Evolution of the Triassic shelf in the northern Barents Sea region

• Published in: Polar Research
• Main Authors: Riis, Fridtjof, Lundschien, Bjørn A., Høy, Tore, Mørk, Atle, E. Mørk, Mai Britt
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Norwegian Polar Institute 2008
• Subjects: Svalbard; Barents Sea; Svalbard Archipelago; Botneheia; Polar Research; steinkobbe
• Online Access: https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2893; https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v27i3.6198

The interpretation of an unpublished data set of shallow stratigraphic cores and deep, seismic profiles from the northern Barents Shelf has provided new information about the Middle and Late Triassic development of the Barents Shelf and Svalbard. At that time, sediment sources along the eastern and south-eastern margins of the Barents Sea controlled the infilling of a previously deeper shelf area, gradually converting it into a paralic platform. Compared with the eastern source, sediment volumes from other areas were small. In our data, there are no indications of a provenance area north of Svalbard. Progradation from the ESE resulted in diachronous lithostratigraphic boundaries. The organic-rich shales of the Botneheia and Steinkobbe formations were deposited in the remaining deeper shelf areas in the western and north-western Barents Sea shelf, from the Olenekian to the latest Ladinian, by which time the progradation from the ESE had reached eastern Svalbard. In mid-Carnian times, the area of paralic deposits extended from the eastern Barents Sea into the Svalbard Archipelago.