Vol. 55 (2023): The Upper Jurassic – Lower Cretaceous of East and North-East Greenland: Rødryggen-1 and Brorson Halvø-1 boreholes, Wollaston Forland Basin

Edited by: Jørgen A. Bojesen-Koefoed, Jon R. Ineson & Karen Dybkjær

The Wollaston Forland Basin in North-East Greenland is a renowned area for research into depositional processes and sedimentary architecture in an evolving rift basin since the pioneering work of Andreas Vischer in the late 1930s. A drilling campaign in 2009–2010 in Wollaston Forland investigated the nature of the sedimentary basin fill in a distal rotated fault block, east of the classical, coarse-grained proximal rift exposures. Two fully cored boreholes, Rødryggen-1 and Brorson Halvø-1, were drilled in the axis and near the crest, respectively, of this distal sub-basin. The organic-rich, mudstone-dominated succession revealed by these boreholes is documented fully in this special issue, which complements the data set from the Blokelv-1 borehole in Jameson Land presented in GEUS Bulletin 42. Together these cored sections represent a unique geological archive from a high latitude setting, recording a key period when super-regional deoxygenation prevailed in the marine waters of the proto-North Atlantic region.

Cover photo shows the view of Wollaston Forland towards the north, taken from the Rødryggen hill (Credit: J.A. Bojesen-Koefoed 2008).