The stratigraphy and structure of the Hecla Hoek formation and its relationship to a subjacent metamorphic complex in North-East Land (Spitsbergen)

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Abstract
Summary: The stratigraphical succession of the lower part of the Hecla Hoek Formation in North-East Land, previously known in regions separated one from another, is co-ordinated. The geology of Prins Oscars Land (Rrjps Peninsula), where A, E. Nordenskiöld made observations nearly a hundred years ago, is described and interpreted for the first time. Except for eastward thinning out of basal volcanic and pyroclastic rocks, and their replacement by argillaceous beds, there are few facies changes; thicknesses remain fairly consistent across the strike for some sixty miles. The upper part of the formation is present only in north-western part of North-East Land and beneath the West Ice. The sediments are thrown into successive plunging folds, which end in the east against a newly identified fracture belt, here called the Dove Bay fault, with strike parallel to the fold axes. The structure of the metamorphic complex beneath the Hecla Hoek Formation is totally at variance with that of the overlying sediments, and the Dove Bay fault cuts the complex transversely. Verification of the disjunctive relationship of the Hecla Hoek sediments to the surface of the metamorphic complex, described in an earlier paper, is evident. The stratigraphical and structural relationships of the unmetamorphosed Pre-Cambrian-Lower Palaeozoic Hecla Hoek with the metamorphic complex of the Barents Shield in North-East Land present analogies with those known in Norway and Great Britain, but the subject is not elaborated here.

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