NOTES ON THE ROCKS OF NUGSUAKS PENINSULA 

 AND ITS ENVIRONS, GREENLAND 



By W. C. PHALEN 

 Part I 



INTRODUCTION 



The rocks which prompted the following study were collected 

 by Messrs. Chas. Schuchert and David White on Nugsuaks 

 peninsula and its environ, Umanak island, during the summer of 

 1897. It will be recalled^ that the object of the excursion of the 

 above named gentlemen was primarily paleontological and strati- 

 graphical, and not petrographical, hence the field relations of the 

 rocks were not worked out with the detail demanded by the student 

 of petrography. When it is understood, moreover, that but twenty- 

 three days were at the disposal of these travelers for the pursuit of 

 the legitimate object of their trip, it will be evident that but little 

 time could be devoted to side issues. 



" Nugsuaks peninsula . . . lies somewhat obliquely between 

 69° 55' and 70° 57' north. From the nearest point between 

 Karajaks fjord and Torsukatak glacier at its base to the western 

 extremity is about 90 miles, the width for nearly two-thirds of its 

 extent being 30 miles. The Cretaceous and Tertiary deposits con- 

 stitute the western two-thirds of the peninsula, the Tertiary sedi- 

 ments continuing to near its western extremity. The interior of 

 the peninsula is either covered by local ice caps or is unexplored, so 

 that, with the exception of Ifsorisok, an inland point near the western 

 end of the peninsula, the Cretaceous and Tertiary have been seen 

 only beneath the basalt along the coast or along two short river 

 valleys."- For all practical purposes Umanak island may be con- 

 sidered a portion of this peninsula, and, geologically speaking, con- 

 tinuous with the mainland lying to the south ; hence its sedimen- 

 taries, if such exist, must be of lower Cretaceous age, belonging to 

 the Kome series. It is a very smallbody of land, lying directly 

 northeast of Kook, the point where the Greenland expedition landed, 



' See Bulletin Geol. Soc. Amcr., ix, p. 344, 1897-98. 

 2 Ibid., p. 345- 



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