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.