The Keisarhjelmen detachment records Silurian–Devonian extensional collapse in Northern Svalbard

Abstract

At the junction of the Atlantic and Arctic margins, the crustal-scale Keisarhjelmen detachment of north-west Svalbard records previously unrecognised magnitudes of extension. The detachment separates a corrugated metamorphic core complex in the footwall from a mantling Devonian supradetachment basin in the hangingwall. The detachment has a top-N displacement of more than 50 km, which is aligned with the map-scale corrugations, and an upwards ductile to brittle transition with shear related footwall retrogression. This configuration has striking similarities to extensional collapse detachments in the paired Scandinavian–Greenland Caledonides, but orientation and position link the detachment with the Ellesmerian orogen.