East Greenland Prograded Margin and Oceanic Composite Tectono-Sedimentary Element, offshore East Greenland

Abstract

Abstract The East Greenland Prograded Margin and Oceanic Composite Tectono-Sedimentary Element (EGPMO CTSE) consists of the East Greenland Prograded Margin Tectonic-Sedimentary Element (TSE) and the East Greenland Oceanic (EGO) TSE located over continental and oceanic crust, respectively. The East Greenland Prograded Margin TSE (EGPM TSE) is made up of six segments, with their basal part deferring from Maastrichtian to Miocene in age. The variation reflects the different timing in transition from syn- to post-rift, controlled by the lateral migration of rifting and diachronic continental break-up in the northern North Atlantic. The post-rift history can be subdivided into a pre-break-up Maastrichtian–Paleocene post-rift phase developed entirely offshore NE Greenland and an earliest Eocene–Miocene syn- to post-break-up phase developed in the wake of progressive continental rupture. Finally, the CTSE started to develop as a unified body from Miocene time after the complete separation of Greenland from Eurasia and the Jan Mayen microcontinent. The EGO TSE has formed since the earliest Eocene commencement of seafloor spreading. The structural and depositional outline of the EGPMO CTSE depicts its tectonic history but also reflects phases of volcanism, denudation and intensified icehouse conditions since the middle Miocene that were triggered by the opening of the Fram Strait and the uplift of East Greenland. The first major northern hemisphere glaciations started in NE Greenland. Glaciations expanded southwards during the late Miocene as the Denmark Strait was transgressed and cold surface water from the high arctic started flowing along SE Greenland, cooling the region. The petroleum potential of the EGPM TSE is conceivably modest but a potential exists locally offshore northern NE Greenland where hydrocarbons sourced mainly from the Jurassic–Cretaceous section may have charged structures cored by Maastrichtian–Eocene sandstone reservoirs sealed by overlying marine mudstones.