Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Clift, P. D. Articles by Hurford, A. J. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Constraints on the evolution of the East Greenland Margin: Evidence from detrital apatite in offshore sediments

¹ Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543
² Research School of Geological and Geophysical Sciences, Birkbeck and University Colleges, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom

We test a new approach to understanding the tectonic evolution of passive margins by using fission-track analysis on detrital apatites from sediments deposited offshore East Greenland. These apatites have not undergone postdepositional track annealing and therefore reflect provenance. The apatites preserve a component of the source rocks' thermal history that otherwise may not be retained within the present-day outcrop. Fission-track–derived denudational histories from samples at Ocean Drilling Program drill sites offshore East Greenland at lat 63°N are compared with data from the onshore Singertat Complex. Previous apatite fission-track studies and geomorphic mapping of the East Greenland coast have shown that locally up to 6 km of denudation may have occurred, implying significant tectonic or magmatic activity starting as much as 30 m.y. after breakup at 56 Ma. In contrast, apatite fission-track data presented here record <2 km of Cenozoic denudation in southeast Greenland, probably driven by magmatic underplating at the time of breakup. Large-magnitude, postrift denudation of East Greenland is restricted to the area around Kangerdlugssuaq (68°N). The timing (<40–50 Ma) and magnitude are in accord with revised plume track models suggesting that the Iceland plume crossed the margin here during the late Eocene.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				D. F. Stockli Application of Low-Temperature Thermochronometry to Extensional Tectonic Settings Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, January 1, 2005; 58(1): 411 - 448. [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. J.W. Gleadow, D. X. Belton, B. P. Kohn, and R. W. Brown Fission Track Dating of Phosphate Minerals and the Thermochronology of Apatite Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, January 1, 2002; 48(1): 579 - 630. [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. D. CLIFT, A. CARTER, and A. J. HURFORD The erosional and uplift history of NE Atlantic passive margins: constraints on a passing plume Journal of the Geological Society, October 1, 1998; 155(5): 787 - 800. [Abstract] [PDF]