Evolution of the Canadian Arctic Islands: A Transition between the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans

Kerr, J W

doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-1248-3_4

Cited by 18 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 116 publications

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“…Alternatively, many have supported the Lomonosov rifting model (Ostenso, 1974;Dutro, 1981;Kerr, 1981;Smith, 1987), which posits that the Arctic Alaska-Chukotka microplate originated near the Taimyr Peninsula of Russia. Considering the aforementioned problems with the paleomagnetic evidence, the strongest remaining argument against a Lomonosov rifting model is the transform morphology of the Lomonosov Ridge (Cochran et al, 2006).…”

Section: Tectonic Models For the Opening Of The Canada Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neoproterozoic glaciation on a carbonate platform margin in Arctic Alaska and the origin of the North Slope subterrane

Macdonald

McClelland

Schrag

et al. 2009

Geological Society of America Bulletin

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The rotation model for the opening of the Canada Basin of the Arctic Ocean predicts stratigraphic links between the Alaskan North Slope and the Canadian Arctic islands. The Katakturuk Dolomite is a 2080-m-thick Neo protero zoic carbonate succession exposed in the northeastern Brooks Range of Arctic Alaska. These strata have previously been correlated with the pre-723 Ma Shaler Supergroup of the Amundson Basin. Herein we report new composite δ 13 C profi les and detrital zircon ages that test this connection. We go further and use stratigraphic markers and a compilation of δ 13 C chemostratigraphy from around the world, tied to U-Pb ages, to derive an age model for deposition of the Katakturuk Dolomite. In particular, we report the identifi cation of ca. 760 Ma detrital zircons in strata underlying the Katakturuk Dolomite. Moreover, a diamictite present at the base of the Katakturuk Dolomite is capped by a dark-colored limestone with peculiar roll-up structures. Chemostratigraphy and lithostratigraphy suggest this is an early-Cryogenian glacial diamictite-cap carbonate couplet and that deposition of the Katakturuk Dolomite spanned much of the late Neoproterozoic. Approximately 500 m above the diamictite, a micropeloidal dolomite, with idiosyncratic textures that are characteristic of basal Ediacaran cap carbonates, such as tubestone stromatolites, giant wave ripples, and decameters of pseudo morphosed former aragonite crystal fans, rests on a silicifi ed surface. Chemostratigraphic correlations also indicate a large increase in sedimentation rate in the upper ~1 km of the Katakturuk Dolomite and in the overlying lower Nanook Limestone. We suggest that the accompanying increase in accommodation space, along with the presence of two low-angle unconformities within these strata, are the product of late Ediacaran rifting along the southern margin of the North Slope subterrane. There are no strata present in the Amundson Basin that are potentially correlative with the late Neoproterozoic Katakturuk Dolomite, as the Cambrian Saline River Formation rests on the ca. 723 Ma Natkusiak Formation. Detrital zircon geochronology, chemostratigraphic correlations, and the style of sedimentation are inconsistent with both a Canadian Arctic origin of the North Slope subterrane and a simple rotation model for the origin of the Arctic Ocean. If the rotation model is to be retained, the exotic North Slope subterrane must have accreted to northwest Laurentia in the Early to Middle Devonian.

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Section: Tectonic Models For the Opening Of The Canada Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neoproterozoic glaciation on a carbonate platform margin in Arctic Alaska and the origin of the North Slope subterrane

Macdonald

McClelland

Schrag

et al. 2009

Geological Society of America Bulletin

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“…This fault extends westwards along the northern rim of the Sverdrup Basin and then becomes the Kaltag Fault of northern Yukon and Alaska. It seems probable that this fault acted as a dextral transform from the North Atlantic to the Arctic Ocean of the Canada Basin, which Kerr (1981) and Christie (1979) suggest opened by Carboniferous rifting with the Alpha Ridge as its spreading centre. Marine faunas from this Boreal Ocean gradually transgressed eastwards along this transform to Svalbard and the North Atlantic.…”

Section: Russian-r > X Ymentioning

confidence: 98%

“…These were deposited in small basins similar to those in Svalbard at the same time. Kerr (1981) interprets these as tensional rift basins which mark the start of a Boreal rifting episode.…”

Section: C Viseanmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Carboniferous North Atlantic palaeogeography: stratigraphic evidence for rifting, not megashear or subduction

Haszeldine

1984

Geol. Mag.

