Franklinian Geosyncline

Franklinian Geosyncline, a linear trough in the Earth’s crust in which rocks of Paleozoic and Late Proterozoic age—about 600 million to 350 million years old—were deposited along the northern border of North America, from the northern coast of Greenland on the east, through the Arctic Islands of Canada, probably as far as northern Alaska to the west. Eugeosynclinal rocks (those of volcanic or deepwater character) are exposed in northern Ellesmere Island; elsewhere all exposed rocks are miogeosynclinal in character—generally shallow-water sandstones and limestones. Deformation of the geosyncline probably began in the Devonian Period (about 416 million to 359 million years ago) in the interior of the geosyncline, accompanied by scattered igneous intrusions, and continued into the Mississippian or Early Pennsylvanian subperiods (from 359 million to about 300 million years ago) in the miogeosyncline. The term Innuitian System is applied to the various fold belts developed in the Arctic Islands as a result of this deformation.