Fold belts and sedimentary basins of the Eurasian Arctic

Abstract

The vast Eurasian Arctic epicontinental shelf and adjoining mainland has a very complex structure and tectonic history as a result of a series of continent-continent collisions, accretion of terranes and crustal extension phases during Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic times. Significant parts of major Eurasian fold belts extend far north into the Arctic below thick infill of post-orogenic sedimentary basins, where their architecture remains highly disputed. Large Eurasian Arctic sedimentary basins formed as a result of orogenic collapse, back-arc extension, or intracontinental extension associated with the breakup of the Laurussia, Laurasia, Pangea and Eurasia supercontinents. There are over 40 sedimentary basins of variable age and genesis which are thought to bear significant undiscovered hydrocarbon resources in the region. This article reviews the current state-of-knowledge of Eurasian Arctic tectonics and highlights questions that remain to be addressed. The overall focus is on the Russian sector of the Arctic being less known to a broad geoscience community.

Significance of Northeast‐Trending Features in Canada Basin, Arctic Ocean

“…Development of the Chukchi Borderland in a strike slip or transtensional environment is consistent with recent reviews of the formation of microcontinents (Nemčok et al, 2016) and marginal plateaus along continental margins (de L epinay et al, 2016) which overwhelmingly evolve in sheared settings. The placement of the Chukchi Borderland as a coherent block outboard of Ellesmere Island provides supporting evidence for it to be part of Crockerland, the missing northern source area for sediments along the Canadian polar margin during Triassic to Middle Jurassic times (Embry, 2009), also hypothesized by various authors (e.g., Brumley et al, 2015;Drachev, 2016;O'Brien et al, 2016). Our model explains the distribution of crustal types identified in the Canada Basin from refraction data (Chian et al, 2016).…”

“…These gravity lows approximately coincide with synrift basins interpreted on seismic data of Nikishin et al (2014) and Ilhan and Coakley (2015). The outlines of the larger Northwind and North Chukchi basins (Drachev, 2016;Grantz & May, 1982) are also shown (NB, NCB, Figure 1).…”

Crustal architecture of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf and adjacent Arctic Ocean constrained by seismic data and gravity modeling results

“…These resulted from collisions between the north-eastern Asian margin of Laurasia and two large microcontinents: the Kolyma-Omolon and Arctic Alaska-Chukotka terranes (Grantz et al, 2011;Pease, 2011;Pease et al, 2014;Sokolov, 2010;Zonenshain et al, 1989Zonenshain et al, , 1990). These events formed major fold-and-thrust belts (shortened to s N Verkhoyansk, Cherskii, Chukotka Fold Belts, dominating geology of the mainland (Drachev, 2016;Oksman, 2003;Parfenov, 1991;Toro et al, 2016 and the references therein). At earlier stages of the ESAS exploration in the 20 th century, many researchers speculated that these fold belts do not continue offshore, and the shelves are mostly occupied by old cratons (platforms in the Russian nomenclature) such as the East Siberian and Asian cratons (Atlasov et al, 1970;Muratov 1981) or their large fragments, with the Hyperborean Platform being the most discussed since the discovery of a slightly deformed Cambro-Ordovician section on Bennett Island by Edward Toll in 1903 (Wollosowitsch, 1909).…”

“…In the recent years, several studies have been published revising the geology of the Russian Arctic shelves including the ESAS, which are based on the recent seismic data (Drachev et al, 2010;Drachev 2011Drachev , 2016Morozov et al, 2013;Nikishin et al, 2014Nikishin et al, , 2017Pease et al, 2014;Petrov et al, 2016a,b;Piskarev, 2016;Poselov et al, 2011). Yet, despite all this outstanding progress in the deep penetrating long-offset seismic data acquisition, the tectonic concepts explaining the origin and history of this part of the Arctic remain highly controversial.…”

Rift systems of the Russian Eastern Arctic shelf and Arctic deep water basins: link between geological history and geodynamics

“…1) [e.g., Laverov et al, 2013;Vernikovsky et al, 2013;Gaina et al, 2014;Pease et al, 2014;Nikishin et al, 2014;Petrov et al, 2016;Drachev, 2016]. Different versions of the stratigraphy of the ocean's sedimentary cover were presented in [Kim, Glezer, 2007;Backman et al, 2008;Bruvoll et al, 2010Bruvoll et al, , 2012Rekant, Gusev, 2012;Mosher et al, 2012;Døssing et al, 2013;Dobretsov et al, 2013;Weigelt et al, 2014;Jokat, Ickrath, 2015;Nikishin et al, 2014;Brumley, 2014;Rekant et al, 2015;Evangelatos, Mosher, 2016].…”