Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:36:33.968Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Middle–Late Triassic evolution of the Jameson Land Basin, East Greenland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2020

Steven D. Andrews Open the ORCID record for Steven D. Andrews [Opens in a new window] ,
Andrew Morton  and
Audrey Decou
Steven D. Andrews*
Affiliation:
University of the Highlands and Islands, Inverness, UK CASP, West Building, Madingley Rise, Madingley Road, Cambridge, UK
Andrew Morton
Affiliation:
CASP, West Building, Madingley Rise, Madingley Road, Cambridge, UK HM Research Associates Ltd, Giddanmu, St Ishmaels, UK
Audrey Decou
Affiliation:
University of the Highlands and Islands, Inverness, UK
*
Author for correspondence: Steven Andrews, Email: steven.andrews914@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Jameson Land Basin lies within the Greenland–Norway rift, to the south of Triassic basins on the Halten Bank and East Greenland shelf, and can therefore offer insights into the development of these less-well-documented offshore basins and the wider North Atlantic. This study focuses on the stratigraphic development of the Jameson Land Basin. Broad-scale stratigraphic logging is augmented with heavy mineral analysis that constrains the dominant source catchments during this period. A thickness of over 1.5 km of Middle–Late Triassic strata fill the Jameson Land Basin, predominantly comprising continental deposits laid down during arid to semi-arid climatic conditions. The basal Pingo Dal Group thickens westwards into the Stauning Alper Fault, forming a typical syn-rift succession. Thickness variations have also highlighted the presence of an intrabasinal high and an associated unconformity between the Pingo Dal Group and the overlying Gipsdalen Group, which provides the first direct evidence for Middle–Late Triassic rifting in East Greenland. Thickness variations in the overlying Gipsdalen Group are more subdued, and the Fleming Fjord Group, and its formations, display remarkably tabular geometries, with little evidence for significant lateral facies variance; this is suggestive of reduced topography and a more regional thermal subsidence signature. Provenance data indicate sediment sourcing from both the western and eastern basin margins during the deposition of the Pingo Dal Group, above which the western source area becomes dominant, alongside some axial input from the south.

Keywords

TriassicNorth AtlanticGreenlandprovenancestratigraphyrifting
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 158 , Issue 5 , May 2021 , pp. 930 - 949
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agnolin, FL, Mateus, O, Milàn, J, Marzola, M, Wings, O, Adolfssen, JS and Clemmensen, LB (2018) Ceratodus tunuensis, sp. nov., a new lungfish (Sarcopterygii, Dipnoi) from the Upper Triassic of central East Greenland. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 38, e1439834.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, SD and Decou, A (2018) The Triassic of Traill Ø and Geographical Society Ø, East Greenland: Implications for North Atlantic palaeogeagraphy. Geological Journal 54, 2124–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, SD, Decou, A, Braham, B, Kelly, SRA, Robinson, P, Morton, A, Marshall, JEA and Hyden, F (2020) Exhumed hydrocarbon traps on the North Atlantic Margin: stratigraphy, palaeontology, provenance and bitumen distribution, an integrated approach. Basin Research, published online 5 December 2019, https://doi.org/10.1111/bre.12424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, SD, Kelly, SR, Braham, W and Kaye, M (2014) Climatic and eustatic controls on the development of a Late Triassic source rock in the Jameson Land Basin, East Greenland. Journal of the Geological Society 171, 606–19.Google Scholar
Bjerager, M, Seidler, L, Stemmerik, L and Surlyk, F (2006) Ammonoid stratigraphy and sedimentary evolution across the Permian-Triassic boundary in East Greenland. Geological Magazine 143, 635–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blair, TC and McPherson, JG (1994) Alluvial fans and their natural distinction from rivers based on morphology, hydraulic processes, sedimentary processes, and facies assemblages. Journal of Sedimentary Research Section a-Sedimentary Petrology and Processes 64, 450–89.Google Scholar
