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Geology of East Greenland

Scoresbysund area

For well-digesta­ble fur­ther infor­ma­ti­on, see my book Rocks and Ice

A) Rocks – a short intro­duc­tion

A few words about rocks will make under­stan­ding ever­y­thing else a bit easier. The­re are three dif­fe­rent, basic groups of rocks (click to see the various sec­tions)

Grund­vigs­kir­ken – a need­le-like moun­tain peak of hard, Cale­do­ni­an cris­tal­li­ne rocks (gra­ni­te, gneiss) in the Øfjord, shaped by ice-age gla­ciers

Geology of East Greenland: Grundtvigskirke

B) The Score­s­by­sund-area in East Green­land

Geology of East Greenland: Scoresbysund

The Score­s­by­sund area has a long and varied Earth histo­ry, which spans almost 3 bil­li­on years. Sim­pli­fied, the geo­lo­gi­cal frame­work can be sub­di­vi­ded into six parts, on top of which then comes the ice age. This cor­re­sponds to the units in the geo­lo­gi­cal scetch map abo­ve (click on the links to get to the various sec­tions).

  1. The Pre­cam­bri­an shield (inner­most Score­s­by­sund: inner­most Ves­t­fjord and inner­most Nord­vest­fjord).
  2. The Cale­do­ni­an fold belt (inner Score­s­by­sund: Gåsefjord, Fønfjord, Rødefjord, Ves­t­fjord, Øfjord, Nord­vest­fjord).
  3. Old Red and New Red: Sedi­ments depo­si­ted during the ero­si­on of the Cale­do­ni­an moun­ta­ins (west side of Rødefjord, East side of Stau­ning Alper).
  4. The Jame­son Land basin fil­ling: Sedi­ments which have been depo­si­ted during the upper­most Palaeo­zoic and the Meso­zoic, most­ly in shal­low seas (Jame­son Land, sou­the­as­tern Mil­ne Land)
  5. Basalts of the Blos­se­ville Küs­te south of the Score­s­by­sund
  6. Wer­ner Bjer­ge
  7. The ice age

Each one of this zones repres­ents a chap­ter of Earth histo­ry and pro­vi­des cha­rac­te­ristic sce­n­ery within the Score­s­by­sund fjord sys­tem.

Strongly deformed and metamorphosed rocks in the Øfjord, inner Scoresbysund

Stron­gly defor­med and meta­mor­pho­sed rocks in the Øfjord, inner Score­s­by­sund.

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last modification: 2013-10-12 · copyright: Rolf Stange
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