Five slices through the Nuussuaq Basin, West Greenland

In 2006 an important milestone will be reached in the study of the three-dimensional structure and architecture of the Nuussuaq Basin in West Greenland. The fifth and last of a series of detailed geological profiles through the sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Nuussuaq Basin on Disko and Nuussuaq will be published (Fig. 1). At the same time, the last geological map at scale 1:100 000 of the basin area will be completed. These studies have been carried out over more than two decades by a group of scientists within Geocenter Copenhagen and the Technical University of Denmark. The five geological profiles are at scale 1:20 000 and have been published as coloured plates in the same format as the geological maps (Pedersen et al. 1993, 2002a, 2003, 2005, 2006). In total, the profiles cover about 500 km of cross-sections through a classic sedimentary-volcanic basin and its crystalline basement. This is one of the best exposed basins of its kind on Earth, and it serves as a reference area for studies of similar basins on the continental shelves of Greenland, north-western Europe and elsewhere.