Geologic Provinces Beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet Constrained by Geophysical Data Synthesis

Present understanding of Greenland's subglacial geology is derived mostly from interpolation of geologic mapping of its ice-free margins and unconstrained by geophysical data. Here we refine the extent of its geologic provinces by synthesizing geophysical constraints on subglacial geology from seismic, gravity, magnetic and topographic data. North of 72 degrees N, no province clearly extends across the whole island, leaving three distinct subglacial regions yet to be reconciled with margin geology. Geophysically coherent anomalies and apparent province boundaries are adjacent to the onset of faster ice flow at both Petermann Glacier and the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream. Separately, based on their subaerial expression, dozens of unusually long, straight and sub-parallel subglacial valleys cross Greenland's interior and are not yet resolved by current syntheses of its subglacial topography. The Greenland Ice Sheet obscures the rocks beneath 79% of Greenland. By necessity, scientists have relied mostly on studying the rocks exposed along Greenland's edge to understand the island's interior geology. We examine geophysical data from seismometers on the ground, satellites that measure Earth's gravity and magnetic fields and surface topography, and aircraft that measure those same properties and ice thickness. We draw a new map of Greenland's geology beneath the ice sheet by examining where those data show similar signals regarding the nature of the underlying rock, and where they could be related to mapped rock exposures. We also find evidence of some areas with geophysical expressions that are distinct from the rocks found at the island's edges. Some geologic structures, which are entirely covered by ice, may affect how ice flows from Greenland's vast interior toward its coast. Finally, we identify many valleys beneath the ice that are very long and often aligned with each other, but which are not yet fully captured in present maps of the topography beneath the ice. We produced a new synthesis of subglacial boundaries for Greenland's geologic provinces from seismic, gravity, magnetic and topography data Three subglacial regions in central and northern Greenland cannot yet be reconciled with surface-exposed geologic provinces We find evidence for a large subglacial valley network that is not fully resolved by subglacial topography syntheses for Greenland