Neoproterozoic Stratigraphy and Provenance of Wedel Jarlsberg Land, Southwest Terrane, Spitsbergen, RiS ID 10684

This collaborative project between Dartmouth College and Norsk Polarinstitutt aims to test the hypothesis that the metasedimentary strata on Wedel Jarlsberg Land, Svalbard, record two Neoproterozoic global glaciation events - the ca. 635 Ma Marinoan and ca. 579 Ma Gaskiers glaciations. We will test this hypothesis by mapping key localities of the Neoproterozoic Sofiebogen Group on Wedel Jarlsberg Land, taking note of any sedimentological structures and the relationships between the strata. We will collect samples for geochemical and geochronological analyses that will provide relative and absolute age constraints for the strata. New age constraints and insights into the stratigraphic relationships will inform regional tectonic models for southwestern Svalbard and provide key links to similar successions in Oscar II Land, Sorkapp Land, and Prins Karl Forland.