Geology and physiography of the continental margin north of Alaska and implications for the origin of the Canada Basin

Origin of the Lisburne Hills–Herald Arch structural belt: Stratigraphic, structural, and fission-track evidence from the Cape Lisburne area, northwestern Alaska

“…Using single-channel seismic data from the Chukchi Sea northwest of the Lisburne Peninsula, Grantz et al (1970) mapped foreland structures related to the Brooks Range orogen that appear to be truncated or deformed by the Herald thrust zone. Grantz et al (1970Grantz et al ( , 1975Grantz et al ( , 1981 interpreted this relation as evidence that the Lisburne Hills-Herald Arch is a separate, younger fold and thrust belt that transects the Brooks Range orogen. On the basis of regional relations, however, Tailleur and Brosgé (1970) and Patton and Tailleur (1977) suggested that the Lisburne PeninsulaHerald Arch is the simple extension of the Brooks Range orogen that was later rotated into its present transverse trend by major oroclinal bending at the Chukchi syntaxis.…”

“…extends northward for ∼50 km on land and is thought to then continue offshore to the northwest as the Herald and Wrangel Arches for an additional 800 km (Grantz et al, 1975). The Lisburne Peninsula-Herald Arch-Wrangel Arch structural trend is bound on the northeast by southwest-dipping faults, including the Herald fault zone of Grantz et al (1970Grantz et al ( , 1975Grantz et al ( , 1981, and commonly is thought to be related to crustal shortening between North America and Eurasia in the late Mesozoic or early Cenozoic (e.g., Patton and Tailleur, 1977;Grantz et al, 1991). The nature of the intersection of the two orogenic belts, termed the Chukchi syntaxis , is uncertain because the intersection is offshore in the southeastern Chukchi Sea beneath younger deposits of the Hope Basin.…”

Crustal structure across the Bering Strait, Alaska: Onshore recordings of a marine seismic survey

“…Some models link development of the Herald Arch to the formation of the Brooks Range (Middle Jurassic to middle Cretaceous), but the northwest-southeast orientation of the arch has led to speculation that it postdates the orogenic events of the western Brooks Range (Late Cretaceous to Tertiary). In addition, indications are that the Herald Arch predates the Hope Basin, which contains Eocene and younger sediments, thus further deµning the age of formation (e.g., Patton and Tailleur, 1977;Grantz et al, 1970Grantz et al, , 1981Tolson, 1987). Moore et al (1994) proposed two orogenic events in the Brooks Range, one Jurassic and/or Early Cretaceous age and the other Late Cretaceous age.…”