Arctic sediment routing during the Triassic - sinking the Arctic Atlantis

• Main Authors: Gilmullina, Albina, Klausen, Tore, Doré, Anthony, Sirevaag, Hallgeir, Suslova, Anna, Eide, Christian
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: California Digital Library (CDL) 2022
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.31223/x5c92p

Opening of the Arctic Ocean has been the subject of much debate, and the placement of terranes in Early Mesozoic remains a crucial part of this important discussion. Several continental terranes complicate the paleogeographic reconstruction. One such terrane is Crockerland, which has been inferred to explain sediment distribution in the Arctic throughout the Mesozoic. However, the Triassic successions throughout the Arctic basins bear many similarities, and a common sedimentary source could offer a simpler explanation with fewer implications for the basin configuration in the Arctic. The study's goal is to test the hypothesis of long-distance sediment transport from a common source to all Arctic basins in the Triassic, and to demonstrate how estimates of sediment routing distances can improve pre-breakup plate tectonic reconstructions. Results confirm that (1) the Arctic basins were closely connected prior to breakup in the Mesozoic, (2) based on regional facies distribution, sediment budgets, sediment modelling and detrital zircon age spectra, the Crockerland terrane is unlikely to have existed, (3) the reconstructed Arctic sediment routing system can help to constrain plate tectonic models, (4) and statistical estimate of sediment transport is a novel and potentially important tool for improving plate tectonic and paleogeographic reconstructions.