Brethes, A, Guarnieri, P, Rasmussen, TM and Bauer, TE (2018) Interpretation of aeromagnetic data in the Jameson Land Basin, central East Greenland: structures and related mineralized systems. Tectonophysics 724-725, 116–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bromley, R and Asgaard, U (1979) Triassic freshwater ichnocoenoses from Carlsberg Fjord, East Greenland. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 28, 39–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clemmensen, LB (1977) Stratigraphical and sedimentological studies of Triassic rocks in central East Greenland. Grønlands Geologiske Undersøgelse, Rapport 85, 89–97.Google Scholar
Clemmensen, LB (1978a) Alternating aeolian, sabkha and shallow-lake deposits from Middle Triassic Gipsdalen Formation, Scoresby Land, East Greenland. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 24, 111–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clemmensen, LB (1978b) Lacustrine facies and stromatolites from Middle Triassic of East Greenland. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 48, 1111–27.Google Scholar
Clemmensen, LB (1980a) Triassic lithostratigraphy of East Greenland between Scoresby Sund and Kejser Franz Josephs Fjord. Grønlands Geologiske Undersøgelse, Bulletin 139, 1–56.Google Scholar
Clemmensen, LB (1980b) Triassic rift sedimentation and palaeogeography of central East Greenland. Grønlands Geologiske Undersøgelse, Bulletin 136, 1–72.Google Scholar
Clemmensen, LB, Kent, DV and Jenkins, FAJ (1998) A Late Triassic lake system in East Greenland: facies, depositional cycles and palaeoclimate. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 140, 135–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clemmensen, LB, Kent, DV, Mau, M, Mateus, O and Milàn, J (2020) Triassic lithostratigraphy of the Jameson Land Basin (central East Greenland), with emphasis on the new Fleming Fjord Group. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Denmark 68, 95–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clemmensen, LB, Milàn, J, Adolfssen, JS, Estrup, EJ, Frobøse, N, Klein, N, Mateus, O and Wings, O (2016) The vertebrate-bearing Late Triassic Fleming Fjord Formation of central East Greenland revisited: stratigraphy, palaeoclimate and new palaeontological data. In Mesozoic Biotas of Scandinavia and its Arctic Territories (eds Kear, BP, Lindgren, J, Hurum, JH, Milàn, J and Vajda, V), pp. 31–47. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 434.Google Scholar
Dam, G and Surlyk, F (1993) Cyclic sedimentation in a large wave- and storm-dominated anoxic lake; Kap Stewart Formation (Rhaetian-Sinemurian), Jameson Land, East Greenland. In Sequence Stratigraphy and Facies Associations (eds Posamentier, HW, Summerhayes, CP, Haq, BU and Allen, GP), pp. 419–48. International Association of Sedimentologists, Oxford, Special Publication, 18.Google Scholar
Dam, G, Surlyk, F, Mathiesen, A and Christiansen, FG (1995) Exploration significance of lacustrine forced regressions of the Rhaetian-Sinemurian Kap Stewart Formation, Jameson Land, East Greenland. In Sequence Stratigraphy on the Northwest European Margin (eds Steel, RJ, Felt, VL, Johannessen, EP and Mathieu, C), pp. 511–27. Norwegian Petroleum Society, Oslo, Special Publication.Google Scholar
Decou, A, Andrews, SD, Alderton, DH and Morton, A (2016) Triassic to Early Jurassic climatic trends recorded in the Jameson Land Basin, East Greenland: clay mineralogy, petrography and heavy mineralogy. Basin Research 29, 658–673.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fordham, AM, North, CP, Hartley, AJ, Archer, SG and Warwick, GL (2010) Dominance of lateral over axial sedimentary fill in dryland rift basins. Petroleum Geoscience 16, 299–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fryberger, SG and Ahlbrandt, TS (1979) Mechanism for the formation of sand seas. Zeitschirift Für Geomorpholgie 23, 440–60.Google Scholar
Gawthorpe, RL and Leeder, MR (2000) Tectono-sedimentary evolution of active extensional basins. Basin Research 12, 195–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glennie, KW (1970) Desert Sedimentary Environments. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Developements in Sedimentology no. 14, 222 p.Google Scholar
