Fusulinid zonation of the Upper Carboniferous Kap Jungersen and Foldedal Formations, southern Amdrup Land, eastern North Greenland

Abstract

New fusulinid data from the Kap Jungersen and Foldedal Formations in southern Amdrup Land, eastern North Greenland allow the establishment of a detailed fusulinid-based zonation of the Upper Carboniferous succession in the Wandel Sea Basin. The fusulinid fauna is quite similar to that of the Russian Platform, the Ural Mountains, Spitsbergen, Bjørnøya, and the offshore areas of the Barents Sea, and therefore the Greenland strata are confidently correlated to the these regions. The Kap Jungersen Formation and the lower part of the Foldedal Formation are dated as late early Moscovian to latest Moscovian in age. The locally more than 450 m thick Moscovian part of the succession comprises four fusulinid zones: the Profusulinella prisca – Neostaffella subquadrata Zone and the Citrinoides paraozawai Zone of early Moscovian age, and the Fusulinella bocki – Pseduofusulinella pulchra Zone and the Protriticites ovatus Zone of late Moscovian age. Lower and middle Kasimovian deposits, characterized by two fusulinid assemblages of the Obsoletes obsoletus – Protriticites pseudomontiparus Zone and the Montiparus paramontiparus Zone, are recognised for the first time in Amdrup Land. The thin lower Gzelian succession is represented by two fusulinid assemblages that definine the Rugosofusulina flexuosa Zone and the Daixina crispa – Rauserites stuckenbergi Zone. The youngest Carboniferous strata, belonging to the Orenburgian part of the Gzelian are characterised by an assemblage of the Schellwienia ulukensis Zone.