The karst and palaeokarst of North and North-East Greenland – physical records of cryptic geological intervals

Carbonate rocks of Neoproterozoic to Silurian age are abundantly distributed around the coasts North and North-East Greenland. Palaeokarst horizons particularly well developed within Portfjeld Formation (Ediacaran – earliest Cambrian) beneath Buen (Cambrian Series 2), there caves Ordovician limestones infilled by Caledonian molasse Middle Devonian age. The youngest karst is a series from Hall Land in western Greenland Kronprins Christian eastern Caves carbonates Freuchen currently northernmost documented globally. mainly open phreatic conduits, any fill that present unlithified, cave collapse limited minor breakdown associated with frost shattering. These geologically young consistently located up few 100 m distinctive plateau characterises topography northern coast, their identical context suggests they single phase speleogenesis. exposed where has been incised outlet glaciers ice sheet. timing development constrained mid- late-Miocene (15–5 Ma) uplift surface onset fjord-forming glaciation latest Pliocene Pleistocene (c. 2.7–2.5 Ma). evidence southern part Greenland, on C. H. Ostenfeld Nunatak, broadly similar offer glimpse large-scale drainage systems below an uplifted coastal peneplain during Neogene time. They preserve important geological history otherwise absent physical record.