David W Peate
Miscellanous
page maintained by
David Peate © 2007
DLC East Greenland Expedition 2000
As part of the Danish Lithosphere Centre's 2000 East Greenland expedition, I spent two weeks in the field with Kent Brooks & Morten Riishuus, to help Morten collect samples from several post-break-up syenite complexes (Kangerlussuaq Intrusion & Astrophyllite Bay Complex - ABC) for his Ph.D project on the origin of syenitic magmas. I also managed to sneak in a quick one-hour stop at the well-known Skaergaard Intrusion. Transport to this remote part of East Greenland is via a Twin Otter airplane from Isafjordur in NW Iceland to a gravel airstrip in Sødelen, close to Skaergaard, and it is very dependent on the weather: we had to wait for three days before we could fly to Sødelen.
Magmatism in the North Atlantic Large Igneous Province occured in three main episodes:
1. 62-56 Ma - Iceland mantle plume arrival(?).
2. 56-54 Ma - continental rifting.
3. 54-47 Ma - minor late-stage, mainly alkalic lavas and intrusions.
ABC complex: syenite magma between mafic pillows and gneiss
Morten extracting saw-cut profiles from mafic pillow to basement gneiss in the ABC complex
Lunch at the Kangerlussuaq Intrusion - note the contact with basement gneisses (dark) in background.
Waiting for the helicopter at the ABC field camp
Amdrup Fjord near Kangerlussuaq
Glaciers near Kangerlussuaq
Moonrise over Amdrup Fjord
Sødalen international airport 
Twin Otter plane service to Iceland 
Arctic fox scavenger at base camp