Tectonic evolution of the Wandel Sea Basin, Eastern North Greenland: Insights from structural data, detrital zircons geochronology, mineralogy, fluid inclusions, vitrinite reflectance and conodont color alteration index

The Wandel Sea Basin (WSB) in eastern North Greenland is represented by a Late Paleozoic-Mesozoic rock succession unconformably overlying Caledonian tectonic units. In Peary Land major NE-dipping normal faults cut through the basin and separate it in two sectors. In the Whyckoff Land sector towards the North-East, the WSB succession unconformably covers Paleoproterozoic quarzites and is folded and metamorphosed up to lower amphibolite facies. In the Herluf Trolle Land sector of the south-western part, the WSB succession is undeformed, non-mature and unconformably onto Silurian flysch and carbonatic rocks. Campanian detrital zircons in the Herlufsholm Strand Formation indicate a possible correlation of this area with the Late Cretaceous volcanism of Kap Washington and constrain the peak metamorphism to the Maastrichtian-Early Paleocene. The Late Paleocene-Early Eocene Thyra Ø Formation post-dates the folding and the paleostress obtained from fault-slip inversion along major normal faults indicates tectonic inversion with compression followed by strike-slip faulting.