Shallow marine syn-rift sedimentation: Middle Jurassic

• Main Authors: Pelion Formation, Jameson L, East Greenl, Michael Engkilde, Finn Surlyk
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Fossilbjerget; Greenland; Jameson Land; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.515.8467; http://www.geus.dk/publications/bull/nr1_p813-863.pdf

Greenland, is a well-exposed example of the Middle Jurassic inshore–offshore successions char-acteristic of the rifted seaways in the Northwest European – North Atlantic region. Early Jurassic deposition took place under relatively quiet tectonic conditions following Late Permian – earli-est Triassic and Early Triassic rift phases and the Lower Jurassic stratal package shows an over-all layer-cake geometry. A long-term extensional phase was initiated in Middle Jurassic (Late Bajocian) time, culminated in the Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian–Volgian), and petered out in the earliest Cretaceous (Valanginian). The Upper Bajocian – Middle Callovian early-rift succession comprises shallow marine sandstones of the Pelion Formation and correlative offshore siltstones of the Fossilbjerget Formation. Deposition was initiated by southwards progradation of shallow marine sands of the Pelion Formation in the Late Bajocian followed by major backstepping in Bathonian–Callovian times and drowning of the sandy depositional system in the Middle–Late Callovian. Six facies associations are recognised in the Pelion–Fossilbjerget couplet, represent-ing estuarine, shoreface, offshore transition zone and offshore environments. The north–south-trending axis of the Jameson Land Basin had a low inclination, and deposition was sensitive to even small changes in relative sea level which caused the shorelines to advance or retreat over