Polar continental margins: Studies off East Greenland

Abstract

The passive continental margin off east Greenland has been shaped by tectonic and sedimentary processes, and typical physiographic patterns have evolved over the past few million years under the influence of the late Cenozoic Northern Hemisphere glaciations. The Greenland ice shield has been particularly affected.GLORIA (Geological Long Range Inclined Asdic), the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences' (IOS) long‐range, side‐scan sonar, was used on a 1992 RV Livonia cruise to map large‐scale changes in sedimentary patterns along the east Greenland continental margin. The overall objective of this research program was to determine the variety of large‐scale seafloor processes to improve our understanding of the interaction between ice sheets, current regimes, and sedimentary processes. In cooperation with IOS and the RV Livonia, a high‐quality set of seafloor data has been produced. GLORIA'S first survey of east Greenland's continental margin covered several 1000‐ × 50‐km‐wide swaths (Figure 1) and yielded an impressive sidescan sonar image of the complete Greenland Basin and margin (about 250,000 km2). A mosaic of the data was made at a scale of 1:375,000. The base map was prepared with a polar stereographic projection having a standard parallel of 71°.