Tectonics and petroleum potential of the East Arctic province

Abstract

AbstractTectonics 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.