Sedimentary Basins of the East Siberian Sea and the Chukchi Sea and the Adjacent Area of the Amerasia Basin: Seismic Stratigraphy and Stages of Geological History

Abstract

The seismic stratigraphy scheme for the shelf basins of the East Siberian Sea and the Chukchi Sea region and the adjacent deepwater area of the Amerasia basin has been developed, and mega-sequences (or tectonostratigraphic units) with the conventional ages of 125‒100, 100‒80, 80‒66, 66‒56, 46‒45, 45‒34, 34‒20, 20‒0 Ma are distinguished. Zhokhov foredeep basin of the Late Jurassic‒Neocomian age is distinguished between the New Siberia and the De Long islands. Three main phases of rifting are identified on the shelves in the region with ages of 125–100, 66–56, and 45–37 Ma. The main phase of continental rifting occurred in the Podvodnikov and Toll basins at 125‒100 Ma. The typical clinoform accumulation of sediments occurred at the edge of the shelf at 66–20 Ma. We identified three syntectonic epochs of the formation of clinoform sequences with the ages of 66–45, 45–34, and 34–20 Ma. The phase of uplifting and compression in the region of Wrangel Island happened at ≈66 Ma. The relatively monotonous tectonic setting with approximately the same thicknesses of the sedimentary cover began at 20 Ma.

Deposition History and Paleo‐Current Activity on the Southeastern Lomonosov Ridge and its Eurasian Flank Based on Seismic Data

“…The upper units AB-5 to AB-6 show similar reflection characteristics, thicknesses, and sedimentation rates corresponding to seismic records of other regions of the Arctic Ocean (e.g., Castro et al, 2018;Chernykh & Krylov, 2011;Jokat & Micksch, 2004;Jokat et al, 1995;Nikishin et al, 2019). This indicates a similar lithology and the same age across a large region, and that basin-wide pelagic sedimentation prevailed at least since late Oligocene.…”

Arctic Ocean Mega Project: Paper 1 - Data collection

“…Poselov et al, 2012;Piskarev et al, 2019), (3) the so-called Moscow group (Moscow State University, Rosneft and GEOSURVEY GIN RAS) (e.g. Nikishin et al, 2014Nikishin et al, , 2018Nikishin et al, , 2019. Our Paper-2 summarizes the principal results of the interpretation of Russian seismic lines for the Arctic (Nikishin et al, 2021a).…”

“…Also unknown in detail is the exact timing of the initiation of Eurasia Basin opening and whether it was accompanied by magmatism or mantle exhumation during its formation, especially in the area close to the Laptev Sea. Although more than 20 km of sedimentary section has been documented on the Arctic shelves (e.g., the North Chukchi Basin, Nikishin et al, 2014Nikishin et al, , 2019Piskarev et al, 2019, Petrov andSmelror, 2019), its origin and the nature of the underlying crustal structure remain unclear.…”

Arctic ocean mega project: Paper 2 – Arctic stratigraphy and regional tectonic structure

“…The tectonic structure of the Arctic Ocean has been discussed recently in a series of reviews (e.g., Vernikovsky et al, 2013;Gaina et al, 2014;Pease et al, 2014;Nikishin et al, 2014;Lobkovsky, 2016;Coakley et al, 2016). Various versions of the stratigraphy of the ocean's sedimentary cover have been presented (Embry and Dixon, 1994;Backman et al, 2008;Bruvoll et al, 2010;Grantz et al, 2011;Houseknecht and Bird, 2011;Mosher et al, 2012;Rekant and Gusev, 2012;Døssing et al, 2013;Franke, 2013;Brumley, 2014;Weigelt et al, 2014;Jokat and Ickrath, 2015;Nikishin et al, 2014Nikishin et al, , 2017Nikishin et al, , 2018Nikishin et al, , 2019Rekant et al, 2015;Thórarinsson et al, 2015;Evangelatos and Mosher, 2016;Hutchinson et al, 2017;Ilhan and Coakley, 2018;Miller et al, 2018aMiller et al, , 2018bHomza and Bergman, 2019;Piskarev et al, 2019). Paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic investigations of the Arctic Ocean during the Cenozoic were based primarily on results of drilling on the Lomonosov Ridge within the framework of the ACEX Project (Brinkhuis et al, 2006;Moran et al, 2006;Jakobsson et al, 2007;Backman et al, 2008;Backman and Moran, 2009;O'Regan et al, 2010;Ehlers a...…”

“…1). In addition to these data, numerous federal and commercial seismic lines acquired for the Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian and Chukchi shelves during the past 10-15 years (e.g., Drachev et al, 2010;Kumar et al, 2011;Nikishin et al, 2014Nikishin et al, , 2017Nikishin et al, , 2018Nikishin et al, , 2019Ilhan and Coakley, 2018) also were available. For ground truth, rock samples were taken on sea floor scarps along the Lomonosov Ridge and Mendeleev Rise (Morozov et al, 2013;Petrov et al, 2016;Skolotnev et al, 2017Skolotnev et al, , 2019Knudsen et al, 2018;Rekant et al, 2019).…”