Submarine fan sedimentation along fault scarps on tilted fault blocks (Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary, East Greenland) :yp ,,> , L,, . GRQlNLANDS GEOLOGISKE UNDERSgGELSE Bulletin No. 128 Submarine fan sedimentation along fault scarps on tilted fault blocks (Jurassic - Cretaceous boundary, East Greenland) by Finn Surlyk One map in pocket Abstract In latc Jurassic timeslarge-scale faulting, which partly occurred along oldlinesof weakness, fragmented the East Greenland shelf into several westerly tilted blocks. The sediments of the ayntectonic Middle Volgian-Valanginian Wollaston Porland Group were deposited along and away from the fault scarps formed ac the uptilted western margin of each block. To the west the group comprises thick syntectonic clastic wedges of submarine rock-fall breccias which pars laterally into thick conglomerates and sandstunes deposited by various types of sediment gravity flow. Further to the east these facies pass rapidly into mudstones. The depositional regime was characterized by repeated fault activity resulting in deepening of the depositional basins, followed by rapid erosion of borderlands and sedimentation of very coarse clastic sediments on a narrow coastal hinge of fan-deltas leading into submarine fans. This pattern continued into Ryazanian time (early Lower Cretaceous), and in the Valanginian a major regional transgrtssion initiated an open shelf where light grey mudstones and sandstone turbidites were deposited. These Middle Volgian to Va- langinian sediments are interpreted as showing a progressively collapsing and submerging platform. The model presented for submarine sedimentation along fault scarps on tilted fault blocks displays the samc facies associations as the one for deep-sea fans. Distinguishing characters are seen in the internal distribution of facies. The sediment orism is arranecd in several hundred metres thick fi- ning-upward megacycles corresponding to major phases of faulting and down-tilting of fault blacks. .They also indicate gradually diminishing sediment supply following rapid erosion and retreat of hor- derlands. Megacycles are internally composed of fining-upward cycles a few metres to tens of metres thick. These cycles reflect progressive filling and abandonment of inner and midfan channels. 'l'hc very caarse-grained proximal units wedge out very rapidly in a distal direction where the seaward dipping fan slope is checked due to thc dip slope of the opposite fault block. Author's address: Cealogisk Muscum Oster Voldgade 5-7 DK-1350 Kahenhavn K, Danmark CONTENTS Introduction .......................................................................... Previous investigations .............................................................. Topography ........................................................................ Geological setting ..................................................................... Stratigraphy .......................................................................... Lithostratigraphy ................................................................... JamesonLandGroup ............................................................. WoUastonForlandGroup .......................................................... LindemansBugtFomation ...................................................... Laugeites Ravine Member ..................................................... RigiMember ................................................................. NiesenMember .............................................................. Palnatokes Bjerg Formation ...................................................... YaungSundMember ......................................................... Falskehugt Memhcr ........................................................... AlbrechtsBugt Member .......................................... ;. ........... Redryggen Member ........................................................... Biostratigraphy ..................................................................... Zonation ...................................................................... Sedimentology ........................................................................ Methods ........................................................................... Sedimentaryfacies .................................................................. 1. Darkmudstone .......................................................... 2 . Light grey mudstone ..................................................... 3. Red mudstone ........................................................... 4 . Interlaminated mudstone and fine sandstone ................................ 5. Graded sandstone with subhorizontal base .................................. 6. Structureless, non-graded sandstone ........................................ 7 . Graded sandstone deposited in channels .................................... 8. Conglomerates ........................................................... 9. Stratified pebble conglomerates ............................................ 10 . Breccias ................................................................ Models of resedimented conglomerates ................................................ Palaeocurrent patterns and provenance ................................................ Facies associations .................................................................. Methods ......................................................................... Facies associations of the Lindemans Bugt Formation ................................. a . Base of fault scarp slope association ........................................ b . Inner fan channel and lobe association ...................................... d . Inner fan interchannel and midfan association ............................... h . Outer fan association ..................................................... ................................. Facies associations of the Palnatokes Bjerg Formation a . Base of fault scarp slope association ........................................ b . Inner fan channel and lobe association ...................................... 83 e . Midfan and inner fan interchannel association ............................... 83 f . Distal midfan and outer fan association ..................................... 84 g . Basin and shoals on submerged block crest amxiation ....................... 85 c. The ClaveringOa-iation ............................................... 85 Vertical sequence of environments .................................................... 86 Palaeogeogaphy andtectonia ........................................................ 89 Teaonic-sedimentologif model for submarine fan sedimentation along fault sfarps in a tilted fault block situation ........................................... 93 cornparisan with the submarine fan - abyssal plain model ............................... 97 Ea, nomicgeology .................................................................... 98 Conclusions .......................................................................... 101 Acknowledgements ................................................................... 103 References ........................................................................... 104 Appendix ............................................................................ 109 Fig . 1. Stratigraphic scheme of the Middle Volgiao - Valanginian sedimentary racks of the Wollaston Forland Group. East Greenland . INTRODUCTION The stratigraphy, sedimentary processes and depositional environments of the syntectonic late Jurassic - early Cretaceous sediments in the Wollaston Forland area in northern East Greenland (74-75'301N) form the subject of this paper (figs 1, 2). The work is a continuation of earlier studies of contemporaneous sediments in the years 1968-71 in the Jameson Land area (7O030'-72"N) (Surlyk, 1973, 1975b). The facies in question are placed in the Wollaston Forland Group and constitute a clastic wedge which attains a maximum thickness of about 3000 m in the west and thins eastwards over 1W25 km to a thickness of W50 m. The wedge was deposited in approximately 1W12 my., signifying very high rates of deposition. The sediments are here interpreted as having been deposited in a system of coalescent submarine fans along roughly N S t rending fault-scarps. The scarps were formed by strong antithetic block faulting which began in mid Volgian times and continued through the Ryazaniau and Valanginian. This phase of rifting and crustal attenuation can be recognized along the entire northern North Atlantic continental margin and is also characteristic of the northern North Sea grabens. Field work in the Wollaston Forland area was carried out in the period from 5th July to 26th August, 1974 with a total of 39 active field days. I was accompanied in the field by Lars Clemmensen, who measured some of the sections illustrated in this paper, but otherwise mainly studied the rocks of the Vardeklefl Fonnation. The work was wncentrated on Wollaston Forland (5 camps) and Kuhn 0 (2 camps) whereas Clavering 0, Th. Thomsen Land and Hochstetter Forland were visited on one-day helicopter flights (fig. 2). On Wollaston Forland four camps were placed along aneast-west line at a right angle to the northouth trending faults, which are the most important struchtral elements delineating the Mesoroic basins, and one camp in southwest Wallastan Forland. This camp distribution was planned in order to achieve an adequate picture of the barin geometry and facies changes from the Fault scarps which formed the ancient coastlines to the offshon regions. The investigation of central Wollaston Forland was more in the nature of a reconnaissance as the small lateral changes along the coastlines were considered less important. The geological map produced by Vischer (1943) is of high standard and only a few errors were found. Wollaston Forland is well wvered by vertical aerial photographs except, unforh?nately, for the northern coastal area where the best sections are located and where the work was concentrated. Kuhn 0 is covered by vertical colour aerial photographs of rather good quality. Previous invatigatioas The coastal area of northern East Greenland, approximately between 74" and 76" N, has a long exploration history which has been reviewed by Koch (1929,1939), Donovan (1957) and recently by Haller (1971). Fig. 2. Locality map of central East Greenland. The first expedition to study Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks of the northern east coast was the Second Geman Nofih Polar Expedition led by Captain K. Koldewey in 187CL71. In 1870 one of the geologists of the expedition, J. von Payer, discovered sediments of Valangi- nian age on the east coast of Kuhn 0; and the fauna, mainly comprising different species of the bivalve Buchin, was described by Toula (1874). The same locality was visited by Koch (1929) on his first expedition to East Greenland in 192627. He made a number of sledge journeys from Scoresby Sund (7W30'N) to Danmarkshavn (76"45'N) and was the first to gain an overall impression of the distribution of the Jurassic and Cretaceous rucks in East Greenland. He demonstrated the presence of Portlandian (later shown to he Kimmeridgiarr) rocks on eastern Kuhn 0 and of Kimmeridgian and Valangbian rocks on Wollaston For- land. Coarse Valanginian conglomerates were discovered in 1929 in south-west Wollaston Forland by Rosenkrantz (1932). The Danish nree-Year Expedition led by L. Koch left Copenhagen in June 1931. Some of the memben worked in Mesozoic rocks and the results were published by Frebold (1932a, b, 1933). Frebold himself worked in south-west Wollaston Forland in sediments of middle to late Jurassic