The Greenland Caledonides: Evolution of the Northeast Margin of Laurentia

Polyorogenic history of the East Greenland Caledonides Available to Purchase
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Published:January 01, 2008
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Feiko Kalsbeek, Kristine Thrane, A.K. Higgins, Hans F. Jepsen, A. Graham Leslie, Allen P. Nutman, Robert Frei, 2008. "Polyorogenic history of the East Greenland Caledonides", The Greenland Caledonides: Evolution of the Northeast Margin of Laurentia, A.K. Higgins, Jane A. Gilotti, M. Paul Smith
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The Caledonian orogen of East Greenland contains remnants of Archean, Paleoproterozoic, late Mesoproterozoic, and early Neoproterozoic rocks that occur within far-traveled thrust sheets, and bear witness to a complex polyorogenic history of the region prior to Caledonian orogenesis. Archean and Paleoproterozoic complexes consist mainly of granitoid orthogneisses. A succession of Paleoproterozoic tholeiitic metabasalts is present in some of the foreland windows. A major unit of late Meso-proterozoic metasedimentary rocks (Krummedal supracrustal sequence) contains early Neoproterozoic (ca. 950 Ma) as well as Caledonian granites. There is evidence for Archean (ca. 2800–2600 Ma), Paleoproterozoic (2000–1750 Ma), and late Grenvillian (ca. 950 Ma) deformation and metamorphism, but Caledonian overprinting complicates the study of these events. This paper presents a broad overview of the various rock units with structural, geochemical, and geochronologic data. The Paleoproterozoic metabasaltic rocks from the foreland windows are described in more detail.
- Archean
- Arctic region
- Caledonian Orogeny
- Caledonides
- East Greenland
- gneisses
- granites
- Greenland
- Grenvillian Orogeny
- igneous rocks
- metabasalt
- metaigneous rocks
- metamorphic rocks
- metasedimentary rocks
- orogeny
- orthogneiss
- overprinting
- Paleoproterozoic
- Paleozoic
- plutonic rocks
- polyphase processes
- Precambrian
- Proterozoic
- supracrustals
- thrust sheets
- upper Precambrian