Myggbukta and Kap Broer Ruys: the Most Northerly of the East Greenland Tertiary Igneous Centres(?)

B. G. J. Upton, C. H. Emeleus, R. D. Beckinsale and R. M. Macintyre
Department of Geology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JW
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE
British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Notts NG12 5GG
Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 0QU

Abstract: The Myggbukta Complex is a shallowly dissected central volcano superimposed on the early Tertiary Plateau Basalts of NE Greenland. This, and the Kap Broer Ruys centre, 30 km to the east, appear to be the most northerly central complexes of the North Atlantic Tertiary Province. The Myggbukta Complex comprises a suite of extrusions and minor intrusions ranging from picritic basalt to potassic rhyolite: most of the suite appears related by relatively low pressure (< 10 kbar) crystal fractionation. A small rise in initial 87Sr/86Sr (0.70593) with silica content is attributed to minor contamination through crustal anatexis. A basic dyke-swarm associated with the complex, precedes it and shows more limited differentiation. The basalts of the dyke-swarm and the Myggbukta Complex are genetically intimately related to the lavas forming the upper part of the earlier plateau basalt succession (UPLS). It is proposed that a large shield volcano developed some 100 km west of the developing spreading centre (Mohns/Aegir ridge), of which the UPLS, the dyke-swarm and the Myggbukta Complex represent three successive evolutionary stages. A generalized increase in differentiation through time can be recognized from one stage to the next. The acid intrusions of the Kap Broer Ruys area are probably also largely residues of basalt fractionation like their Myggbukta counterparts. However, higher initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios (0.70625–0.71034) imply a greater degree of crustal contamination.

Mineralogical Magazine; September 1984 v. 48; no. 348; p. 323-343; DOI: 10.1180/minmag.1984.048.348.03
© 1984, The Mineralogical Society
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