids suggests that the Lower Shales and older beds below belong to the lower Olenellus subzone (Lochman, 1958, pp. 318-20). The Upper Shell-Limestone and the Upper Shales include eodiscids in addition to olenellids so that the upper Olenellus subzone probably begins at the base of the Upper Shell-Limestone. The Lower Limestones of the Ella Island Formation introduce predominantly calcareous rocks and the trilobite faunas include dorypygids comparable with Bonnie/la and Kootenia, and Protypus may also be represented. The Upper Limestones of this formation yield, from the highest beds, ptychoparid (Proliostracus) and alokistocarid ( cf. Kochiella) trilobites which suggest a late Lower Cambrian age. The dolomites of the Hyolithus Creek formation have given determinable fossils at only a few horizons in the lower half where Salterella has been found; it seems probable that this genus is confined to the Lower Cambrian and that this formation is, at least its lower part, of this age. Search in the beds of the Dolomite Point formation has failed to provide fossils and the age is unknown although it is presumably Cambrian. There is little litho-

FIGURE 1. Sketch map of the northern part of Greenland. ( 1) Kronprins Christians Land, (2) Gliickstadts Land, (3) Christensens Land, (4) Independence Fjord, (5) Peary Land, (6) Nyboes Land, (7) Robeson Channel, (8) Kennedy Channel, (9) Washington Land, (10) Inglefield Land.

J. W. COWIE

163

logical change between the dolomites of the Hyolithus Creek formation and the Dolomite Point formation and no evidence of a significant break in sedimentation. Between the latter formation and the Lower Ordovician Cass Fjord formation there is an abrupt change which may indicate a stratigraphic break of some magnitude; there is no angular discordance or evidence of erosion, but there may have been a period of non-deposition: perhaps this was during Upper Cambrian times which are commonly unrepresented by deposits in boreal Cambro-Ordovician sequences. This suggests a tentative Middle Cambrian age for the Dolomite Point formation. The Ordovician affinity of the Lower Transition Limestones of the Cass Fjord formation is based only on poorly preserved orthid brachiopods and fragmentary gastropods. The Limestone-Shales, however, are relatively fossiliferous with species of Schizambon, Sinuopea, Micragnostus, Hystricurus, ?Pseudohystricurus, and Symphysurina. The fauna of the formation as a whole includes ?Bryograptus, Clonograptus, and Ophiograptus. It has been stated that the Cape Weber formation rests disconformably on an eroded surface of the Cass Fjord formation, but more recent investigations have not upheld this view (Cowie and Adams, 1957, pp. 132, 145). There appears to be no stratigraphic break between the two formations although there is a lithologic change of a minor character. The homogeneous sequence of massive limestones is not rich in fossils, but faunae have been collected from a number of horizons and they indicate an Upper Canadian age. Among the most significant are Lingulella scuptilis Ulrich and Cooper, Carolinites aff. genacinaca Ross, Pseudomera barrandei Billings, Petigurus, Jsoteloides, Goniotelina, Bolbocephalus, Benthamaspis, and bathyurids. Limestones, lithologically identical with limestones of the Cape Weber formation but probably part of a fault block, yielded Pliomerops, Remopleurides, and Raymondaspis, indicating strong affinities with the Chazyan stage of the Middle Ordovician. If the Cape Weber formation ranges in age from Canadian to Chazyan, then the overlying Narhval Sound formation may be appropriately considered to be Middle Ordovician, even though it has not been found to contain clearly diagnostic fossils. The fauna includes ostracods, gastropods, bathyurids, and Ceraurus; the latter trilobite supports a Chazyan correlation while the bathyurids could be Canadian or Chazyan in age. It seems likely from the age of the underlying and overlying formations that the Narhval Sound formation belongs to the Chazyan stage and its fauna does not conflict with this correlation. Fairly extensive faunae, including gastropods, brachiopods, and trilobites, have been collected from the Heimbjerge formation. For precise dating, the presence of Rafinesquina, Dpikina, Receptaculites "arcticus" Etheridge, Bumastus aff. fronto Troedsson, Jllaenus cf. groenlandicus Troedsson, Calliops, Pliomerops, and Sphaerexochus is useful and indicates a Middle Ordovician (Champlainian) age with strong support for inclusion in the Mohawkian stage. A fauna, from faulted rocks whose lithology is somewhat similar to that of the Heimbjerge formation, includes ?Eofl,etcheria and Leptaena cf. richmondensis praecursor Foerste and suggests a late Mohawkian or even Cincinnatian age for the strata there. The junction between the youngest Lower Palaeozoic and the Upper Palaeozoic is an irregular erosion surface. The oldest Devonian rocks known, of Middle Devonian age, rest with angular discordance on the folded older rocks. Lower Palaeozoic

