How to order:
Internet:www.ngu.no/no/hm/Publikasjoner/Boker/ATLAS-Geological-history-of-the-Barents-Sea/
or
e-mail: [email protected]
135 pages, hard cover
NOK 250,-
Contents
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION – EXPLORATION OF THE BARENTS SEA Chapter 2 IMAGING DEEP STRUCTURES BENEATH THE SURFACE
Chapter 3 FROM RIFT - TO MEGA-BASINS Chapter 4 CONTINENTS IN MOTION - THE BARENTS SEA IN A PLATE TE TONIC FRAMEWORK
Chapter 5 LOCHKOVIAN – Caledonian mountains in the west, and lowlands and shallow marine basins in the east
Chapter 6 FRASNIAN – Active rifting, and expansion of the marine basin in the east
Chapter 7 VISEAN – Extensive alluvial plains in the west and marine carbonate shelves and deep basins in the east
Chapter 8 MOSCOVIAN – Rising sea level and dryer climate
Chapter 9 ASSELIAN – Shallow carbonate shelves and deep basins Chapter 10 WORDIAN – Temperate climate and extensive marine shelf
Chapter 11 INDUAN – Uralian uplift in the east and progradation into the shallow-water clastic shelf
Chapter 12 ANISIAN – Enclosed, restricted basins in the west, fl uctuating shorelines in the east
Chapter 13 CARNIAN – Orogen and uplift in the east, extensive westward coastal progradation
Chapter 14 HETTANGIAN – Wide continental lowlands
Chapter 15 TOARCIAN – Extensive coastal plains transgressed from east and west
Chapter 16 BAJOCIAN – Central uplift, maximum regression and prograding coastlines in the west and east
Chapter 17 TITHONIAN – Maximum transgression on an extensive shelf
Chapter 18 VALANGINIAN – Open marine shelf
Chapter 19 BARREMIAN – Tectonic uplift and prograding deltas in the north
Chapter 20 ALBIAN – Uplift in the northeast, deeply subsiding basins in the west
Chapter 21 EOCENE – Expanded hinterlands and shrinked basins
Chapter 22 LATE NEOGENE UPLIFT AND GLACIATIONS
Geological History of the Barents Sea
The atlas presents a comprehensive
compilation of the geology of the
Barents Sea summarizing a vast
amount of knowledge and data
about this extensive Arctic region.
The geology of the region, which
still today represents exploration
frontiers, is illustrated by a series
of geophysical and paleogeographic
maps, which are based on the inte-
grated knowledge from Russian
and Norwegian institutions.
The paleogeographic map span
from the Early Devonian to Eocene
times, and are supplemented by
geophysical maps and cross-sections
showing the present day architecture.
ISBN 978-82-7385-137-6
EDITORS:Morten Smelror,
Oleg Petrov,
Geir Birger Larssen &
Stephanie Werner
52 Continents in motion
The Paleocene-Eocene transition marks the
continental break-up of the North Atlantic mar-
gins and opening of the Norwegian-Greenland
Sea at around 55-54 Ma. This time interval is
also characterised by a major magmatic event,
as witnessed by massive basaltic traps and the
formation of volcanic rifted margins which
have been identifi ed from the Irish margin
up to the Lofoten and NE Greenland shelves.
Towards the north, the break-up development
along the sheared margin of western Barents
Sea was younger, locally magmatic (e.g., Vesta-
bakken volcanic province) and comparatively
complex.
Prior to the opening, a transpressive event
occurred between Svalbard and the northern
North Atlantic break-up
margin of the Barents Shelf. The crustal short-
ening was concomitant with major extension
between Norway and Greenland and is esti-
mated to have been around 30 km.
Progressively, the continental strike-slip
system, active from the Paleocene to the
Eocene, was followed by a passive shear-mar-
gin development, leading to break-up from
Early Oligocene time. Since Oligocene times,
separation of the Barents Shelf and Greenland/
North America has continued, leading to the
opening of the Fram Straight and establishing
a North Atlantic-Arctic marine connection in
the Miocene.
Lower Tertiary deposits are virtually absent
on the eastern and central Barents Shelf but
marine slope to basinal successions are pre-
served along the western margin. In the Vest-
bakken Volcanic Province there is evidence of
breakup-related sill intrusions. Over the west-
ern Barents Shelf, there is are major uncon-
formities between the Paleogene to Miocene
strata and overlying glacial deposits marking
the onset of the Northern Hemisphere glacia-
tions in the Late Pliocene. During the Pliocene-
Pleistocene the entire Barents Shelf was eroded
and large amounts of sediment were shed into
towards the shelf margin accumulating as huge
wedges of shelf-margin, slope and basinal ma-
rine origin (Bjørnøya and Storfjorden fans).
