Page:Report of the Second Norwegian Arctic Expedition in the "Fram," 1898-1902 (volume 4).djvu/488

 1898-1902. No. 36.] SUMMARY OF GEOLOGICAL RESULTS. 19 ,,After the various formations spoken of were laid down in horizontal strata, those regions were subjected to disturbances of a radical character. The horizontal strata were folded by lateral pressure, which gave rise to a system of vertical fissures, whereby the Earth's surface became divided into a number of small plateau-like areas, some of which, relatively to their surroundings, have subsided, while others have been uplifted. Hence, it has come about that, while the sea has again overflowed some of them, others are in part elevated above it, as in Ellesmere Land, Hei- berg Land, Ringnes Land, etc. Thus the small plateaus nearest the sea in, for example, Turn-again Fjord and the interior of Bay's Fjord, in the vicinity of the great Archaean tableland (horst) of Ellesmere Land, have E x^ W Jliver Pre-Cambrian Cambrian or Or- dovician limestone Fig. 2. Sketch showing a sunk bit of land in the Twin Glacier Valley, on the south side of Buchanan Bay. From SCHEI'S diary. again become suspended. The tektonic movements would seem to have concentrated their energy in the immediate vicinity of Eureka Sound. In both places the plateaus are relatively small, and the effects of the distur- bance correspondingly more evident. The dip of the strata is often 50 to 60. The circumstance, already alluded to, that there is a great developement of intrusive rocks along the line of Eureka Sound, is no doubt connected with the fact that that same line was the scene of the greatest disturbances. The subsidence has spread outwards from the neighbourhood of the great Archaean tableland; consequently, the dip in Hayes Sound and the western part of Jones Sound is towards the north- north-west. In Bear Cape Land and beside Eureka Sound, it is just as pronounced towards the south-south-east, but without actual folding. The nearest folding is met with on the north side of Greely Fjord. Other foldings were observed, with a north-east and south-west axis, in the Triassic limestones, shales, and sandstones which mark the westward continuation of the coast of Grinnell Land. But the plication is nowhere strongly marked, and disappears towards Lands Look. Although we know that it is met with in Robeson Channel 1, it does not appear to extend across to Heiberg Land. It is possible that Black Cape, Cape 1 See H. V. FEILDEN and DE RANGE, ,,GeoIogy of the Coast of the Arctic Lands", in Quarterly Journal, etc., vol. XXXIV. p. 556 (London, 1878).