Salt Tectonics in the Northeastern Nordkapp Basin, Southwestern Barents Sea

1995 ◽  
pp. 437-447
Keyword(s):  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaia Travan ◽  
Benjamin Bellwald ◽  
Sverre Planke ◽  
Virginie Gaullier ◽  
Dwarika Maharjan ◽  
...  

<p>The geology of the Barents Sea has been widely studied because of the interest for hydrocarbon exploration. Our study focuses on the SW Barents Sea, on the western side of the Senja Ridge in the Sørvestsnagets Basin, which is still a less deciphered area. Located at the limit of the continental shelf, this deep Cretaceous basin is characterized by a several-kilometer-thick sequence of Cenozoic sediments locally influenced by salt structures. Because of the peculiar rheological characteristics of salt, the deposition of evaporites during Permo-Carboniferous times still represents a key aspect to deeply understand the geological setting because salt tectonics considerably affects the brittle sedimentary cover.</p><p>5,500 km<sup>2</sup> of high-quality 3D seismic data, integrated with potential field data and existing wells, led to the interpretation of the main horizons and unconformities in the sedimentary sequence, with focus on the salt structures.</p><p>The top of the salt is characterized by a strong positive-amplitude reflection in the seismic data, and has been interpreted with a line spacing of 100 m. Subsequent gridding of the interpreted horizon to a bin size of 12.5 m highlights that the geomorphology for the top of the three salt structures is particularly complex, with presence of salt horns and development of minibasins above the salt. Integration of potential field data shows a strong correlation between salt structures and low values in Bouguer-Gravity anomalies. Different families of faults related to salt and to crustal tectonics have been mapped, and strong seismic anomalies related to faults above the salt structures are identified at multiple stratigraphic levels. Part of these faults have been active until 20 000 years ago, and are rarely active at present day.</p><p>The three salt structures interpreted on the western side of the Senja Ridge have a total extent of around 800 km<sup>2</sup> and are mainly the consequence of different pulses of reactive diapirism, due to several diachronous rifting events during the opening of the Barents Sea. After the opening of the Sørvestsnagets Basin, salt tectonics continued and was influenced by crustal movements and glacial sedimentation and erosion in this pull-apart basin setting.</p><p>The presence of the strong seismic anomalies above the salt structures is interpreted as gas accumulations, which makes this topic of particular interest for the future development of the oil and gas industry of the SW Barents Sea.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Hassaan ◽  
Jan Inge Faleide ◽  
Roy Helge Gabrielsen ◽  
Filippos Tsikalas ◽  
Silje Grimstad

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Rowan ◽  
Tore Skar ◽  
Laila Pedersen
Keyword(s):  

2019 ◽  
Vol 138 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Luca Samperi ◽  
Kamaldeen Omosanya ◽  
Giorgio Minelli ◽  
Ståle Johansen

Author(s):  
Larisa A. Pautova ◽  
Vladimir A. Silkin ◽  
Marina D. Kravchishina ◽  
Valeriy G. Yakubenko ◽  
Anna L. Chultsova

The structure of the summer planktonic communities of the Northern part of the Barents sea in the first half of August 2017 were studied. In the sea-ice melting area, the average phytoplankton biomass producing upper 50-meter layer of water reached values levels of eutrophic waters (up to 2.1 g/m3). Phytoplankton was presented by diatoms of the genera Thalassiosira and Eucampia. Maximum biomass recorded at depths of 22–52 m, the absolute maximum biomass community (5,0 g/m3) marked on the horizon of 45 m (station 5558), located at the outlet of the deep trench Franz Victoria near the West coast of the archipelago Franz Josef Land. In ice-free waters, phytoplankton abundance was low, and the weighted average biomass (8.0 mg/m3 – 123.1 mg/m3) corresponded to oligotrophic waters and lower mesotrophic waters. In the upper layers of the water population abundance was dominated by small flagellates and picoplankton from, biomass – Arctic dinoflagellates (Gymnodinium spp.) and cold Atlantic complexes (Gyrodinium lachryma, Alexandrium tamarense, Dinophysis norvegica). The proportion of Atlantic species in phytoplankton reached 75%. The representatives of warm-water Atlantic complex (Emiliania huxleyi, Rhizosolenia hebetata f. semispina, Ceratium horridum) were recorded up to 80º N, as indicators of the penetration of warm Atlantic waters into the Arctic basin. The presence of oceanic Atlantic species as warm-water and cold systems in the high Arctic indicates the strengthening of processes of “atlantificacion” in the region.


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