7318/5-1 7321/7-1 7324/10-1 7228/2-1
Permian
?
?
?
? ?
?
?
??
??
??
NW
A B
SE
L. Ge
rnigo
n-GE
OBAS
E-NG
U-20
09
JurassicLower Cretaceous Upper Cretaceous PaleogeneNeogeneCenozoic undiff.
Lower Triassic I - undiff.Lower Triassic IIMid. Triassic Mid-Upper Triassic
Salt (Carboniferous)
Bouguer HP-75
Bouguer
MagTF
MagTF HP-75
Tilt derivative
deep Paleozoic basin
Cenozoicintrusions
deep Paleozoic basin
Bjarmeland PlatformSvalis DomeBjørnøya BasinStappen High Nordkapp Basin
80-
60-
40-
0-
20-
-20-
-40-
-60-
300-
200-
100-
0-
-100-
Mag
(nT)
Gra
vity
(mG
al)
Dep
th (k
m)
0-
-5-
-10-
-15-0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 (km)
Western Barents Sea
Continents in motion 53
?
? ?
?
C D
NW SE
L. Ge
rnigo
n-GE
OBAS
E-NG
U-20
09
Bouguer HP-75
Bouguer
MagTF
MagTF HP-75Tilt derivative
Cretaceous (?) intrusions
deep Paleozoic basin
deep Paleozoic basin
Nordkapp Basin Central Barents High South Barents BasinNovayaZemlya
100 km
80-
60-
40-
0-
20-
-20-
-40-
-60-
300-
200-
100-
0-
-100-
Mag
(nT)
Gra
vity
(mG
al)
Dep
th (k
m)
0-
-5-
-10-
-15-0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 (km)
deep Paleozoic basin
Regional geological profi les and potential fi eld signature across the Barents Sea. The locations of the profi les A-B and C-D are shown on page 43.
Eastern Barents Sea
The Barents Sea consists of complex structural features including platform areas, basement highs, graben features and large sag-basins. The most signifi -
cant sedimentary basins, in terms of both thickness and areal extent, lie in the East Barents Sea located immediately west of Novaya Zemlya. This province
was affected by a major phase of collision between the Laurasian continent and Western Siberia, which culminated in latest Permian-earliest Triassic time.
Novaya Zemlya marks the suture zone of this closure, which could be younger (Triassic-Jurassic) in that specifi c region. Huge basins, such as in the South
Barents Sea, formed in the foredeep zone to the Novaya Zemlya fold belt, and acted as major catchment areas for sediments shed from the front of the
belt in Late Palaeozoic-Mesozoic times. Mesozoic sediments up to 10 km in thickness are present in these basins. Particularly signifi cant, is the presence
and thickness of Triassic deposits, locally 6–8 km, that accumulated in a series of deltas prograding westward from Novaya Zemlya.The Triassic forma-
tions are particularly affected by numerous sill intrusions, possibly linked to the Early Cretaceous volcanism recorded on Franz Josef Land and Svalbard.
This volcanism occurred during the rifting stage of the opening of the Canada Basin. To some extent, the deeper nature of the South Barents Sea basin is
poorly constrained. Palaeozoic sediments are probably present locally in the South Barents Sea and could represent a prolongation of the rift system well
documented onshore in the Timan-Pechora Basin.
The West Barents Sea represents a different structural style, affected by several episodes of rifting. The West Barents Sea is a large Permo-Triassic platform
affected by major graben-type basins, as illustrated in this section. The main grabens were probably initiated by Late Palaeozoic extension, contained
signifi cant evaporite deposits of probable Late Carboniferous-Early Permian age and were major sites of Triassic deposition. The movements of Palaeo-
zoic salt most likely began in the Early Triassic and since then the diapirs observed in the Svalis Dome and Nordkapp Basin areas have undergone several
phases of development during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Early Triassic extension initiated salt-tectonic activity in the Nordkapp Basin and diapirs grew
passively until mid-Triassic times by maintaining their crest at or near the sea fl oor, while sediment accumulated in adjacent salt-withdrawal basins. The
tectonic features of the basins observed today were fi nally shaped by subsequent Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous reactivation and strong Cenozoic uplift.
Between the Stappen High and the Savlis Dome, the Bjørnøya Basin underwent further extension leading to rapid subsidence in Cretaceous times, before
the onset of the shear-margin development illustrated by the Vestbakken volcanic province. All these structural elements and salt-related features are
refl ected both in the gravity and in the high-resolution magnetic signatures.