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Three theories have been proposed for the origin of Carboniferous basins in Britain: megashear; tension from Rheic Ocean subduction; tension from rifting of the North Atlantic. The first two hypotheses are rejected because they do not explain the Carboniferous volcanism, Stephanian dyke swarm, Boreal marine transgressions during the late Carboniferous and Permian, Carboniferous sedimentary basin histories, basin types or basin orientations.Carboniferous volcanics were rift-related due to crustal thinning, which also resulted in the formation of sedimentary basins in the British Isles and a marine transgression of Tethyan faunas. Newly formed Carboniferous fracture lines and basin orientations showed that tension varied between east-west and northwest-southeast. Crustal fracturing in the latest Dinantian, possibly due to collision of microcontinents in the closing Rheic and Phoibic oceans with North America, led to the synchronous initiation of rift basins in East Greenland, elevation of source areas for the Millstone Grit of the British Isles, and formation of transform fault zones near Svalbard and North Spain. The narrow, rapidly subsiding, quickly changing 'fosse' basins which formed in these transcurrent fault zones contrast with the coeval stable, slower subsiding rift-parallel' saucer' basins of the British Isles. Variations of subsidence rates in all these basins allow interpretations of crustal stress history. Brittle fracturing in the Westphalian C formed the first oceanic crust, but free oceanic spreading from Spain to southwest of the Faeroes only occurred after Stephanian dyke intrusion and crustal thinning at the Faeroes. The Norwegian Sea underwent continental crustal thinning. Ocean spreading and crustal thinning ceased in latest Stephanian times.Boreal marine transgressions advanced down the newly thinned Norwegian Sea, firstly along its northern part and then reaching the North Sea basins and Germany in the Rotliegendes and Zechstein. Synsedimetary ore deposits formed during early tensional fracturing of the crust; thick coal sequences formed in rift-parallel basins during clastic source decay of elevated rift margins; oil source rocks formed along narrow oceanic or continental rifts from the Westphalian C onwards.

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“…(a) Principal geological provinces of western Greenland and north‐eastern seaboard of Canada with the Smith Sound linchpin in place (modified from Le Pichon et al. , 1977 and Kerr, 1981a,b) and (b) models of Laurentian assembly with Nares Strait as a lithospheric suture or plate boundary (e.g. Srivastava, 1978) and as a continental megashear or left‐lateral strike–slip fault (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precambrian–Palaeozoic geology of Smith Sound, Canada and Greenland: key constraint to palaeogeographic reconstructions of northern Laurentia and the North Atlantic region

Dawes

2009

Terra Nova

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Nares Strait separating Greenland and northernmost Canada is floored by continental crust. Most palaeogeographic reconstructions of Laurentia and the North Atlantic region model the seaway as the site of massive sinistral strike–slip and/or compression/transpression, subduction and collision, the supposed manifestations of the hypothetical Wegener Fault. However, these reconstructions fail to take into account the bedrock geology that represents within‐plate evolution. Both sides of Smith Sound, the southernmost part of Nares Strait, expose the same early Proterozoic to early Palaeozoic assemblages that are unaffected by seaway‐related tectonism or thermal activity. Smith Sound is an intact crustal block or `linchpin' demonstrating that there was no independent Greenland plate. North‐west Greenland was not a leading plate margin neither was Nares Strait the site of the plate boundary between Greenland and North America. The Wegener Fault does not exist. The Smith Sound linchpin constitutes a key constraint that must be respected in any palaeogeographic reconstruction of the region.

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Evolution of the Canadian Arctic Islands: A Transition between the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans

Cited by 18 publications

References 116 publications

Neoproterozoic glaciation on a carbonate platform margin in Arctic Alaska and the origin of the North Slope subterrane

Neoproterozoic glaciation on a carbonate platform margin in Arctic Alaska and the origin of the North Slope subterrane

Carboniferous North Atlantic palaeogeography: stratigraphic evidence for rifting, not megashear or subduction

Precambrian–Palaeozoic geology of Smith Sound, Canada and Greenland: key constraint to palaeogeographic reconstructions of northern Laurentia and the North Atlantic region

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