About This Item

Share This Item

The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 62 (1978)

Issue: 6. (June)

First Page: 1004

Last Page: 1028

Title: Evolution of Sverdrup Basin, Arctic Canada

Author(s): Hugh R. Balkwill (2)

Abstract:

Sverdrup basin, a structural depression near the northern margin of the North American craton, contains a succession up to 13,000 m thick of Lower Carboniferous to Tertiary, marine and nonmarine sedimentary rocks, basalt flows, and gabbro dikes and sills.

The basin evolved in five phases: (1) late Paleozoic, when evaporites and marine muds were deposited in the axial region and carbonates and mature sands on the margins; (2) early Mesozoic, when great thicknesses of siltstone and shale accumulated in axial parts of the basin; (3) middle Mesozoic, when terrigenous clastic deposits accumulated slowly; (4) late Mesozoic, when clastic deposits widely overstepped former basin margins; and (5) late Mesozoic-Cenozoic, when the basin underwent three stages of tectonism (Eurekan orogeny).

Some evaporite diapirs in the basin developed halokinetically, beginning probably in the early Mesozoic; others were generated during Tertiary folding and faulting. Mafic volcanism and intrusion occurred episodically at times of basin foundering. Depending on the availability of imported terrigenous detritus, phases of mafic activity (and foundering) were accompanied by widespread marine transgression or by vigorous basin filling.

The thick sedimentary fill masks the fundamental character of the basin. If acutely starved depositional conditions had prevailed through its Paleozoic and Mesozoic history, Sverdrup basin in the latest Cretaceous would have been a small ocean basin with steep sides, a basaltic floor about 3,500 m deep, and a thin succession of deep marine sediments--fundamental attributes of some modern small ocean basins.

Pay-Per-View Purchase Options

The article is available through a document delivery service. Explain these Purchase Options.

Watermarked PDF Document: $14
Open PDF Document: $24

AAPG Member?

Please login with your Member username and password.

Members of AAPG receive access to the full AAPG Bulletin Archives as part of their membership. For more information, contact the AAPG Membership Department at [email protected].