Exhuming the Top End of North America: Episodic Evolution of the Eurekan Belt and Its Potential Relationships to North Atlantic Plate Tectonics and Arctic Climate Change
We present the first low-temperature thermochronology data from northernmost Ellesmere Island (Canadian Arctic), along with palynological data from Paleogene sediments. Our study area is part of the >2,500-km-long Eurekan deformation belt that formed across the High Arctic during the Eocene. The...
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ftsubggeo:oai:e-docs.geo-leo.de:11858/8888 2023-05-15T14:43:18+02:00 Exhuming the Top End of North America: Episodic Evolution of the Eurekan Belt and Its Potential Relationships to North Atlantic Plate Tectonics and Arctic Climate Change Vamvaka, Agni Pross, Jörg Monien, Patrick Piepjohn, Karsten Estrada, Solveig Lisker, Frank Spiegel, Cornelia 2019 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019TC005621 http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gldocs-11858/8888 eng eng doi:10.1029/2019TC005621 http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gldocs-11858/8888 This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. CC-BY-NC ddc:551.8 ddc:557 Pearya Terrane apatite fission track and (U-Th)/He thermochronology palynology Eurekan orogeny Canadian High Arctic Ellesmere Island doc-type:article 2019 ftsubggeo https://doi.org/10.1029/2019TC005621 2022-11-09T06:51:38Z We present the first low-temperature thermochronology data from northernmost Ellesmere Island (Canadian Arctic), along with palynological data from Paleogene sediments. Our study area is part of the >2,500-km-long Eurekan deformation belt that formed across the High Arctic during the Eocene. The aim of this study is to investigate the exhumation of the Eurekan belt and potential relationships with the opening of the North Atlantic, as well as with environmental changes of the Arctic. Our data show that the Canadian Arctic margin was characterized by stretching and basin formation during the Paleocene. Sediment deposition occurred in a coastal swamp environment under a warm and humid climate that lasted into the early Eocene. Exhumation of northern Ellesmere Island was episodic and was presumably controlled by strike-slip movements along the De Geer Fracture Zone between Svalbard and Greenland. Enhanced exhumation of northern Ellesmere Island occurred ~66–60 Ma, ~55–48 Ma, 44–38 Ma, and 34–26 Ma. These exhumation periods largely correlate with changes of spreading rates and movement directions of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea. Main topographic growth along the Eurekan belt was temporally coincident with deposition of ice-rafted debris off eastern Greenland. We suggest that Eurekan topography growth was an important trigger for glacier formation in Greenland. The cessation of rapid exhumation at ~26 Ma can be explained by continental separation between Greenland and Svalbard, which decoupled northern Ellesmere Island from strike-slip movements along the De Geer Fracture Zone, eventually leading to the opening of the Fram Strait. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Ellesmere Island Fram Strait glacier glacier Greenland Greenland Sea North Atlantic Svalbard GEO-LEOe-docs (FID GEO) Arctic Svalbard Ellesmere Island Greenland Tectonics 38 12 4207 4228 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
GEO-LEOe-docs (FID GEO) |
op_collection_id |
ftsubggeo |
language |
English |
topic |
ddc:551.8 ddc:557 Pearya Terrane apatite fission track and (U-Th)/He thermochronology palynology Eurekan orogeny Canadian High Arctic Ellesmere Island |
spellingShingle |
ddc:551.8 ddc:557 Pearya Terrane apatite fission track and (U-Th)/He thermochronology palynology Eurekan orogeny Canadian High Arctic Ellesmere Island Vamvaka, Agni Pross, Jörg Monien, Patrick Piepjohn, Karsten Estrada, Solveig Lisker, Frank Spiegel, Cornelia Exhuming the Top End of North America: Episodic Evolution of the Eurekan Belt and Its Potential Relationships to North Atlantic Plate Tectonics and Arctic Climate Change |
topic_facet |
ddc:551.8 ddc:557 Pearya Terrane apatite fission track and (U-Th)/He thermochronology palynology Eurekan orogeny Canadian High Arctic Ellesmere Island |
description |
We present the first low-temperature thermochronology data from northernmost Ellesmere Island (Canadian Arctic), along with palynological data from Paleogene sediments. Our study area is part of the >2,500-km-long Eurekan deformation belt that formed across the High Arctic during the Eocene. The aim of this study is to investigate the exhumation of the Eurekan belt and potential relationships with the opening of the North Atlantic, as well as with environmental changes of the Arctic. Our data show that the Canadian Arctic margin was characterized by stretching and basin formation during the Paleocene. Sediment deposition occurred in a coastal swamp environment under a warm and humid climate that lasted into the early Eocene. Exhumation of northern Ellesmere Island was episodic and was presumably controlled by strike-slip movements along the De Geer Fracture Zone between Svalbard and Greenland. Enhanced exhumation of northern Ellesmere Island occurred ~66–60 Ma, ~55–48 Ma, 44–38 Ma, and 34–26 Ma. These exhumation periods largely correlate with changes of spreading rates and movement directions of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea. Main topographic growth along the Eurekan belt was temporally coincident with deposition of ice-rafted debris off eastern Greenland. We suggest that Eurekan topography growth was an important trigger for glacier formation in Greenland. The cessation of rapid exhumation at ~26 Ma can be explained by continental separation between Greenland and Svalbard, which decoupled northern Ellesmere Island from strike-slip movements along the De Geer Fracture Zone, eventually leading to the opening of the Fram Strait. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Vamvaka, Agni Pross, Jörg Monien, Patrick Piepjohn, Karsten Estrada, Solveig Lisker, Frank Spiegel, Cornelia |
author_facet |
Vamvaka, Agni Pross, Jörg Monien, Patrick Piepjohn, Karsten Estrada, Solveig Lisker, Frank Spiegel, Cornelia |
author_sort |
Vamvaka, Agni |
title |
Exhuming the Top End of North America: Episodic Evolution of the Eurekan Belt and Its Potential Relationships to North Atlantic Plate Tectonics and Arctic Climate Change |
title_short |
Exhuming the Top End of North America: Episodic Evolution of the Eurekan Belt and Its Potential Relationships to North Atlantic Plate Tectonics and Arctic Climate Change |
title_full |
Exhuming the Top End of North America: Episodic Evolution of the Eurekan Belt and Its Potential Relationships to North Atlantic Plate Tectonics and Arctic Climate Change |
title_fullStr |
Exhuming the Top End of North America: Episodic Evolution of the Eurekan Belt and Its Potential Relationships to North Atlantic Plate Tectonics and Arctic Climate Change |
title_full_unstemmed |
Exhuming the Top End of North America: Episodic Evolution of the Eurekan Belt and Its Potential Relationships to North Atlantic Plate Tectonics and Arctic Climate Change |
title_sort |
exhuming the top end of north america: episodic evolution of the eurekan belt and its potential relationships to north atlantic plate tectonics and arctic climate change |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019TC005621 http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gldocs-11858/8888 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard Ellesmere Island Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard Ellesmere Island Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Ellesmere Island Fram Strait glacier glacier Greenland Greenland Sea North Atlantic Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Ellesmere Island Fram Strait glacier glacier Greenland Greenland Sea North Atlantic Svalbard |
op_relation |
doi:10.1029/2019TC005621 http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gldocs-11858/8888 |
op_rights |
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019TC005621 |
container_title |
Tectonics |
container_volume |
38 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
4207 |
op_container_end_page |
4228 |
_version_ |
1766314975438045184 |