The Midland Valley as a Rift, Seen in Connection with the Late Palaeozoic European Rift System

Author(s):  
E. H. Francis
Keyword(s):  
1997 ◽  
Vol 134 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEPHEN MCLOUGHLIN ◽  
ANDREW N. DRINNAN

The Bainmedart Coal Measures constitute the middle portion of the Permian–Triassic Amery Group, which represents the only substantial Palaeozoic–Mesozoic sedimentary succession exposed in eastern Antarctica outside the Transantarctic Mountains. The coal measures disconformably or unconformably overlie alluvial fan deposits of the Radok Conglomerate and are conformably overlain by the dominantly fluviatile Flagstone Bench Formation. The coal measures were deposited within alluvial settings dominated by north to northeasterly flowing, low-sinuosity rivers chiefly confined to broad, fault-bounded, valleys of the Lambert Graben, a major late Palaeozoic to early Mesozoic failed rift system. Both climatic and local tectonic factors are considered to have been the major influences on the pattern of coal measure sedimentation. Recent mapping has identified a much greater thickness of sediments within the coal measures than had been inferred previously. The Bainmedart Coal Measures are formally subdivided into six members. In ascending stratigraphic order these are: Dart Fields Conglomerate Member (<3 m thick), Toploje Member (c. 300 m thick), Dragons Teeth Member (15–25 m thick), Glossopteris Gully Member (c. 670 m thick), Grainger Member (c. 350 m thick) and McKinnon Member (c. 530 m thick).


Author(s):  
Lars Stemmerik ◽  
Finn Dalhoff ◽  
Birgitte D. Larsen ◽  
Jens Lyck ◽  
Anders Mathiesen ◽  
...  

NOTE: This article was published in a former series of GEUS Bulletin. Please use the original series name when citing this article, for example: Stemmerik, L., Dalhoff, F., Larsen, B. D., Lyck, J., Mathiesen, A., & Nilsson, I. (1998). Wandel Sea Basin, eastern North Greenland. Geology of Greenland Survey Bulletin, 180, 55-62. https://doi.org/10.34194/ggub.v180.5086 _______________ The Wandel Sea Basin in eastern North Greenland is the northernmost of a series of fault-bounded Late Palaeozoic – Early Tertiary basins exposed along the eastern and northern margin of Greenland (Fig. 1). The basin and the surrounding shelf areas are located in a geologically complex region at the junction between the N–S trending Caledonian fold belt in East Greenland and the E–W trending Ellesmerian fold belt in North Greenland, and along the zone of later, Tertiary, continental break-up. The Wandel Sea Basin started to develop during the Carboniferous as a result of extension and rifting between Greenland and Norway, and Greenland and Spitsbergen (Håkansson & Stemmerik 1989), and was an area of accumulation during the Early Carboniferous – Early Tertiary period. Two main epochs of basin evolution have been recognised during previous studies of the basin fill: an early (late Palaeozoic – early Triassic) epoch characterised by a fairly simple system of grabens and half-grabens, and a late (Mesozoic) epoch dominated by strike-slip movements (Håkansson & Stemmerik 1989). The Mesozoic epoch only influenced the northern part of the basin, north of the Trolle Land fault zone (Fig. 1). Thus the northern and southern parts of the basin have very different structural and depositional histories, and accordingly different thermal histories and hydrocarbon potential. This paper summarises the results of a project supported by Energy Research Program (EFP-94), the purpose of which was to model the Wandel Sea Basin with special emphasis on hydrocarbon potential and late uplift history, and to provide biostratigraphic and sedimentological data that could improve correlation with Svalbard and the Barents Sea. It is mainly based on material collected during field work in Holm Land and Amdrup Land in the south-eastern part of the Wandel Sea Basin during 1993–1995 with additional data from eastern Peary Land (Stemmerik et al. 1996). Petroleum related field studies have concentrated on detailed sedimentological and biostratigraphic studies of the Carboniferous–Permian Sortebakker, Kap Jungersen, Foldedal and Kim Fjelde Formations in Holm Land and Amdrup Land (Fig. 2; Døssing 1995; Stemmerik 1996; Stemmerik et al. 1997). They were supplemented by a structural study of northern Amdrup Land in order to improve the understanding of the eastward extension of the Trolle Land fault system and possibly predict its influence in the shelf areas (Stemmerik et al. 1995a; Larsen 1996). Furthermore, samples for thermal maturity analysis and biostratigraphy were collected from the Mesozoic of Kap Rigsdagen and the Tertiary of Prinsesse Thyra Ø (Fig. 1).


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin J. Drenth ◽  
◽  
Raymond R. Anderson ◽  
Klaus J. Schulz ◽  
Joshua M. Feinberg ◽  
...  

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