Glennie, KW (2002) Permian and Triassic. In The Geology of Scotland (ed. Trewin, NH). London: The Geological Society.Google Scholar
Golonka, J and Ford, D (2000) Pangean (Late Carboniferous-Middle Jurassic) paleoenvironment and lithofacies. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 161, 1–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grasmück, K and Trümpy, R (1969) Triassic stratigraphy and general geology of the country around Fleming Fjord (East Greenland). Meddelelser om Grønland 168, 16–57.Google Scholar
Guarnieri, P, Brethes, A and Rasmussen, TM (2017) Geometry and kinematics of the Triassic rift basin in Jameson Land (East Greenland). Tectonics 36, 602–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haq, BU, Hardenbol, J and Vail, PR (1987) Chronology of fluctuating sea levels since the Triassic. Science 235, 1156–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobsen, V and van Veen, P (1984) The Triassic offshore Norway north of 62°N. In Petroleum Geology of the North European Margin (eds Spencer, AM, Holter, E, Johnsen, SO, Mork, A, Nysether, E, Songstad, P and Spinnangr, A), pp. 317–27. London: Graham and Trotman.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, FAJ, Shubin, N, Amaral, W, Gatesy, S, Schaff, C, Clemmensen, LB, Downs, W, Davidson, A, Bonde, N and Osbæck, F (1994) Late Triassic continental vertebrates and depositional environments of the Fleming Fjord Formation, Jameson Land, East Greenland. Meddelelser om Grønland, Geoscience 32, 25.Google Scholar
Kelts, K and Hsü, KJ (1978) Freshwater carbonate sedimentation. In Lakes: Chemistry, Geology and Physics (ed. Lerman, A), pp. 295–323. New York: Springer-Verlang.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kent, DV and Clemmensen, LB (1996) Paleomagnetism and cycle stratigraphy of the Triassic Fleming Fjord and Gipsdalen Formations of East Greenland. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Denmark 42, 121–36.Google Scholar
Klein, N, Voeten, DF, Haarhuis, A and Bleeker, R (2016) The earliest record of the genus Lariosaurus from the early middle Anisian (Middle Triassic) of the Germanic Basin. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 36, e1163712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leleu, S and Hartley, AJ (2010) Controls on the stratigraphic development of the Triassic Fundy Basin, Nova Scotia: implications for the tectonostratigraphic evolution of Triassic Atlantic rift basins. Journal of the Geological Society 167, 437–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leleu, S, Hartley, AJ, van Oosterhout, C, Kennan, L, Ruckwied, K and Gerdes, K (2016) Structural, stratigraphic and sedimentological characterisation of a wide rift system: the Triassic rift system of the Central Atlantic Domain. Earth-Science Reviews 158, 89–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mange, MA and Morton, AC (2007) Geochemistry of heavy minerals. In Heavy Minerals in Use (eds Mange, M and Wright, DT), pp. 345–91. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Developments in Sedimentology no. 58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marzola, M, Mateus, O, Shubin, NH and Clemmensen, LB (2017) Cyclotosaurus naraserluki, sp. nov., a new Late Triassic cyclotosaurid (Amphibia, Temnospondyli) from the Fleming Fjord Formation of the Jameson Land Basin (East Greenland). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 37, e1303501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClay, KR, Norton, MG, Coney, P and Davis, GH (1986) Collapse of the Caledonian orogen and the Old Red Sandstone. Nature 323, 147–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKie, T (2014) Climatic and tectonic controls on Triassic dryland terminal fluvial system architecture, central North Sea. In From Depositional Systems to Sedimentary Successions on the Norwegian Continental Margin (eds Martinius, AW, Ravn, R, Howell, JA, Steel, RJ and Wonham, JP), pp. 19–58. International Association of Sedimentologists, Oxford, Special Publication no. 46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milàn, J, Clemmensen, L and Bonde, N (2004) Vertical sections through dinosaur tracks (Late Triassic lake deposits, East Greenland)–undertracks and other subsurface deformation structures revealed. Lethaia 37, 285–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morton, A and Chenery, S (2009) Detrital rutile geochemistry and thermometry as guides to provenance of Jurassic–Paleocene sandstones of the Norwegian Sea. Journal of Sedimentary Research 79, 540–53.Google Scholar
