Carboniferous Syn-rift to Post-rift Stratigraphy and Sedimentation, Sverdrup Basin, Northern Axel Heiberg Island
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2019-04-16
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Abstract
Facies analysis of the Serpukhovian to Kasimovian succession within the Sverdrup Basin on northern Axel Heiberg Island has led to the recognition of a syn-rift to post-rift transition along the northern margin of the basin. The basin was under fault-controlled subsidence during the Serpukhovian as show by numerous half-grabens which record siliciclastic sedimentation. Four new depocentres have been identified in the areas immediately southeast of Aurland Fiord on Axel Heiberg Island. Facies analysis of one of these depocentres suggests deposition in a normal fault-bounded half-graben. The post-rift stage is represented by a Bashkirian to Kasimovian succession that consists solely of open marine carbonates deposited on a gently-sloping carbonate ramp. The carbonate ramp indicates significantly lower rates of subsidence – a shift from higher rates during the Serpukhovian – and a passive subsidence regime. Crockerland was not a source of sediment into the Sverdup Basin at that time, as suggested by the absence of siliciclastic sediments. The diachronous distribution of syn-rift deposits in the Sverdrup Basin provides evidence for an asymmetrical mode of rifting caused by simple shear extension. A rifting front was initiated in the north during the Visean, propagated southward during the Serpukhovian, and ultimately reached the southern margin by the Bashkirian. The rifting was controlled by the collapse of the Ellesmerian Orogeny, upon which the Sverdrup Basin developed. The half-grabens developed through the extensional inversion of the Ellesmerian thrust sheets from the north to south resulting from an overall reversal from a compressional to an extensional stress regime.
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Bhargava, A. (2019). Carboniferous syn-rift to post-rift stratigraphy and sedimentation, Sverdrup Basin, northern Axel Heiberg Island (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.