Sedimentology of the Lower Cretaceous at Kikutodden and Keilhaufjellet, southern Spitsbergen: implications for an onshore–offshore link

Abstract

Detailed sedimentological investigations of the Lower Cretaceous succession of southernmost Spitsbergen indicate deposition during a long-term fall and rise in relative sea level. The Rurikfjellet Formation shows an overall regressive development and consists of offshore deposits grading upwards into progradationally stacked shoreface parasequences. The overlying Helvetiafjellet Formation shows a twofold division reflecting an overall transgressive development. The lower Festningen Member represents a lateral extensive sandstone sheet that was deposited in a braid plain setting with sediment dispersal to the southeast. The unit also includes a lower Barremian subaerial unconformity at its base, demonstrating that uplift and shelf erosion also took place in southern Spitsbergen. Clinoforms observed in seismic data from, amongst others, the Lower Cretaceous in the western Bjarmeland Platform suggest a potential link between the onshore unconformity and the offshore clinoforms. The Festningen Member is capped by a coaly shale unit that represents an expansion surface which marks a change into a high-accommodation distributary fluvial system of the overlying and heterolithic Glitrefjellet Member. The overall transgressive development recorded in the Helvetiafjellet Formation eventually resulted in a marine flooding that eroded and drowned the delta plain depositing an offshore mudstone unit, 5-10 m in thickness, that marks the reestablishment of open marine shelf conditions in the basal part of the Carolinefjellet Formation. The succeeding sand-rich part of the Carolinefjellet Formation contain abundant hummocky cross-stratified sandstones deposited in an inner shelf setting, and therefore represents renewed shoreline progradation onto the shallow subaqueous shelf.

Architecture of growth basins in a tidally influenced, prodelta to delta‐front setting: The Triassic succession of Kvalpynten, East Svalbard

“…A second phase of regional subsidence of the Svalbard Platform was initiated in the Middle Jurassic and lead to deposition of deeper marine sediments (Dypvik, Hakansson, & Heinberg, ; Koevoets, Hammer, Olaussen, Senger, & Smelror, ). Succeeding shallowing of the depositional environments is recorded by Lower Cretaceous deposits formed in response to uplift of the northern side of Svalbard (Gjelberg & Steel, ; Grundvåg et al, ; Grundvåg & Olaussen, ; Midtkandal & Nystuen, ; Midtkandal, Nystuen, Nagy, & Mørk, ; Olaussen et al, ). Exhumation of Triassic sedimentary rocks on Edgeøya resulted from Late Cretaceous uplift and associated magmatism, coupled with the establishment of a fold‐and‐thrust belt in the west of Svalbard during the Palaeogene, and isostatic post‐glacial rebound, notably during the Holocene (Anell et al, ; Bergh, Maher, & Braathen, ; Braathen, Bergh, & Maher, ; Dallmann, Elvevold, Majka, & Piepjohn, ; Dimakis, Braathen, Faleide, Elverhøi, & Gudlaugsson, ; Faleide et al, ; ; Henriksen et al, ; Steel & Worsley, ; Worsley, ).…”

Ice‐rafting patterns on the western Svalbard slope 74–0 ka: interplay between ice‐sheet activity, climate and ocean circulation

“…They are mostly located in southeastern Svalbard facing Storfjorden (e.g. Maher et al 2004;Grundv ag & Olaussen 2017;Fig. 1B).…”

“…Northward flow path of Atlantic Water is indicated (red arrow). Areas of Jurassic shales and siltstones at Spitsbergen Bank (blue-green) and Lower Cretaceous quartz-rich deposits (orange) are indicated (sketched afterEdwards 1975;Maher et al 2004 andGrundv ag &Olaussen 2017).…”

A 3D structural analysis of the Goliat field, Barents Sea, Norway

“…On Svalbard, the transition between the offshore to lower shoreface Hauterivian Rurikfjellet Formation and the fluvial to deltaic deposits of the Barremian to Aptian Helvetiafjellet Formation (Gjelberg and Steel, 1995;Midtkandal et al, 2007, Grundvåg & Olaussen, 2017 is marked by an erosional unconformity related to crustal up-doming driven by the HALIP event (Maher, 2001;Nejbert et al, 2011;Minakov et al, 2012;Corfu et al, 2013;Senger et al, 2014;Polteau et al, 2016).…”