Morton, AC and Hallsworth, CR (1994) Identifying provenance-specific features of detrital heavy mineral assemblages in sandstones. Sedimentary Geology 90, 241–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morton, AC, Hallsworth, CR and Chalton, B (2004) Garnet compositions in Scottish and Norwegian basement terrains: a framework for interpretation of North Sea sandstone provenance. Marine and Petroleum Geology 21, 393–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morton, A, Hallsworth, C, Strogen, D, Whitham, A and Fanning, M (2009) Evolution of provenance in the NE Atlantic rift: the early–middle Jurassic succession in the Heidrun field, Halten terrace, offshore mid-Norway. Marine and Petroleum Geology 26, 1100–17.Google Scholar
Morton, A and Hurst, A (1995) Correlation of sandstones using heavy minerals: an example from the Statfjord Formation of the Snorre Field, northern North Sea. In Dating and Correlating Biostratigraphically-Barren Strata (eds Dunay, RE and Hailwood, E), pp. 3–22. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 89.Google Scholar
Mountney, NP and Jagger, A (2004) Stratigraphic evolution of an aeolian erg margin system: the Permian Cedar Mesa Sandstone, SE Utah, USA. Sedimentology 51, 713–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mountney, NP and Thompson, DB (2002) Stratigraphic evolution and preservation of aeolian dune and damp/wet interdune strata: an example from the Triassic Helsby Sandstone Formation, Cheshire Basin, UK. Sedimentology 49, 805–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muir, M, Lock, D, Von Der Borch, CC, Zenger, DH, Dunham, JB and Ethington, RL (1980) The Coorong model for penecontemporaneous dolomite formation in the Middle Proterozoic McArthur Group, Northern Teritory, Australia. In Concepts and Models of Dolomitization (eds Zenger, DH, Dunham, JB and Ethington, RL), pp. 3–22. Society for Sedimentary Geology, Bath, Special Publication no. 28.Google Scholar
Müller, R, Nystuen, JP, Eide, F and Lie, H (2005) Late Permian to Triassic basin infill history and palaeogeography of the Mid-Norwegian shelf - East Greenland Region. In Onshore-Offshore relationships on the North Atlantic Margin (eds Wandås, BTG, Nystuen, JP, Eide, EA and Gradstein, FM), pp. 165–89. Norwegian Petroleum Society, Oslo, Special Publication no. 12.Google Scholar
Pedersen, KR and Lund, JJ (1980) Palynology of the plant-bearing Rhaetian to Hettangian Kap Stewart Formation, Scoresby Sund, East Greenland. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 31, 1–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perch-Nielsen, K, Birkenmajer, K, Birkelund, T and Aellen, M (1974) Revision of the Triassic stratigraphy of the Scoresby Land and the Jameson Land region, East Greenland. Grønlands Geologiske Undersøgelse, Bulletin 109, 1–51.Google Scholar
Rubin, DM (1984) Factors determining desert dune type. Nature 309, 91–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seidler, L (2000) Incised submarine canyons governing new evidence of Early Triassic rifting in East Greenland. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 161, 267–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seidler, L, Steel, R, Stemmerik, L and Surlyk, F (2004) North Atlantic marine rifting in the Early Triassic: new evidence from East Greenland. Journal of the Geological Society of London 161, 583–92.Google Scholar
Štolfová, K and Shannon, PM (2009) Permo-Triassic development from Ireland to Norway: basin architecture and regional controls. Geological Journal 44, 652–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Surlyk, F (1990) Timing, style and sedimentary evolution of Late Palaeozoic-Mesozoic extensional basins of East Greenland. In Tectonic Events Responsible for Britain’s Oil and Gas Reserves (eds Hardman, RPF and Brooks, J), pp. 107–25. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 55.Google Scholar
Wasson, RJ and Hyde, R (1983) Factors determining desert dune type. Nature 304, 337–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Andrews et al. supplementary material

Andrews et al. supplementary material

Download Andrews et al. supplementary material(File)
File 60.4 KB