Thermochronology data suggest Eocene high-latitude rapid exhumation and topography formation. Enhanced exhumation of northern Ellesmere Island occurred ~67-59 Ma, ~55-48 Ma, 44-38 Ma, and 34-26 Ma. These exhumation periods largely correlate with changes of spreading rates and movement directions of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea. Main topographic growth along the Eurekan belt was temporally coincident with deposition of ice-rafted debris off eastern Greenland. We suggest that Eurekan topography growth was an important trigger for glacier formation in Greenland. Exhumation of northern Ellesmere Island was episodic and was presumably controlled by strike-slip movements along the De Geer Fracture Zone between Svalbard and Greenland. The cessation of rapid exhumation at ~26 Ma can be explained by continental separation between Greenland and Svalbard, which decoupled northern Ellesmere Island from strike-slip movements along the De Geer Fracture Zone, eventually leading to the opening of the Fram Strait.

Supplement to: Vamvaka, Agni; Pross, Jörg; Monien, Patrick; Piepjohn, Karsten; Estrada, Solveig; Lisker, Frank; Spiegel, Cornelia (2019): Exhuming the top end of North America: Episodic evolution of the Eurekan belt and its potential relationships to North Atlantic plate tectonics and Arctic climate change. Tectonics, 38(12), 4207-4228