The Neoproterozoic Era is the unit of geologic time from 1,000 to 541 million years ago. The Neoproterozoic Arctic Connection (NAC) project aims at investigating the possible links between the Neoproterozoic crust that crops out in southwestern Svalbard and northern Ellesmere Island. These two crustal elements, now separated by the opening of the North Atlantic and perhaps earlier strike-slip displacements, may once have formed parts of a continuous terrane that extended along the northernmost margin of Greenland and Canada to Alaska.
The researchers will collect rock samples at the Ylverton Inlet on northern Ellersmere Island. Collected samples will be a subject of various microchemical and isotopic analyses.
The expedition is organised by the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR).
Swedish participant
Jaroslaw Majka
Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University