East Greenland and Faroe–Shetland sediment provenance and Palaeogene sand dispersal systems

Abstract

The sedimentation and basin evolution of the Kangerlussuaq Basin, southern East Greenland has gained renewed interest with the licensing rounds offshore the Faroe Islands in 2000 and 2005, as it forms an important analogy to the Faroese geological setting. The Faroes frontier area is in part covered by basalts and is a high-risk area with poorly known plays and sedimentary basins. It is therefore essential to obtain as much information as possible on the evolution of sedimentary basins on the rifted volcanic margins closest to the Faroese Islands margin. Plate reconstructions of the North Atlantic region indicate the former close proximity of East Greenland to the Faroe Islands region (Fig. 1), and the Kangerlussuaq Basin thus constitutes the most important field analogue with respect to stratigraphy, major unconformities and basin evolution. The study of the sedimentary succession in the Kangerlussuaq Basin, and the provenance of the sandstones in particular, will provide constraints on exploration models and may help to predict the distribution of potential reservoir sandstones in the Faroese offshore basins, and eventually lead to development of play types that are new to this frontier region.This paper presents the main conclusions from two research projects: Stratigraphy of the pre-basaltic sedimentary succession of the Kangerlussuaq Basin -Volcanic basin of the North Atlantic and An innovative sedimentary provenance analysis, jointly undertaken by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) and CASP (formerly Cambridge Arctic Shelf Programme). Both projects were initiated in October 2002 and concluded in September 2005. They form part of Future Exploration Issues Programme of the Faroese Continental Shelf (SINDRI programme), established by the Faroese Ministry of Petroleum and financed by the partners of the Sindri Group (see Acknowledgements).

Greenland from Archaean to Quaternary. Descriptive text to the 1995 Geological map of Greenland, 1:2 500 000. 2nd edition

“…In the early Paleocene sediment input increased and submarine fan sandstones were deposited along the northern basin margin whereas mudstone deposition continued within the basin. The offshore marine succession is unconformably overlain by fluvial sheet sandstones and conglomerates of latest Paleocene age (M. Larsen et al , 2001Larsen et al , 2006. The succession records a basin history of mid-Cretaceous transgression and Late Cretaceous -early Paleocene highstand followed by extensive uplift and basin-wide erosion in the mid-Paleocene.…”

Discovery of Two Sub‐Volcanic Basins Below the North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP), Faroe Platform, NE Atlantic Ocean

“…The underlying crystalline basement has been assigned the term "Faroe-Shetland Block" as an indicator of crustal domain underlying the Faroe-Shetland Basin (Ritchie, Noble, et al, 2011). In East Greenland, exposed gneissic basement of Archean age is also described from the Kangerlussuaq region (Larsen et al, 2006) and is part of the Archean to Proterozoic Central Greenland Craton that has been suggested to be related to the Faroe-Shetland Block (Ritchie, Noble, et al, 2011). A separate crustal domain to the north of Shetland, termed the Erlend-East Shetland Block, comprises a mixed Late Archean-Proterozoic assemblage, with a predominance of Proterozoic ages.…”

Fingerprinting sediments along the west coast of Jylland: interpreting provenance data

“…The study is a collaboration project involving GEUS and the Department of Geography and Geology (DGG) at Copenhagen University; GEUS is responsible for the analyses and DGG for sample collection.Provenance analysis based on modal abundance and composition of heavy minerals is used to understand the dispersal of sand in ancient siliciclastic systems, with focus on problems relevant to the petroleum industry (e.g. Larsen et al 2006;Morton et al 2007). Investigation of present-day processes and sedimentary environments may provide a key to understand how provenance indicators can be used to describe and interpret fossil clastic sedimentary systems.…”