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Reactivation history of the long-lived Billefjorden Fault Zone in north central Spitsbergen, Svalbard

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Andrew J. McCann  and
Winfried K. Dallmann
Andrew J. McCann
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK
Winfried K. Dallmann
Affiliation:
Norsk Polarinstitutt, Middelthuns gate 29, Postboks 5072 Majorstua, N-0301 Oslo, Norway
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Abstract

New geological mapping has revealed further details of the tectonic and stratigraphic effects of Devonian and later reactivations of the Billefjorden Fault Zone, one of a number of important north—south trending lineaments in Svalbard. Analysis of offsets along the many steeply-dipping faults within the zone, and effects on the subsidence and deformation of the adjacent crustal blocks, is presented as a series of tectonic maps from the Late Devonian through to the Tertiary. Late Devonian sinistral transpression, suggested previously, cannot be ruled out, and Carboniferous reactivation was dominated by extension, with possibly a slight dextral strike-slip component. After Late Carboniferous to Early Cretaceous platform subsidence, during which the fault zone had little effect on sedimentation, development of the Tertiary West Spitsbergen Fold Belt (related to the opening of the Arctic Ocean) involved compressive (and transpressive?) reactivation of basement-seated structures further east, including the Billefjorden Fault Zone. In the Billefjorden—Austfjorden area this produced a large monoclinal fold across the fault zone, which was later cross-cut by extensional structures to produce the present day Billefjorden syncline. This localized late extension is related to a slight variation in the trend of the Billefjorden Fault Zone through this area.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 133 , Issue 1 , January 1996 , pp. 63 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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