BGS Hosted Metadata
GEUS Geology of Greenland
Part of the digital version of Geological map of Greenland 1 : 2 500 000 (Escher, J.C. and Pulvertaft, T.C.R. 1995). Available in this OGC WMS service for personal, non-commercial use only and being served as a contribution to the OneGeology initiative(www.onegeology.org). Separate layers for unit polygons, contacts, and linearments are available in this service. The layer titles are geology, contacts and lines respectively.
The geological development of Greenland spans a period of 4 Ga, from the earliest Archaean to the Quaternary. Greenland is the largest island in the world with a total area of 2 166 000 km, but only c. 410 000 km are exposed bedrock, the remaining part being covered by an inland ice cap reaching over 3 km in thickness.
Greenland is dominated by crystalline rocks of the Precambrian shield, formed during a succession of Archaean and early Proterozoic orogenic events which stabilised as a part of the Laurentian shield about 1600 Ma ago. The shield area can be divided into three distinct basement provinces: (1) Archaean rocks (3100-2600 Ma old, with local older units), almost unaffected by Proterozoic or later orogenic activity; (2) Archaean terranes reworked during the early Proterozoic around 1850 Ma ago; and (3) terranes mainly composed of juvenile early Proterozoic rocks (2000-1750 Ma old).
Subsequent geological developments mainly took place along the margins of the shield. During the later Proterozoic and throughout the Phanerozoic major sedimentary basins formed, notably in North and North-East Greenland, and in places accumulated sedimentary successions which reached 10-15 km in thickness. Palaeozoic orogenic belts, the Ellesmerian fold belt of North Greenland, and the East Greenland Caledonides, affected parts of these successions; the latter also incorporates reworked Precambrian crystalline basement complexes.
Upper Palaeozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary basins developed along the continent-ocean margins in North, East and West Greenland and are now preserved both onshore and offshore. Their development was closely related to continental break-up with formation of rift basins. Initial rifting in East Greenland in latest Devonian to earliest Carboniferous time and succeeding phases culminated with the opening of the North Atlantic in the late Paleocene. Sea-floor spreading was accompanied by extrusion of Tertiary plateau basalts in both central West and central East Greenland.
In the legend a distinction has been made between rocks older and younger than 1600 Ma. In the older group, which mainly comprises crystalline rocks of the stable Precambrian Greenland shield, the rock units are distinguished according to their lithology and age; the extent of regional tectono-metamorphic provinces is also depicted. Developments younger than 1600 Ma are shown in relation to the formation of sedimentary basins and orogenic belts along the margins of the stable shield. The principal subdivision depicted on the map illustrates the general depositional environment, age and extent of the main sedimentary and volcanic basins and, in the Franklinian Basin in North Greenland, the overall depositional setting. Younger crystalline gneisses and plutonic rocks are distinguished by lithology, and age of orogenic formation and emplacement.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Revision)
- 2010-01-11T11:35:22
- Citation identifier
- onegeology-geonetwork.brgm.fr/geonetwork3/srv/metadata/4e843ae23580ef60717f677fa289b646a96889bb
- Status
- Completed
- Point of contact
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Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland
Jørgen Tulstrup
Point of contact
- Theme
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OneGeology
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Geology
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Map
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Bedrock
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Age
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Greenland
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- Service Type
- OGC:WMS
- Service Version
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1.1.1
- Fees
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none
- Use limitation
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The data published on this service are and remain the sole property of The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS). This means that all rights, including but not limited to copyrights, patent and other intellectual property vest in GEUS. No proprietary rights whatsoever are transferred to the User. GEUS disclaims any responsibility for the quality of the Data and the applicability of the Data to the User's purposes. Therefore, GEUS does not assume any liability in respect of the consequences of the use of the Data, whether the consequences are caused by defects or shortcomings of the Data, the UserÂ’s handling or use of the Data, or by any other reason.
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- Coupled Resource
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Operation Name Scoped name Identifier GetMap
GRL_GEUS_2500k_LIN 5932ee71-302c-4c79-92c9-a1d33b75d37d
GetMap
GRL_GEUS_2500k_CON aa60adff-0f79-4c62-b833-4b275d61eda9
GetMap
GRL_GEUS_2500k_GEO 9944a954-4552-417c-a7b5-d4134756d855
- Coupling Type
- Tight
- Contains Operations
- Reference system identifier
- EPSG / 4326
- Distribution format
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Name Version
- OnLine resource
- Hierarchy level
- Service
Attributes
Metadata
- File identifier
- 4e843ae23580ef60717f677fa289b646a96889bb XML
- Metadata language
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eng
- Character set
- UTF8
- Hierarchy level
- Service
- Date stamp
- 2017-05-30T09:43:46
- Metadata standard name
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ISO 19119/2005
- Metadata standard version
-
1.0
- Metadata author
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Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland
Jørgen Tulstrup
Point of contact
