In North Greenland, the E–W-trending Harder Fjord Fault Zone represents a major lineament
which cuts through Cambrian to Silurian deep-water sediments of the Franklinian Basin over a
distance of 300 km. On both sides of the fault zone, these successions were affected by two stages of
folding (F1, F2) during Devonian to Early Carboniferous (Ellesmerian) deformation. No field evidence
was found that the Harder Fjord Fault Zone was active prior to Ellesmerian folding. Early
movements along the fault zone are indicated by post-Ellesmerian sedimentation of coarse red-beds
(Depot Bugt conglomerate) which represent the oldest of the Wandel Sea Basin sediments. They were
probably deposited in narrow, fault-controlled (?)Late Carboniferous basins similar to those described
from Svalbard. During Late Cretaceous times, 500 m thick fluvial and marine clastic sediments were
unconformably deposited over the folded Cambro-Ordovician units. Although no direct field evidence
suggests that sedimentation was controlled by displacements along the Harder Fjord Fault Zone, the
intrusion of Upper Cretaceous mafic sills and dykes indicates a phase of important crustal extension
related to reactivation of the fault zone during this period of time. This stage was followed by post-late
Santonian (Eurekan) N–S compression (D3) which affected the Franklinian Basin deposits, Wandel
Sea Basin sediments and mafic intrusions. In general, it was concentrated along the Harder Fjord
Fault Zone and probably caused the reactivation of pre-existing (?)Carboniferous and younger fault
lines. The entire deformation and its timing are comparable with the Eurekan structures found at the
Kap Cannon Thrust Zone in northernmost Greenland and are related to intracontinental compression
prior to the separation of Svalbard from Greenland.