The Canadian Arctic Islands sedimentary basin covers an area of approximately 530,000 sq mi, with a land area of 306,000 sq mi, and contains an estimated 900,000 cu mi of sediment.

The area consists of 4 major structural provinces. (1) The bordering Precambrian shield areas have structural arches that extend into the basin. (2) The central stable region consists of several basins containing relatively flat-lying shelf carbonates of Ordovician-Silurian age that generally are 5,000 ft thick within the basin and thicken northward to a maximum of 15,000 ft. (3) Inuitian region, a mobile belt characterized by thick sedimentary deposits, was tectonically active from the Paleozoic to the Tertiary. The region is comprised of the Franklinian fold belt and the Sverdrup basin. The Franklinian fold belt is a gently folded lower Paleozoic geosyncline, approximately 1,500 mi long. It contains up to 16,000 ft of Ordovician and Silurian carbonates, evaporites, and shale; up to ,000 ft of Lower Devonian clastic rocks, and 16,000 ft of Middle and Upper Devonian sedimentary rocks ranging from marine carbonates and clastics to nonmarine clastics. The Sverdrup basin, a NE-SW-trending basin approximately 600 by 200 mi contains up to 40,000 ft of post-Devonian to Tertiary rocks. Permo-Pennsylvanian strata are predominantly carbonate and evaporite. The Mesozoic to lower Tertiary are dominated by heavy and continuous terrigenous clastics, in general, basinal marine shale facies and marginal sandstone facies. The axis of the basin is characterized by numerous evaporite diapirs. (4) Arctic coastal plain province is along the northwest edge of the Arctic Islands, bordering the Arctic Ocean in the position of the present continental shelf. It contains late Tertiary and Ple stocene sedimentary rocks.

The Arctic Islands sedimentary basin has all the necessary geologic elements conducive to the entrapment of hydrocarbons in prolific quantities. There is a very thick, lithologically varied, stratigraphic succession representing every geologic period with adequate source beds, and abundant potential reservoir rocks. There is an abundance of diversified traps--large anticlines, reefs, evaporite domes, faulted homoclines, unconformities, and facies changes. Hydrocarbon shows, including "oil sands," seeps, stain, and bitumen are present in a large area and in a wide range of ages. The Arctic Islands is an area in which hydrocarbons shows have indicated outstanding potential for the discovery of large oil fields.

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