Petroleum prospectivity of the Canada Basin, Arctic Ocean

Grantz, Arthur; Hart, Patrick E.

doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2011.11.001

Cited by 19 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…For example, a sedimentary thickness of 7 km off Alaska occurs beneath a water depth of 3.8 km, whereas the same thickness of sediment off the Beaufort-Mackenzie margin occurs beneath a water depth of about 2.8 km. This depositional pattern manifests the different histories of sediment dispersal to the two areas (Grantz et al 2011;Houseknecht & Bird 2011;Grantz & Hart 2012). Maximum thicknesses beneath the upper Mackenzie fan and the middle slope off Alaska are between 12 and 13 km.…”

Section: Sedimentary Thickness In the Canada Basin And Southern Alphamentioning

confidence: 86%

Seismic velocities within the sedimentary succession of the Canada Basin and southern Alpha-Mendeleev Ridge, Arctic Ocean: evidence for accelerated porosity reduction?

Shimeld¹,

Li²,

Chian³

et al. 2015

Geophysical Journal International

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S U M M A R YThe Canada Basin and the southern Alpha-Mendeleev ridge complex underlie a significant proportion of the Arctic Ocean, but the geology of this undrilled and mostly ice-covered frontier is poorly known. New information is encoded in seismic wide-angle reflections and refractions recorded with expendable sonobuoys between 2007 and 2011. Velocity-depth samples within the sedimentary succession are extracted from published analyses for 142 of these records obtained at irregularly spaced stations across an area of 1.9E + 06 km 2 . The samples are modelled at regional, subregional and station-specific scales using an exponential function of inverse velocity versus depth with regionally representative parameters determined through numerical regression. With this approach, smooth, non-oscillatory velocity-depth profiles can be generated for any desired location in the study area, even where the measurement density is low. Practical application is demonstrated with a map of sedimentary thickness, derived from seismic reflection horizons interpreted in the time domain and depth converted using the velocity-depth profiles for each seismic trace. A thickness of 12-13 km is present beneath both the upper Mackenzie fan and the middle slope off of Alaska, but the sedimentary prism thins more gradually outboard of the latter region. Mapping of the observed-to-predicted velocities reveals coherent geospatial trends associated with five subregions: the Mackenzie fan; the continental slopes beyond the Mackenzie fan; the abyssal plain; the southwestern Canada Basin; and, the Alpha-Mendeleev magnetic domain. Comparison of the subregional velocity-depth models with published borehole data, and interpretation of the station-specific best-fitting model parameters, suggests that sandstone is not a predominant lithology in any of the five subregions. However, the bulk sand-to-shale ratio likely increases towards the Mackenzie fan, and the model for this subregion compares favourably with borehole data for Miocene turbidites in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The station-specific results also indicate that Quaternary sediments coarsen towards the Beaufort-Mackenzie and Banks Island margins in a manner that is consistent with the variable history of Laurentide Ice Sheet advance documented for these margins. Lithological factors do not fully account for the elevated velocity-depth trends that are associated with the southwestern Canada Basin and the Alpha-Mendeleev magnetic domain. Accelerated porosity reduction due to elevated palaeo-heat flow is inferred for these regions, which may be related to the underlying crustal types or possibly volcanic

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Section: Sedimentary Thickness In the Canada Basin And Southern Alphamentioning

confidence: 86%

Seismic velocities within the sedimentary succession of the Canada Basin and southern Alpha-Mendeleev Ridge, Arctic Ocean: evidence for accelerated porosity reduction?

Shimeld¹,

Li²,

Chian³

et al. 2015

Geophysical Journal International

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“…In the region of interest, it coincided, first of all, with the beginning of spreading following the Late Mesozoic rifting within the Circum Arctic region in the main marine and oceanic basins surrounded by passive continental margins: the Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean (the beginning of spreading was detected there at 56 Ma, i.e., in the late Paleocene; Grantz and Hart, 2012), Labrador Sea, and Norway-Greenland Basin.…”

Section: Geodynamic Model Of the Evolution Of The Arctic During The Cmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…The main Cretaceous tectonic events in the Arctic were related to the formation of the Amerasian Basin, the first phase of rifting in which terminated in the Mid dle Jurassic (Grantz and Hart, 2012). The second phase occurred in the Early Cretaceous (Hauterivian-Barre mian), when large belts of basic dikes were formed at 132.0-125 (120) Ma on the continental crust (in Franz Joseph Land, Canadian Arctic, and, probably, in the Lomonosov Ridge and southern Alpha Ridge) (Dessing et al, 2013), and oceanic crust was formed in the central Canadian Basin (Grantz and Hart, 2012) under spreading conditions (diffuse spreading after Lobkovskii et al, 2010).…”

Section: Geodynamic Model Of the Evolution Of The Arctic During The Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second phase occurred in the Early Cretaceous (Hauterivian-Barre mian), when large belts of basic dikes were formed at 132.0-125 (120) Ma on the continental crust (in Franz Joseph Land, Canadian Arctic, and, probably, in the Lomonosov Ridge and southern Alpha Ridge) (Dessing et al, 2013), and oceanic crust was formed in the central Canadian Basin (Grantz and Hart, 2012) under spreading conditions (diffuse spreading after Lobkovskii et al, 2010). The onset of the formation of the Amerasian Basin caused the detachment of the Arc tic Alaska-Chukotka block from the Canadian Arctic, its motion, and subsequent collision with Eurasia.…”

Section: Geodynamic Model Of the Evolution Of The Arctic During The Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Immedi ately after the end of the second phase of rifting between 125 and 83.5 Ma, the High Arctic Large Igneous Prov ince (HALIP) was generated in the Alpha-Mendeleev Ridge, which was formed during this phase, and the adjacent part of the Canadian Basin. The HALIP is approximately one million square kilometers in area (Grantz and Hart, 2012;Dessing et al, 2013), and its basalts make up the upper portion of the basement of this ridge. These and other occurrences of intraplate magmatism in the region (for instance, in the De Long Mountains; Khain et al, 2009) were attributed by many authors to the activity of the aforementioned Arctic mantle plume (Shipilov and Vernikovskii, 2010), which originated at the boundary of the Neoproterozoic Arc tida continent and the North American lithospheric plate.…”

Section: Geodynamic Model Of the Evolution Of The Arctic During The Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mesozoic-Cenozoic sedimentation in the circum-arctic belt. 2. Cretaceous-Paleogene

2015

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New data from the literature on the Cretaceous-Paleogene of the Circum Arctic belt were used to revise lithological-paleogeographic maps published in 1983 by V.E. Khain, A.B. Ronov, and A.N. Bal ukhovskii. The region of our study is bounded by the present day break of the continental shelf of the Arctic Ocean in the north and the 60° N latitude in the south. The legend was simplified by omitting climatic and tectonic information and emphasizing lithofacies zoning. For each map, we calculated the areas and volumes of sediments of the distinguished lithofacies zones and particular rock groups. These data were used to esti mate the masses of dry sediments and accumulation rates. The distinguished variations of these quanti tative parameters in the Circum Arctic belt were compared with respective global trends related to tec tonic and climatic changes. The contributions of regional features of sedimentation and magmatism were identified. It was concluded that the global trends were the dominant factor controlling regional sedimentation history. Two stages, Cretaceous and Paleogene, were distinguished in the history of sedi mentation.

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