Scoresbysund Composite Tectono-Sedimentary Element, East Greenland Rifted Margin, Denmark Strait

Abstract

The little explored central East Greenland margin contains thick sedimentary accumulations confined within the Scoresbysund Basin. The geological evolution of the area distinguishes from other parts of East Greenland. Even so, resemblances with the prospective basins onshore and offshore farther north probably exist, and the margin may hold a real petroleum potential. The Scoresbysund Rifted Margin Composite Tectonic-Sedimentary Element delineates the oldest part of the Scoresbysund Basin. It formed through multiple phases of rifting, volcanism, uplift and thermal subsidence between Devonian and Miocene time. The development of the composite tectonic-sedimentary element concluded with the latest Oligocene or early Miocene continental break-up of the Jan Mayen microcontinent and East Greenland. The Scoresbysund Rifted Margin Composite Tectonic-Sedimentary Element contains approximately 4 km of Eocene-lower Miocene fan-delta deposits that accumulated during down-faulting along the East Greenland Escarpment and farther seawards intercalate with basalts. The fan-delta deposits rest on Paleocene basalts that most likely cover Paleozoic-Mesozoic strata. Equivalent to onshore, the deeply buried section probably include source rock and reservoir intervals of Carboniferous, Permian and Mesozoic age. Together with the major fault structures existing in the western part of the area, this may form the basis for a working petroleum system.

Triassic in the northernmost Atlantic—Linking North Greenland and the southwestern Barents Sea

“…It includes NW–SE striking structures formed between Peary Land in North Greenland and Spitsbergen in Svalbard and the transition and junction to the N‐S trending rift regime in Kronprins Christian Land and Amdrup Land (Håkansson & Stemmerik, 1989). The latter follows the Caledonian structural grain in eastern Greenland and Norway, as represented by, for example the Hammerfest Basin (Faleide et al, 2008) and the Danmarkshavn Basin (Fyhn & Hopper, 2021; Fyhn et al, 2021, Figure 1).…”

“…The Boreal Sea connected NE Siberia, Svalbard, Sverdrup and central East Greenland areas during the earliest Triassic Griesbachian–Dienerian times, shown by ammonoid biogeography (Bjerager et al, 2006; Dagys & Weitschat, 1993). The Danmarkshavn Basin offshore NE Greenland contains a few km thick, layer cake succession interpreted as Triassic based on seismic stratigraphy (Fyhn et al, 2021; Fyhn & Hopper, 2021). The succession bears resemblance with the Triassic in the SW Barents Sea (e.g.…”