Pre-ocean opening compression of the Northwestern Atlantic margin: evidence from eastern North Greenland

The deformation of the Wandel Sea Basin of eastern North Greenland and the West Spitsbergen Fold Belt are the result of Late Cretaceous-Palaeocene Greenland-Barents Sea/Svalbard convergence following the opening of the Labrador Sea-Baffin Bay opening. The Tertiary rocks of the Wandel Sea Basin are undeformed while the Late Palaeozoic-Mesozoic are weakly folded and thrust faulted. Thrust fault movements in North Greenland ceased before Mid-Palaeocene time when the dextral motion separating Greenland and Svalbard began. The shortening was orthogonal to the continental margin and a transpressional origin for the deformation of the Wandel Sea basin is not confirmed.