164

GREENLAND

rocks in East Greenland can with certainty be referred to the Middle Ordovician (Mohawkian) and it is possible that Upper Ordovician (Cincinnatian) strata occur. There is no outcrop of Silurian strata known. The orogeny which affected the Precambrian and Lower Palaeozoic beds evidently took place between the Middle or (?) Upper Ordovician and the Middle Devonian. Possibly the earliest stage of movements occurred towards the end of the Ordovician and can be termed Taconic. NORTHEAST GREENLAND

Lower Palaeozoic strata have been discovered in Kronprins Christians Land and Gliickstadts Land; further occurrences have also been suggested in Christensens Land. All these areas lie approximately between latitudes 79° and 82° N and are to the south of Independence Fjord. The outcrops are mainly in a foreland area with slight dip but as they are followed eastwards the beds become involved in progressively more intense folding and faulting. Formation and Maximum Thickness (metres)

Profilfjeldet Shales ( 400)

Lithology

Age

Shales

Middle to (?) Upper Silurian (Niagaran to Cayugan)

--------------Unconformity-------------Drjllmmebjerg Limestone (200)

Limestone

Middle Silurian (Niagaran)

Centrum Limestone (2500)

Limestone and dolomite

Middle Silurian (Niagaran) to Lower Ordovician (Upper Canadian)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - ?Stratigraphic b r e a k - - - - - - - - - - - - Danmarks Fjord Dolomite (30)

Dolomite and limestone

Lower Cambrian

--------------Unconformity-------------Cape Holbaek Sandstone (135)

Sandstones quartzites, and shales

?Lower Cambrian

--------Unconformity-angular discordance in p l a c e s - - - - - - - Fyns SS!S Dolomite (330)

Shale Cone-in-cone dolomite Dolomite

}

Precambrian

No Cambrian fossils have been found in northeast Greenland. The oldest fauna known, of Lower Ordovician (Upper Canadian) age, occurs at the base of the Centrum limestone. The Cape Holbaek sandstone in its main crop rests on the Fyns S~ dolomite with no observable unconformity although there is a marked lithological change. In the east of the region the top of the Fyns S~ dolomite is an irregular erosion surface, and the cone-in-cone dolomite and the shale are absent; there is also probably an angular discordance. On the shores of Independence Fjord there is apparently an unconformity at the base of sandstones which can be correlated with the Cape Holbaek sandstone, and faulting affects the Fyns S~ dolomite but not the beds above it (J. Haller, personal communication). As the