and early Cretaceous age, but his results have justifiably been critici- zed by Maync (1949). Frebold also visited Hochstetter Forland, where he established the late Jurassic age of the coal-hearing sandstones discovered by the Second Gemau North Polar Expedition (Frebold, 1932b). His results have heen revised by later authors (Clem- menseu & Surlyk, 1976). The next expedition to the area, again led by L. Koch, was the Danish Two-Year Expedi- tion. During this expedition Kuhn 0, Th. Thomsen Land, Wollilston Forland, Clavering 0 and Hold with Hope were mapped by Vischer (1943) and the stratigraphy and broad facies pattern unravelled by Maync (1947, 1949). Their work is of hi quality and only a few discrepancies have been found. Vischer, furthermore, studied the rule of antithetic block faulting in controlling sedimentation. Maync first published his detailed stratigraphical ac- counts after the Second World War and as a consequence Vischer's paper is somewhat hampered by lack of stratigraphid information, especially on the VolgiawRyazanian-Va- langinian part of the sequence. Though very detailed and comprehensive, Maync's papers contain no descriptions or illustrations of fossils, and exact biostratigraphical ages are therefore unknown. Furthermore, his stratigraphical nomenclature is not systematic, chan- ging through his papers from a mainly lithostratigraphic to a bio- or even chronostrati- graphic emphasis. Spath (1952) published a new ammonite genus of Ryazanian age collect- ed by Maync in northern Wollaston Forland. Wollaston Forland was briefly visited in 1952 by A. J. Standring and E. W. Roberts, in 1956 by F. Perrenoud and D. Roy and in 1957 by D. T. Donovan who also visited south-west Kuhn 0. The Volgian and Ryazanian ammonites collected by these geologists were described by Donovan in 1964. Results of the recent field work have heen published on the stratigraphy (Surlyk & Clemmensen, 1975a; Sykes & Surlyk, 1976; Surlyk, 1977) and sedimentology (Surlyk, 1975a, b; Surlyk & Clemmensen, 1975h. in press; Clemmensen & Surlyk, 1976) of the Jurassic and early Cretaceous sediments. T ~ P ~ W P ~ Y Jurassic and early Lower Cretaceous rocks crop out between 74'N and 7550'N on north-east Clavering 0, on Wollaston Forland, on the east and west coasts of Kuhn 0 and along a narrow coastal strip on Th. Thomsen Land (fig. 3, plate 9). Between the areas of sedimentary rocks are nortksouth trending ridges of Caledonian crystalline basement con- stituting the elevated eastern margins of tilted fault blocks. The highest parts of southern Kuhn 0, north-east Clavering 0 and large pans of Wollaston Forland are covered by almost horizontal Tertiary plateau basalts. The sedimentary rocks of Th. Thomsen Land are exposed as a narrow, low-lying, down-faulted strip along the coast. The topographically highest situated sedimentary rocks occur at the south-east point of the peninsula at about 400 m altitude, whereas the remain- ing sections are situated almost at sea-level. Degree of exposure is poor and the outcrops are difficult to find mainly because of coverage by solifluction or Quaternary deposits. On the east coast of Kuhn 0 the rocks occur in a triangular-shaped down-faulted area. The almost north-south trending fault scarp is a very prominent morphological feature as it separates the even, low relief sedimentary plateau to the east from the jagged, alpine Caledonian crystalline rocks to the west, which are more than 1000 m high. Tke eastern plateau is totally wvered with Quaternary deposits, and good exposures of Upper Jurassic - Lower Cretaceous mudstones are confied to the beach and to a few valleys leading to the beach. The surface of the Caledonian basement was peneplaned and tilted to the west-south-west in pre-Bathonian time and Jurassic rocks are consequently found on the gently sloping surface of the basement. These areas have a rounded, smooth topography and the sediments are mainly wvered by solifluction material or by scree from overlying plateau hasalts. Good exposures are found at the head of Payers Dal on the south coast, but elsewhere the sediments are relatively poorly exposed. The highest summits, Bernbjerg and Baselbjerg, reach altitudes of about 800 m and are covered by thin plateau basalts. East of Payers Dal Jurassic sediments are preserved on three summits all reaching about 1000 m and topped by plateau basalts. On the southernmost peak, Kingofjeld, good sections are found almost from the valley bottom to the base of the basalts at about 840 m. Wollaston Forland is generally low lying and poorly exposed. Only in the north-west part do a few valleys show magnificent and often very steep exposures through Volgian-Ryaza- niau rocks. Cardiocerasdal to the south-west at Young Sund also shows extremely well exposed sections through Bathonian to Aptian sediments. Central and eastern Wollaston Forland is low and wet and contains poorly exposed Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous mudstones. Clavering 0 has only a small fault block containing well exposed Jurassic - early Cretace- ous sediments along the wast. Compared with the Jameson Land - Scoresby Land area in central East Geenland, the Wollaston Forlaud region is lower lying, has gentler and more rounded topography, and is covered to a considerable degree by soliiluction or Quaternary deposits. Good sections are rare and it is often very di£Iicult to follow beds between two well exposed sections. For litho- and hiostratigraphical purposes the degree of exposure is usually sufficient, whereas it is rather unsatisfactory for the purpose of detailed sedimentological studies. Fig. 3. Geological map of the Wollilston Forland area showing distribution of Caledonian basement, Palaeozoic and Mesoroic sediments, and the faults bordering the tilted fault blocks. Position of the measured sections is indicated by their number.