Unravelling key controls on the rift climax to post-rift fill of marine rift basins: insights from 3D seismic analysis of the Lower Cretaceous of the Hammerfest Basin, SW Barents Sea

• Published in: Basin Research
• Main Authors: Marin Restrepo, Dora Luz, Escalona Varela, Alejandro, Grundvåg, Sten-Andreas, Olaussen, Snorre, Sandvik, Sara, Śliwińska, Kasia K.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2017
• Subjects: VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Geofag: 450::Sedimentologi: 456; VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Geosciences: 450::Sedimentology: 456; Barents Sea; Loppa; Arctic; Finnmark; Hammerfest; Hammerfest Basin
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10037/13669; https://doi.org/10.1111/bre.12266

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Marín, D., Escalona, A., Grundvåg, S.-A., Olaussen, S., Sandvik, S. & Śliwińska, K.K. (2017). Unravelling key controls on the rift climax to post-rift fill of marine rift basins: insights from 3D seismic analysis of the Lower Cretaceous of the Hammerfest Basin, SW Barents Sea. Basin Research , 30(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/bre.12266, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/bre.12266 . This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. In this study, we investigate key factors controlling the rift climax to post‐rift marine basin fill. We use two‐ and three‐dimensional seismic data in combination with sedimentological core descriptions from the Hammerfest Basin, south‐western Barents Sea to characterize and analyse the tectonostratigraphy and seismic facies of the Lower Cretaceous succession. Based on our biostratigraphic analyses, the investigated seismic facies are correlated to 5–10 million year duration sequences that make up the stratigraphic framework of the basin fill. The seismic facies suggest the basin fill was deposited in shallow to deep‐marine conditions. During rift climax in Volgian/Berriasian to Barremian times, a fully linked fault array controlled the formation of slope systems consisting of gravity flow deposits along the southern margin of the basin. Renewed uplift of the Loppa High north of the basin provided coarse‐grained sediments for fan deltas and shorelines that developed along the northern basin margin. During the early to middle late Aptian, the input of coarse‐grained sediments occurred mainly in the NW and SW corners of the basin, reflecting renewed uplift‐induced topography in the western flank of the Loppa High and along the western Finnmark Platform. The lower Albian part of the basin fill is interpreted as a post‐rift succession, where the remnant topography associated with the Finnmark Platform continued ...