6. The Werner Bjerge

Situa­ted north of the Score­s­by­sund bet­ween Stau­ning Alper and Jame­son Land, only few peo­p­le will ever get to see the Wer­ner Bjer­ge. This rela­tively small moun­tain area has a geo­lo­gi­cal histo­ry which doesn’t fit into any of the other chap­ters descri­bed so far. Despi­te of being small and remo­te, they shall be men­tio­ned brief­ly here as a geo­lo­gi­cal spe­cial­ty and becau­se they are of eco­no­mic inte­rest.

During a late stage of the vol­c­anims, which was rela­ted to the ope­ning of the north Atlan­tic, a vol­ca­nic com­plex for­med here about 30 mil­li­on years ago. It is not known for sure if lava mas­ses actual­ly came through to the sur­face, but this has pro­ba­b­ly hap­pen­ed. But it is well docu­men­ted that a mag­ma cham­ber for­med or rather a com­lex of seve­ral ones which grew tog­e­ther to form a lar­ger unit. This hap­pen­ed at a lar­ge depths below the sur­face. Ero­si­on has sub­se­quent­ly ero­ded the rocks on top, so now the mag­ma cham­ber its­elf is expo­sed. The result is not only a view into the heart of an anci­ent vol­ca­no and thus inte­res­t­ing for geo­lo­gists, but also of eco­no­mic rele­van­ce due to molyb­denum depo­sits.

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