J. W. COWIE

165

Danmarks Fjord dolomite is considered to be Lower Cambrian it is concluded that the Cape Holbaek sandstone should also be included in the Cambrian. The unconformity at the base of this arenaceous series may thus on diastrophic grounds be taken to define the base of the Cambrian system. The Danmarks Fjord dolomite is considered to be Lower Cambrian as it can be correlated with the BrJ!Snlund Fjord dolomite of Peary Land on the grounds of stratigraphic position and lithologic type, and the latter formation has yielded olenellids. There is a sudden change of lithology and a disconformable junction with the eroded upper surface of the Cape Holbaek sandstone. The basal beds of the Centrum limestone have given a Lower Ordovician (Upper Canadian) fauna which included bathyurids, Cybelopsis, and Goniotelina. A higher horizon in this thick series of limestones also gave a fauna of that age with, in addition to the above, Benthamaspis, lsote/oides, and Didymograptus. This poses the problem of the presence or absence of deposits representing Middle and Upper Cambrian and the oldest part of the Ordovician. It seems probable that there was a period or periods of non-deposition at this level in the succession which may have interrupted the deposition of the Danmarks Fjord dolomite or occurred between that formation and the Centrum limestone. Two to three hundred metres from the base of the formation further fossil horizons indicate a Middle Ordovician (Mohawkian) age with Calliops; ?/sotelus, Opikina, and Gonioceras wulffi Troedsson. A considerable thickness of succeeding strata has not given fossils. The upper half of the formation contains faunae indicative of a Middle Silurian (Niagaran) age including Amplexus ofjleyensis (Etheridge), Stauria favosa (Linnaeus), and Entelophyllum cf. rugosum Smith. Whether a stratigraphic break occurs between Ordovician and Silurian remains a matter for speculation. The DrJ!Smmebjerg limestone contains at about the middle an extensive Niagaran faunal assemblage among which may be mentioned: Cheirurus hyperboreus Poulsen, Encrinurus, Bumastus, Proetus, Scutellum, and Harpidium. At the base of the Profilfjeldet shales is a boulder conglomerate which rests on a very irregular eroded surface of the underlying limestone. At about 50 m above the base the shales contain graptolites which indicate a zone near the top of the Middle Silurian (Niagaran); it is possible that part of the considerable thickness of unfossiliferous beds above is of Upper Silurian (Cayugan) age. The Ordovician and Silurian faunas have a high proportion of forms common to northwest and northeast Greenland indicating free faunal intercommunication in those times. Devonian rocks are not known in northeast Greenland, but the Carboniferous system is represented. An orogeny occurred at this level in the geological column and earth movements probably commenced during or soon after Upper Silurian (Cayugan) times. PEARY LAND

The Lower Palaeozoic strata have been studied mainly in the lands bordering Independence Fjord where they form part of a belt of outcrops stretching across northern Greenland to the Robeson Channel; the western part of this belt is little known. The mountain ranges of northern Peary Land may be partly formed in

166

GREENLAND

Lower Palaeozoic rocks (Frankl, 1955 b) but there are no faunal grounds for the comparison. The succession in southern Peary Land appears to be as follows: Formation and Maximum Thickness (metres)

Lithology

Age

B~rglum River Limestone ( 100)

Limestones and dolomites

Middle or Upper Ordovician (Champlainian or Cincinnatian)

Wandel valley Limestone (350)

Limestones and dolomites

Lower Ordovician (Middle or Upper Canadian)

?Stratigraphic break - - - - - - - - - - - Br~nlund Fjord Dolomite ( 160)

Lower Cambrian

--------------Unconformity-------------Sandstones and shales

?Lower Cambrian

--------------?Unconformity-------------Dolomites

Precambrian

In northeastern Peary Land the Schley Fjord shale occurs and is considered to be contemporaneous with the Brs,;nlund Fjord dolomite: both series of beds have yielded olenellid trilobites. There may be a stratigraphic break within, or at the top of, the Lower Cambrian dolomite representing part, at least, of the Middle and Upper Cambrian. The correlations of the sandstones and dolomites below the Brs,;nlund Fjord dolomite have already been discussed. The fauna of the Wandel valley limestone - poorly preserved ostracods, cystids, and pelecypods; Maclurites, Raphistomina, Trochonema, Pagodispira, Ceratopea, Maclurina, ?Hormotoma, and Protocycloceras-suggests a Middle or Upper Canadian age. The BS?Srglum River limestone has yielded bryozoans, cephalopods, and Maclurites and could evidently be Middle or Upper Ordovician in age. It is almost certain that younger Ordovician, and Silurian, rocks are present in Peary Land, but their stratigraphy is undefined and their faunae undescribed. NORTHWEST GREENLAND

