The Cretaceous to Eocene: a biostratigraphical review and a new detailed palynostratigraphy of Greenland and adjacent areas

Abstract

The present paper compile and correlate for the first time Cretaceous to Eocene palynostratigraphies across the Arctic. It focus on Greenland and adjacent areas, including the Labrador–Baffin Seaway, onshore Nuussuaq Basin in central West Greenland, onshore southern East Greenland, central East Greenland, North-East Greenland, eastern North Greenland and the Danmarkshavn Basin, but also extends to Canadian Arctic Archipelago and the Barents Sea region off Norway. The paper compile data from more than three decades of detailed Arctic palynological analyses, based mainly on dinoflagellate cysts. The paper gives a historical overview of the Cretaceous to Palaeogene paleontological studies of Greenland and presents an overview of 85 palynological intervals and numerous events. The palynological assemblages from the Labrador–Baffin Seaway, Nuussuaq Basin and north-east Baffin Bay reflect the opening of the Labrador–Baffin Seaway from brackish to freshwater environment in a large embayment in the Early Cretaceous to an open marine seaway in the Late Cretaceous. Assemblages reveal in dinoflagellate cyst provincialism between the opening stages of the Labrador–Baffin Seaway and the already opened Greenland–Norwegian–Barents seaway. The Upper Cretaceous global Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2) spanning the Cenomanian/Turonian boundary is recognised from Arctic Canada, north-east Baffin Bay, Nuussuaq Basin in central West Greenland, and North-East Greenland, and is mapped and correlated based on dinoflagellate cyst stratigraphy and carbon isotope (δ¹³C_org) curves. The dinoflagellate cysts assemblages of the Cretaceous/Palaeogene boundary are correlated from the Labrador Sea across to the Nuussuaq Basin in central West Greenland; in both areas the earliest Danian palynological assemblage is represented by incoming warm-water species. The presence of the global Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) in the Palaeogene successions in North-East Greenland and in exploration wells in the Labrador–Baffin Seaway is indicated by the incoming of the warm-water dinoflagellate cyst species Axiodinium augustum.

Key word:

• Arctic biostratigraphy
• Cretaceous–Eocene
• Detailed palynozonation
• Dinoflagellate cysts
• Greenland

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Henrik Nøhr-Hansen

HENRIK NØHR-HANSEN was employed as a senior research geologist by the Geological Survey of Greenland/Geological survey of Denmark and Greenland (GGU/GEUS), Copenhagen from 1984 to 2022 and is now emeritus at GEUS. He has more than 38 years professional experience as a palynologist and stratigrapher undertaking both research and commercial tasks for oil- geotechnical companies and the Greenlandic home government. Henrik is specialised in palynology, biostratigraphy and correlation of Cretaceous – Palaeogene successions from on- and offshore Greenland, Arctic Canada, offshore eastern Canada, offshore Norway, offshore Faroe Islands and offshore Denmark. He has previously worked on Kimmeridge Clay in UK, the K/T boundary and petroleum geology of North Greenland and spent 17 summer’s duing fieldwork in East, West and North Greenland, including one on board Joides Resolution. Henrik holds M.Sc. (1984), Ph.D. (1991) and Dr. scient. (2022) degrees from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.