Offshore evidence for Neogene uplift in central West Greenland

Abstract

Multi-channel seismic lines off southern and central West Greenland show a >3-km-thick sedimentary section of mid-Eocene and younger age that dips seaward and is truncated either at the seabed or by an erosional unconformity a short distance below the seabed. This pattern indicates that there has been uplift and erosion of the section and probably of the nearby landmass. The timing of the uplift is not well constrained by borehole data, but certainly took place after the early Eocene, probably during the Neogene and possibly as late as the onset of glaciation in West Greenland in the early Pliocene. The uplift took place substantially later than the cessation of magmatism in the early Eocene and the abrupt slowing or cessation of sea-floor spreading in the Labrador Sea between Chrons 20 and 13 (middle–late Eocene). This means that, whatever the cause of the uplift, it is unlikely to be directly related to processes either of magmatic emplacement or sea-floor spreading.