Regional tectono-sedimentary development of the highs and basins of the northwestern Barents Shelf

Abstract

While many structural elements on the northwestern Barents Shelf initiated early and have remained influential on accommodation and sediment ation, detailed seismic interpretation attests to the development of new structural elements, shifting locus of influence, and burial, reactivation and inactivation at different times of various highs and basins. NE-SWoriented structural elements such as the Gardarbanken and Hopen highs, and the Capria ridge (informally named herein), have old Carboniferous foundations and show signs of reactivation in the Early Triassic. Towards the southwest, the Capria ridge merges with the paleoStappen high, which is a N-S, tilted peneplaned, Late Carboniferous riftshoulder which deeply erodes the Carboniferous deposits, and is onlapped by Permian and Early Triassic sediments. The paleosurface is overprinted by the dominantly postCretaceous development of the Stappen High, which has a maximum uplift and extent south of Bjørnøya. The Sørkapp basin is the main depocentre on the northwestern Barents Shelf; however, the Storjorden, Edgeøya and Ora (informally named herein) basins all formed around the same time in the Carboniferous. While the Sørkapp basin remained a sag basin until the Ladinian, the Edgeøya basin, a narrow rift basin, became largely inactive following infill. As a result, the Hopen high and Edgeøya platform, which bounded the Edgeøya basin, merged to form the Svalbard platform. The Storfjorden basin was reactivated around the Mid Jurassic when the Sørkapp depression, forming west of the Sørkapp basin, was initiated. Both basins are asymmetrical and bounded by gentle anticlinal features on one side implying formation associated with contraction. Cretaceous sediments, largely eroded from the area, are found in basins such as the Olga basin, which formed between two anticlines. One of these anticlines is the Sentralbanken high, which contrary to most other highs in the area shows no signs of initiation in the Carboniferous, but rather appears to have been a depocentre which was inverted around the Cretaceous.

Thermal history of a Triassic sedimentary sequence verified by a multi‐method approach: Edgeøya, Svalbard, Norway

“…More comprehensive tectonic events occurred especially in the southwest (Breivik, Faleide, & Gudlaugsson, 1998;Gabrielsen, 1984;Johansen et al, 1993;Mørk, Embry, & Weitschat, 1989). The study area in Edgeøya ( Figure 1) is located in the distal part of the Uralian foreland basin located on the Svalbard platform, northwestern Barents Shelf (Anell et al, 2016). This area experienced overall general subsidence, with a distal location to the Novaya Zemlya mountains.…”

“…; The source rocks may be prone to the influence of Cretaceous magmatism (Brekke et al, 2014;Senger, Tveranger, Ogata, Braathen, & Planke, 2014) which is widespread in the Basin. This region of the Barents Sea has experienced continental collision, magmatic activity, burial, uplift and erosion, all likely perturbing the thermal and fluid flow regimes of sedimentary basins (Anell, Faleide, & Braathen, 2016;Faleide, V agnes, & Gudlaugsson, 1993;Senger et al, 2014), and which complicates assessments of the thermal history.…”

Exploring the reservoir potential of Lower Cretaceous Clinoforms in the Fingerdjupet Subbasin, Norwegian Barents Sea

“…This prograding system had an inferred source area towards the NW/N of the study area, linked to regional uplift related to the High Arctic Large Igneous Province (HALIP) (Faleide, Vågnes, & Gudlaugsson, ; Grundvåg et al, ; Marín, Escalona, Grundvåg, Nøhr‐Hansen, & Kairanov, ; Midtkandal et al, ; Midtkandal & Nystuen, ; Senger, Tveranger, Ogata, Braathen, & Planke, ). Also, the Stappen High and Loppa High (Figure ) experienced uplift in the early Cretaceous (Anell, Faleide, & Braathen, ; Indrevær, Gabrielsen, & Faleide, ). The salt‐cored Svalis Dome on the northern margin of the Loppa High probably developed during such periods of uplift (Gabrielsen et al, ).…”

“…Clinoform deposition was followed by Aptian and younger rifting and subsidence (e.g. Anell et al, ; Blaich, Tsikalas, & Faleide, ; Faleide et al, ; Indrevær et al, ; Marin et al, ; Serck et al, ) and kilometre‐scale uplift and erosion in the Cenozoic (Henriksen et al, ). The combined effects are erosion of the Cretaceous succession over the Stappen and Loppa Highs and deep burial of the succession in the Bjørnøya Basin (Figure ).…”

“…However, the absence of Cretaceous strata between the study area and the implied source areas makes it impossible to establish a direct link. In addition, Early Cretaceous uplift of the Stappen High (Figure 1; Anell et al, 2016) means that local erosion with a shorter sediment route cannot be ruled out and this may have influenced the overall distribution of sediments in the area. The BrU in the study area (Figures 2 and 4) could be coeval with the main phase of regression and sand delivery across Svalbard and Greenland .…”