Vol. 45 No. 1 (2021): Denudation history and landscape development in East Greenland: Part One

The geology of East Greenland north of 70°N – including the Wandel Sea Basin – exposes unique evidence of the basin development between the Devonian collapse of the Caledonian Orogen and the extrusion of volcanics during Palaeogene break-up of the North-East Atlantic. Do the unconformities in the stratigraphic record represent periods of stability and nondeposition? Or do the unconformities represent periods of subsidence and accumulation of rocks followed by episodes of uplift and erosion which removed those rocks? How do the flat-topped mountains fit into the tectonic framework of the region? And when did these elevated plateaus reach their present elevation? To answer such questions, we have used apatite fission-track analysis (AFTA) and vitrinite reflectance (VR) data together with stratigraphic landscape analysis and observations from the stratigraphic record to study the denudation history and landscape development of East Greenland.

In three separate, but interrelated papers, we present the results of these investigations. We show that episodes of kilometre-scale vertical movements (both ups and downs) have affected East Greenland and areas beyond, before as well as after the opening of the North-East Atlantic. Part one consists of two papers. A third, longer paper is published in part two.