Paleo-Stress History and Basin Evolution: Tertiary Central Basin of Spitsbergen

板块重建和早期的区域地质测绘表明，斯匹次卑尔根岛西缘的第三纪变形是挪威-格陵兰海打开期间的跨流运动的结果。这次调查将检验Nordenskioldland中央盆地古新世-始新世沉降是走滑构造直接导致的假设，这一结果目前仅从沉积学数据推断出来，尚未得到构造证据的证实。本次调查将包括对诺登斯古陆西部白垩纪和古新世单元的微、中尺度地质构造的详细测量。利用创新的微观结构分析技术，结合迭代数值计算机模拟，将确定古应力主轴的方向、相对时间和相对大小，从而记录与中央盆地形成同期的古应力场。

Plate reconstructions and earlier regional geologic, mapping have lead to the concept that the Tertiary deformation of Spitsbergen's western margin was a consequence of transcurrent motion during the opening of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea. This investigation will test the hypothesis that the Paleocene-Eocene subsidence of the Central Basin in Nordenskioldland is a direct result of strike-slip tectonics, a result so far only inferred from sedimentological data, and not yet corroborated by structural evidence. This investigation will include detailed measurement of micro- and meso-scale geologic structures in Cretaceous and Paleocene units in western Nordenskioldland. Using innovative microstructure-analysis techniques which incorporate iterative numerical computer modelling, the orientations, relative timing, and the relative magnitudes of the principal axes of the paleostress will be determined thus documenting paleo-stress fields coeval with the formation of the Central Basin.