Fold belts and metamorphic zones of northern Ellesmere Island and North Greenland

Abstract

The Innuitian tectonic province extends in its eastern part through northern Ellesmere Island and across North Greenland. The mid- to late Palaeozoic Ellesmerian orogeny produced NE-SW to E-W trending fold belts and metamorphic zones in the strata of the Franklinian geosyncline. The late Cretaceous-Tertiary Eurekan orogeny deformed the Carboniferous-Tertiary rocks of the Sverdrup and Wandel Sea Basins, and overprinted or accentuated the older structures of the Franklinian geosyncline. The locations of the south limit of Ellesmerian folding, and of fold belts of comparable style, deformation intensity and metamorphic grade on the two sides of the Nares Strait lineament are consistent with models of left-lateral displacement in the range 0-50 km. Models of displacement greater than 50 km introduce increasingly improbable mismatches of fold belts and metamorphic zones. The Innuitian tectonic province extends in its eastern part through northern Ellesmere