From Inglefield Land (78° N) to Nyboes Land (82° N), on the eastern side of the channel between Greenland and Canada, there are extensive outcrops of Lower Palaeozoic rocks. The Wulff River formation is unconformable on the Cape Ingersoll dolomite which is the highest member of the Precambrian Thule group. There is a marked change of lithology at this junction from dolomite to phosphatic, glauconitic siltstones and sandstones with conglomerates, but there is no angular discordance. The fauna is clearly Lower Cambrian in character with brachiopods, olenellid trilobites, Strenuaeva, Bonnia, and Salterella. The fauna of the Cape Kent limestone includes forms indicating a late Lower Cambrian character - olenellids, Dolichometopsis, Kochiella, Inglefieldia, and Poulsenia. The Cape Wood formation follows after a break in sedimentation and has yielded Middle Cambrian faunae which include species of Glossopleura, Polypleuraspis, Amecephalina, Clavaspidella, Blainiopsis, and Glyphaspis.

J. W. COWIE

Formation and Maximum Thickness (metres)

Polaris Harbour (500) Cape Tyson (500)

167

Age

Upper Silurian (Cayugan) Middle-Upper Silurian (Niagaran-Cayugan) .

--------------Unconformity-------------Offley Island (800) } Middle Silurian (Niagaran) Cape Schuchert (200) --------------Unconformity-------------Cape Calhoun (200)

Upper Ordovician (Richmondian)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - Stratigraphic b r e a k - - - - - - - - - - - - Gonioceras Bay ( 65)

Middle Ordovician (Mohawkian)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - Stratigraphic b r e a k - - - - - - - - - - - - Cape Webster (290) Nunatami (140) Cape Weber (10)

}

Nygaard Bay limestone (10) Poulsen Cliff shale (50) Cape Clay (30) Cass Fjord (350)

}

Lower Ordovician (Upper Canadian) }

Lower Ordovician ((?) Middle Canadian) Lower Ordovician (Lower Canadian)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - Stratigraphic break - - - - - - - - - - - - Cape Wood (90)

Middle Cambrian

- - - - - - - - - - - - - Stratigraphic b r e a k - - - - - - - - - - - - Cape Kent limestone (10) Wulff River (35)

Lower Cambrian Lower Cambrian

--------------Unconformity--------------Cape Ingersoll dolomite Precambrian

The Upper Cambrian is again apparently unrepresented by deposits as the Cape Wood formation is succeeded by the Lower Ordovician (Lower Canadian) Cass Fjord formation which has a fauna including Sinuopea, Eoorthis, and Hystricurus. The Cape Clay formation is also considered to be Lower Canadian in age with the trilobites Symphysurina, and Hystricurus among the fossils. The Poulsen Cliff shale and the Nygaard Bay limestone may be Middle Canadian but the only fossil is Protocycloceras. The Cape Weber formation has yielded Bolbocephalus, Bathyurellus, and Petigurus and is followed by another Upper Canadian series of beds the Nunatami formation - which has given Didymograptus, Phyllograptus, ostracods, Cybelopsis, Goniotelus, and gastropods. The close of the Lower Ordovician saw the deposition of the Cape Webster formation which has a meagre fauna of crinoid fragments and ?Spyroceras. The Chazyan stage of the Middle Ordovician is apparently unrepresented by deposits, but in the Mohawkian stage the Gonioceras Bay formation was laid down and the fauna from it includes corals, bryozoans, Gonioceras, and Bumastus. There is apparently another stratigraphic break following the Gonioceras Bay formation as the succeeding Cape Calhoun formation is not earliest Upper Ordovician but is correlated with the Richmondian stage; it is richly fossiliferous with corals, trilobites, gastropods, brachiopods, and a large cephalopod fauna.

TABLE I North America

I

Cayugan

Northwest Greenland

Peary Land

Northeast Greenland

Polaris Harbour

--?--

Tyson

Profilfjeldet

I

iz

::>

Niagaran

,-1

Cl)

.

Offley Island

Drfllmmebjerg

Cape Schuchert

Centrum

I I I I I I I I I I ? ?I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

I I I I I I I

. I/ / / / / / / cc: Gamache ·0 .~ Richmond Cape Calhoun Wl::ville i / / / / / / /

z

- o]
,

~...

o