Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals program: activities in the Sverdrup Basin, Canadian Arctic Islands

Abstract

Advancements in the establishment of the geological framework of the Sverdrup Basin resulting from the Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals program can be grouped under the main topics of tectonostratigraphy, crosslinking of biostratigraphy and chronostratigraphy, integration of igneous records with newly refined stratigraphy, and effects of global climatic environments on hydrocarbon source rocks in geological time. New discoveries of volcanic ash beds throughout much of the Triassic stratigraphic section required new tectonic interpretations involving a magmatic arc northwest of the basin that was likely involved in the opening of the Amerasia Basin. Modern approaches to biostratigraphy calibrated by radiometric age dating of volcanic ash beds made global correlations to chronostratigraphic frameworks and tectonic models possible. Correlation of the stratigraphy and recent geochronology of the High Arctic large igneous province (HALIP) places the main pulse of mafic magmatism in a postrift setting. Finally, the depositional setting of source rocks in the Sverdrup Basin is explained in terms of oceanographic factors that are related to the global environment. All of these advancements, including hints of undefined and relatively young structural events, lead to the conclusion that the hydrocarbon potential of the Sverdrup Basin has not been fully tested by historical exploration drilling.