Geophysical and Geological Studies in Eastern and Northern Baffin Bay and Lancaster Sound

Abstract

Baffin Bay is a small ocean basin. The northern continental slope of the bay has an anomalously gentle gradient because a greater quantity of sediment has been deposited on this margin, unlike those to east and west. The sedimentary rocks of the bay can be divided into two distinctive groups; deformed sediments are seen shoreward, associated with rise in (acoustic) basement, folding and faulting, and large magnetic anomalies. There is some evidence for deformed sediment underlying undeformed sediment in the central deep part of northern Baffin Bay, and some slight suggestion of a basement ridge in this area. Undeformed sediment overlies deformed sediment close to the margin off Lancaster Sound and Bylot Island. The volcanic province of western Greenland extends offshore and appears to be fault-bounded on its eastern margin. Precambrian gneisses lie to the east of this offshore volcanic province. The basalts are overlain by relatively young sediments to the west. There is a suggestion that the basalts are fault bounded to the west. We have not established continuity of Tertiary basalts between western Greenland and Baffin Island. There is no evidence for or against the existence of magnetic lineations in northern Baffin Bay.