CASE 16 Ellesmere Island (Smith Sound, Canadian Arctic)
Report of the project:
Between June 13 and July 26, 2014, a team of 15 geoscientists and logistic personnel carried out geoscientific fieldwork (CASE 16) in the Canadian Arctic. The study area was located within a radius of 150 km around the base camp at Flagler Bay at 79°15‘ north. A helicopter was used to move the scientists to the target areas.
Working area CASE 16 (red box)
Source: BGR
Major goal of CASE 16 was the verification of a large, more than 1,000 km long fracture zone between Greenland and Ellesmere Island (Wegener Fault). The evolution of this fault is connected with the formation and opening of the Arctic Ocean, during the break-up of the ancient continent Laurasia to form the present continents of Eurasia and North America. These processes started approximately 90 million years ago leading to the openings of the Arctic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the separation of Greenland and Svalbard and finally to the appearance of the Gulf Stream and the present climatic situation in Europe.
Ice laguna at the east coast of Ellesmere Island
Source: BGR
The understanding of the Earth’s geodynamic and plate tectonic processes are also of importance with regard to the occurrence of possible natural resources. Geological data and plate tectonic reconstruction of ancient continents help to understand the evolution of the large sedimentary basins on the circum-Arctic passive continental margins. Such sedimentary basins are often candidates for large petroleum and natural gas fields. According to studies by the USGS, more than 25% of the worldwide occurrences of undiscovered hydrocarbon reservoirs are assumed to be located in the Arctic. However, these estimations are based on indirect statistic calculations only since wide areas of the Arctic shelves and landmasses are still largely under-explored, and therefore, resilient assessment on the number of petroleum and natural gas occurrences are uncertain.
Mineral resources occur in the Arctic, too. In the light of a high demand of, e.g., rare earths, the Arctic will probably play a more important role concerning the prospection for possible mineral deposits. However, similar to the energy resources, wide areas of the Arctic are not adequately examined to obtain reliable predictions on mineral occurrences. In this respect, the research activities of BGR geoscientists and their national and international colleagues from geological surveys and university institutions can provide important basic geological information to both the raw material potential and the environmental conditions of the Arctic region.