Eurekan transpressive deformation in the Wandel Hav Mobile Belt (northeast Greenland)

Abstract

Besides the ∼W‐E trending Kap Cannon Thrust Zone and Harder Fjord Fault Zone, the 300 km long and NW‐SE striking Wandel Hav Mobile Belt represents the third major fault zone in north Greenland. Structural analyses in several areas of this belt suggest that compressive deformation is characterized by transpressive dextral strike‐slip kinematics. This is demonstrated by a combination of folding around ∼W‐E axes, approximately north and south directed reverse faulting, and dextral strike‐slip displacements along NW‐SE trending fault lines. The initial formation of the long, linear faults is interpreted to be related to deformational events in Late Paleozoic, Triassic‐Jurassic, and Late Cretaceous times. Due to the lack of structural evidence, we assume that deformations led to the generation of extension faults which probably were reactivated during dextral strike‐slip tectonism. It is suggested that dextral transpressive deformation was coeval with ∼N‐S compression at the Harder Fjord Fault Zone and Cap Cannon Thrust Zone and took place during Eocene (Eurekan) times. Dextral strike‐slip tectonism in the Wandel Hav Mobile Belt was the result of ∼N‐S compression due to a general northward movement of the Greenland plate. As a zone of crustal weakness, the belt can be interpreted as the onshore equivalent of the main transcurrent fault zone (De Geer Fault) which caused the intracontinental dextral slip of Svalbard (Barents Shelf) relative to north Greenland during Early Tertiary (Eurekan) times and prior to their separation. In this configuration, it represents one part of the belt of Eurekan deformation which extends from the Canadian Arctic islands over north Greenland to the Barents Shelf where compressive deformation is recorded in the West Spitsbergen Fold‐and‐Thrust Belt.

3D restoration of a Cretaceous rift basin in Kilen, eastern North Greenland

“…Late compressive deformation in the Wandel Sea Basin has been debated and referred to transpressive dextral strike-slip movements by Håkansson & Pedersen (1982, 2015, Pedersen & Håkansson (1999), Gosen & Piepjohn (2003) & Piepjohn et al (2015 whereas Soper et al (1982), Soper & Higgins (1991), Lyberis & Manby (1999), Manby & Lyberis (2000) and Guarnieri (2015) have suggested pure compression. The proposed age of deformation ranges from pre-opening Late Cretaceous -earliest Palaeocene (Håkansson & Pedersen, 1982;Håkansson, 1988;Pedersen & Håkansson, 1999;Manby & Lyberis, 2000;Guarnieri, 2015) to PalaeoceneEocene (Soper et al, 1982;Soper & Higgins, 1991;Gosen & Piepjohn, 2003).…”

“…Recently, Håkansson & Pedersen (2015) further extended this structural regime back into Late Permian times and suggested six generations of transtension resulting in twenty Late Permian-Late Cretaceous pull-apart basins exposed across the Wandel Sea Basin. Soper & Higgins (1991) challenged the existence of the WHSSMB since no substantial strikeslip has been demonstrated along faults in the Wandel Sea Basin, and Gosen & Piepjohn (2003) did not find any structural evidence for Jurassic and Late Cretaceous strike-slip deformation and pull-apart basins.…”

“…1; Stemmerik et al, 2000). In pre-Atlantic opening times, these faults were parallel to the Billefjorden and Lomfjorden fault zones on the conjugate Svalbard margin (Soper et al, 1982;Faleide et al, 1993;Piepjohn & von Gosen, 2001;Gosen & Piepjohn, 2003;Leever et al, 2011). and Stemmerik et al (2000) with schematic faults from Kilen modified from Svennevig et al (2016a).…”

“…1; Håkansson et al, 1981;, and shares a common geological history with basins in Arctic Canada, Svalbard and the western Barents Sea (Soper et al, 1982;Piepjohn & von Gosen, 2001;Gosen & Piepjohn, 2003;Stemmerik & Worsley, 2005;Piepjohn et al, 2015Piepjohn et al, , 2016.…”

“…The Aptian-Albian "Ghost event 2" is inferred by the presence of strata of this age, whereas the Cenomanian-Turonian "Kilen Event" (Pedersen, 1988) is based on the observation of mesoscale normal faults and the interpretation of subvertical strikeslip faults bordering Upper Cretaceous sedimentary rocks. Post-depositional compression was interpreted to be transpressive and dominated by strike-slip faults (Håkansson et al, 1993;Pedersen & Håkansson, 1999;Gosen & Piepjohn, 2003). …”