The Geological Work of the Cambridge Expedition to East Greenland in 1929

Abstract

East Greenland, a country of high coastal mountains receding under the cap-ice and of great fjords bounded by towering cliffs, has, within the last decade, attracted once again the attention of investigators. After an unsuccessful attempt in 1923, Mr. J. M. Wordie succeeded in reaching land and exploring Gael Hamkes Bay and Franz Josef Fjord in the very favourable ice year of 1926 (Wordie, 1927). That same summer, Dr. Lauge Koch took a party to Scoresby Sound, and himself made a sledge-journey the next spring northwards to Germania Land, returning by way of the fjords (Koch, 1929). Since Dr. Koch wished to elucidate further the stratigraphy of the Palæozoic rocks in 1929, the third Cambridge Expedition of 1929 concentrated mainly upon a determination of certain tectonic problems in the pre-Old Red Sandstone rocks, and upon a journey inland from Kjerulf Fjord into unknown country (Wordie, 1930). Had time permitted, a party was to sledge from the head of Gael Hamkes Bay as far north as Queen Louise Land, in order to determine the relations existing there between the sedimentary and metamorphic outcrops; but owing to delay in the pack-ice, this plan had to be abandoned. The large fjords, Franz Josef Fjord and King Oscar Fjord, are connected through Antarctic Sound, and measure respectively about 110 miles and 45 miles in length. They have many branches, most of which traverse the rock-sequences across the dip, and afford cliff-sections of multicoloured bare rock, often attaining 6000 feet in height. The fjord-system is