Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Map Series 7

Des​criptive text to the Geological map of Greenland, 1:500 000, Lambert Land, Sheet 9

Anthony K Higgins

The Lambert Land map sheet, printed in 2000, displays the northern part of the East Greenland Caledonides, a series of W-directed thrust sheets displaced against the rocks of the Palaeo- to Mesoproterozoic foreland. The westernmost, parautochthonous Thin-skinned fold-and-thrust belt comprises several thrust sheets of Ordovician to Silurian carbonate rocks of the Iapetus passive margin. The overlying Vandredalen thrust sheet is dominated by the siliciclastic Neoproterozoic Rivieradal Group (R), with a spectacularly folded zone of carbonate rocks of the Hagen Fjord Group along its 200 km long western front. The next, Western thrust belt crops out in the mountainous terrain of Hovgaard Ø, Lynn Ø and adjacent to Ingolf Fjord. The uppermost Nørreland thrust sheet exposes crystalline rocks from the deepest crustal level and includes abundant eclogitic enclaves in the eastern, coastal region of the map area.

Post-Caledonian sedimentary rocks of the Wandel Sea Basin are exposed in the north-eastern part of the map area.

Abstract

The Lambert Land 1:500 000 scale geological map sheet covers a segment of the East Greenland Caledonian orogen extending between latitudes 78°–81°N and longitudes 13°–29°W. The region was geologically mapped in the summers of 1978–1980 and 1993–1995 as part of a regional Survey mapping programme, and the map sheet was printed in 2000. The region covered by the Lambert Land map sheet comprises a northern segment of the East Greenland Caledonides that is in thrust contact with the Caledonian foreland. The contact is an Edipping, NNE–SSW-trending thrust that runs through Kronprins Christian Land from west of Blåsø in the south to the region east of Sjælland Fjelde in the north. The Caledonian foreland succession is exposed in Mylius-Erichsen Land and Amdrup Højland on the west side of Danmark Fjord, and in western Kronprins Christian Land on the east side of Danmark Fjord. The several kilometre thick foreland succession ranges in age from Palaeoproterozoic to Silurian. In western Kronprins Christian Land the undeformed Ordovician–Silurian carbonates of the foreland pass eastwards into the so-called Thinskinned fold-and-thrust belt developed in the same strata that farther eastwards are structurally overlain by the allochthonous Vandredalen thrust sheet. This thrust sheet is in its turn overlain by a group of thrust sheets that make up the mountainous high ground of central parts of Kronprins Christian Land, and structurally form the so-called Western thrust belt; these rock units have a deeper crustal origin. In the extreme east the Nørreland thrust sheet is exposed in a coastal strip that comprises Palaeoproterozoic crystalline gneisses that include eclogite-facies enclaves and units of meta-igneous and metasedimentary rocks.

Post-Caledonian rocks crop out in the north-eastern coastal parts of the map sheet area, and include sedimentary rocks of early Carboniferous to late Jurassic age that form part of the Wandel Sea Basin succession. Undifferentiated Quaternary deposits, ground moraine, alluvial fans and talus are distinguished where they obscure significant areas of bedrock.

The authors' address

Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland
Øster Voldgade 10, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark

Buy the Map Series

Buy the map series by contacting GEUS booksale at:
bogsalg@geus.dk

Price: DKK 240 (ex VAT and postage)

Download Map Series