Tectonics and petroleum potential of the East Arctic province
V.E. Khain, I.D. Polyakova, N.I. Filatova
Geological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences,7 Pyzhevsky per., Moscow, 119017, Russia
Keywords: orogen; Cretaceous-Cenozoic basin; geodynamics; petroleum province; East Arctic; Hyperborea; Amerasia Ocean
Pages: 326-337
Abstract
Tectonics and petroleum potential of the underexplored East Arctic area have been investigated as part of an IPY (International Polar Year) project. The present-day scenery of the area began forming with opening of the Amerasia Ocean (Canada and Podvodnikov-Makarov Basins) in the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous and with Cretaceous-Cenozoic rifting related to spreading in the Eurasia Basin. The opening of oceans produced pull-apart and rift basins along continental slopes and shelves of the present-day Arctic fringing seas, which lie on a basement consisting of fragments of the Hyperborean craton and Early Paleozoic to Middle Cretaceous orogens. By analogy with basins of the Arctic and Atlantic passive margins, the Cretaceous-Cenozoic shelf and continental slope basins may be expected to have high petroleum potential, with oil and gas accumulations in their sediments and basement.
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