LANCASTER SOUND SHIPBORNE MAGNETOMETER SURVEY

Abstract

The total magnetic field and the depth of water were measured along a ship's track of about 1 000 nautical miles during a shipborne magnetometer survey in Lancaster Sound and Baffin Bay in the eastern part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.Several magnetic anomalies on the extreme northern and southern boundaries of Lancaster Sound as well as to the east of Devon Island in Baffin Bay are characteristic of near-surface features. There is little magnetic relief in the center of the sound. The intensity of the total field decreases from south to north and then rises sharply immediately south of Devon Island. This sharp rise trends northeasterly in Baffin Bay.Several features are indicated by these data; (1) a near-surface basement on Devon and Baffin Islands, (2) a basement flexure north of Baffin Island, the whole of Lancaster Sound being downwarped with vertical movement of as much as 8 km in the north, (3) a regional fault extending along the south coast of Devon Island and trending northeast in Baffin Bay.It is concluded that this half-graben structure in. Lancaster Sound may be associated with a postulated median ridge between Greenland and North America.