Re-exposed basement landforms in the Disko region, West Greenland - disregarded data for estimation of glacial erosion and uplift modelling

Classifications of large-scale landscapes in Greenland have traditionally been based on type and intensity of glacial erosion, with the general idea that present landforms are mainly the result of erosion from ice sheets and glaciers. However, on southern Disko and in areas offshore in Disko Bugt, a basement surface has preserved remnants of weathered gneiss and pre-Paleocene landforms, recently exhumed from Paleocene basalt. Isolated hills and lineaments have been mapped in a digital terrain model and aerial photographs. Offshore have hills been mapped from seismic lines. The medium size bedrock forms on southern Disko as tors, clefts and roche moutonees have been studied in the field. Remnant saprolites were inventoried, sampled and analysed according to gain size and clay mineralogy. The basement surface retains saprolites up to 8 m thick in close relation to the cover rocks. The landforms in the basement rocks belong essentially to an etched surface only slightly remodelled by glacial erosion and, below the highest coastline, also by wave action. The outline of hills is governed by two lineament directions, ENE-WSW representing the schistocity of the gneiss and NW-SE fracture zones. These structures are thus interpreted to have been exploited by the deep weathering while the frequent N-S lineaments have not and thus might be younger. Main ice-flow has been from the NE and has resulted in plucking of SW facing lee sides, however the resulting bedrock forms are mainly controlled by structures and orientation of joints. The identification of re-exposed sub-Paleocene etch forms on Disko and the hills of similar size offshore, forming a hilly relief, have implications for identification of a hilly relief south of Disko Bugt, its relation to younger planation surfaces as well as for conclusions of uplift events. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.