The Eleonore Sø and Målebjerg foreland windows, East Greenland Caledonides, and the demise of the ‘stockwerke’ concept

Abstract

Recognition of the Eleonore Sø and Målebjerg foreland windows during the 1997–1998 regional mapping expeditions to the East Greenland Caledonides provided critical evidence for largescale, westward-directed thrusting in the Kong Oscar Fjord region (72°–75°N), a revelation that dealt a final blow to the ‘stockwerke’ concept of an in situ highly mobile infrastructure characterised by rising fronts of Caledonian migmatisation and metasomatism. This paper reviews earlier investigations in both the Eleonore Sø and Målebjerg areas, and the misinterpretations of rock units that initially obscured recognition of their foreland affinity. The Eleonore Sø and Målebjerg windows can now be placed in context, as part of the lowest structural level of the foreland-propagating thrust pile of the Kong Oscar Fjord region.