The principal objective of drilling on Transect EG68 was to recover lavas from the East Greenland shelf immediately offshore of the subaerial Paleogene flood province. Such drilling would allow the onshore Paleogene lava stratigraphy to be extended into the zone of seaward-dipping reflectors interpreted as mature ocean crust. Drilling targets were initially selected from two areas along the north-northeast–trending seismic Line DLC9724 (Fig. F1). The first target (inner area) was located in the region of smooth ground close to the coast and within the feather edge of the seaward-dipping reflector sequence (Fig. F2). Based on extrapolated lava flow orientations, we predicted that basalts recovered from this region would overlap with the highest stratigraphic levels of the subaerially exposed succession (i.e., Skrænterne Formation). The second target area (outer area) was located southeast along the DLC9724 seismic profile immediately landward of the clearly resolved consolidated sediment wedge onlapping the seaward-dipping lavas (Fig. F2). Lavas of the latest magnetic Chrons C24r–C23r (i.e., 53–51 Ma) could possibly be exposed in this area, but the magnetic zones and the detailed plate kinematics are poorly constrained (cf. Fig. F6). Drilling in this area was intended to sample the stratigraphically youngest lavas of the main seaward-dipping sequence not covered by the thick sediments on the outer shelf.
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