Evolution of the Boothia Uplift, arctic Canada

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
• Main Authors: Okulitch, A. V., Packard, J. J., Zolnai, A. I.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1986
• Subjects: Arctic Archipelago; Axel Heiberg Island; Ellesmere Island; Greenland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/e86-037; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/e86-037

The Boothia Uplift extends 1000 km northward from the northern Canadian Shield into the Arctic Archipelago. Consisting of a core of Archean(?) to Aphebian gneissic units and a cover of Proterozoic to Devonian strata of the Arctic Platform and Franklinian Miogeocline, it formed during several minor pulses of uplift in the late Proterozoic and early Paleozoic and a major episode of tectonism during the Siluro-Devonian. Although it has long been regarded as a "horst" or vertical block uplift, compilation of new and previous data suggests that the uplift can be interpreted as a major, west-directed, imbricate mass of crystalline basement mantled by faulted and drape-folded cover. Details of the vertical component of movement have been provided by sedimentological and stratrigraphic studies. Uplift increases northward from the craton to a maximum of 5 km. Estimates of horizontal movement, predicated on assumed fault dips, could be as much as 30 km.Major tectonism of the Boothia Uplift was approximately coeval with uplift on southeastern Ellesmere Island and on northern Axel Heiberg Island, folding and low-grade metamorphism on northernmost Ellesmere Island, and west-directed thrusting and folding on Greenland. The plate tectonic interactions responsible for these events remain obscure; a general regime of west-directed compressive stresses associated with late stages of the Caledonian Orogeny may have been present.