The palaeoecology of the latest Jurassic–earliest Cretaceous hydrocarbon seep carbonates from Spitsbergen, Svalbard

Abstract

Latest Jurassic–earliest Cretaceous hydrocarbon seeps from Spitsbergen, Svalbard, are known to contain unusual fauna, lacking most of the species characteristic for roughly coeval seep deposits. This study summarizes and analyses the fauna from 16 seep carbonate bodies from Spitsbergen to explain its composition. The seeps formed in a shallow epicontinental sea with widespread deposition of fine-grained, organic-rich sediments. They are spread over a relatively large area and are positioned roughly in the same interval, indicating seepage over extensive areas of the palaeo-Barents Sea. The seep fauna is very species rich and with low dominance, comprising 54 species, with a composition similar to that of Jurassic–Cretaceous normal-marine environments of other Boreal seas. Seep-restricted fauna is not abundant and is represented by four species only. Hokkaidoconchids and possible siboglinid worm tubes characteristic for high sulphide fluxes are rare. Apart from seep-restricted sulphide-mining lucinid and thyasirid bivalves, chemosymbiosis was also a source of nourishment for background solemyid and nucinellid bivalves, all of which take sulphide from infaunal sources. This all suggests a relatively weak sulphide flux. The high diversity and low dominance of the fauna and significant richness and abundance of background species is typical for shallow water seeps.