Tectonic history and petroleum geology of the Russian Arctic Shelves: an overview

Abstract

The Eastern Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian seas and the western Chukchi Sea occupy a large part of the Eurasian Arctic epicontinental shelf in the Russian Arctic. Recent studies have shown that this huge region consists of over 40 sedimentary basins of variable age and genesis which are thought to bear significant undiscovered hydrocarbon resources. Important tectonic events controlling the structure and petroleum geology of the basins are the Caledonian collision and orogeny followed by Late Devonian to Early Carboniferous rifting, Late Palaeozoic Baltica–Siberia collision and Uralian orogeny, Triassic and Early Jurassic rifting, Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous Canada Basin opening accompanied by closure of the South Anyui Ocean, the Late Mesozoic Verkhoyansk–Brookian orogeny and Cenozoic opening of the Eurasia Oceanic Basin. The majority of the sedimentary basins were formed and developed in a rift and post-rift setting and later modified through a series of structural inversions. Using available regional seismic lines correlated with borehole data, onshore geology in areas with no exploration drilling, and recent Arctic-wide magnetic, bathymetry and gravity grids, we provide more confident characterization of the regional structural elements of the Russian Arctic shelf, and constrain the timing of basin formation, structural styles, lithostratigraphy and possible hydrocarbon systems and petroleum play elements in frontier areas.

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

“…The breakuptype unconformity on the shelves with the age of about 56 Ma corresponds to the start of spreading [Drachev et al, 2010;Franke, 2013;Weigelt et al, 2014;. This boundary is traced on the slopes of the Lomonosov Ridge and can be tied up with boundaries of seismic sequences in the Arctic Ocean .…”

“…The basalts are underlain by Early Cretaceous sandstones with coals [Kos'ko et al, 2013]. A magnetic anomaly corresponds to the De Long Islands, which may suggest the wide development of the Early Cretaceous basalt plateau [Drachev, Saunders, 2006;Drachev et al, 2010;Gaina et al, 2011;Saltus et al, 2011;Nikishin et al, 2014]. The De Long Plateau forms an uplift that was crossed by several seismic lines.…”

“…The De Long Plateau forms an uplift that was crossed by several seismic lines. Several grabens exist around the plateau [Drachev et al, 2010;Nikishin et al, 2014]. At the base of the sedimentary cover of some grabens, packages with bright reflectors are observed.…”

“…Within the shelves of the East Siberian and Chukchi Seas, a large system of continental rifts exists [Drachev et al, 2010;Nikishin et al, 2014]. It is most likely that rifting started in the Aptian.…”

“…Rift systems on the Laptev, East Siberian and Chukchi Shelves were described in numerous works, and reviews were presented in [Drachev et al, 2010;Nikishin et al, 2014]. The present-day Gakkel oceanic rift is known in the Eurasian Basin (e.g., [Glebovsky et al, 2006[Glebovsky et al, , 2013Gaina et al, 2014]).…”