Structural evidence for sinistral displacement on the Wegener Fault in southern Nares Strait, Arctic Canada

von Gosen W, Piepjohn K, Gilotti JA, Mcclelland WC, Reinhardt L (2019)

Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes

Publication year: 2019

Journal

Special Paper of the Geological Society of America Geological Society of America

Edited Volumes: Circum-Arctic Structural Events: Tectonic Evolution of the Arctic Margins and Trans-Arctic Links with Adjacent Orogens

Series: GSA Special Papers

Book Volume: 541

Pages Range: 367-396

DOI: 10.1130/2018.2541(18)

Abstract

The sinistral Wegener Fault in the Nares Strait between northwest Greenland and eastern Ellesmere Island (Canadian Arctic) represents a tectonic element in the Arctic whose existence and significance have been controversial for more than 50 years. Some workers interpret the Wegener Fault as an important early Tertiary transform related to movement of the Greenland plate relative to the North American plate. Others view it as insignificant or reject its existence. While onshore studies in the Canadian portion of the northern Nares Strait region have proven the existence of important sinistral strike-slip faults related to the offshore Wegener Fault, the southern continuation of the Wegener Fault in the southern Kane Basin and Smith Sound is unclear. In particular, Smith Sound has been interpreted as a location of an undisturbed continuation of the Proterozoic basement from Greenland to Ellesmere Island, with only one possible location of the Wegener Fault near the east coast of Ellesmere Island.

Authors with CRIS profile

Werner von Gosen Professur für Tektonik

Involved external institutions

University of Iowa US United States (USA) (US) Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

von Gosen, W., Piepjohn, K., Gilotti, J.A., Mcclelland, W.C., & Reinhardt, L. (2019). Structural evidence for sinistral displacement on the Wegener Fault in southern Nares Strait, Arctic Canada. In Karsten Piepjohn, Justin V. Strauss, Lutz Reinhardt, William C. McClelland (Eds.), Circum-Arctic Structural Events: Tectonic Evolution of the Arctic Margins and Trans-Arctic Links with Adjacent Orogens. (pp. 367-396).

MLA:

von Gosen, Werner, et al. "Structural evidence for sinistral displacement on the Wegener Fault in southern Nares Strait, Arctic Canada." Circum-Arctic Structural Events: Tectonic Evolution of the Arctic Margins and Trans-Arctic Links with Adjacent Orogens. Ed. Karsten Piepjohn, Justin V. Strauss, Lutz Reinhardt, William C. McClelland, 2019. 367-396.

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