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EUROPROBE PROJECTS
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TIMPEBAR:
Basement
Control on Basin Evolution |
The lithosphere beneath the sea and ice of the high Arctic is probably the
least known part of the Earth’s crust and mantle. TIMPEBAR focuses
on the evolution of Europe’s north-eastern Arctic shelf, comprising the Pechora,
Eastern Barents Sea and North Kara Sea basins and their fringing terranes, which outcrop
in the Timan Range (northeastern margin of the East-European Craton), Polar Urals, Novaya
Zemlya, Taimyr and Severnaya Zemlya. Research on these areas is being integrated with
on-going studies of the Western Barents Sea and the Svalbard archipelago. The shallower
Pechora Basin and the ultradeep Southeastern Barents Sea Basin host two of Europe’s
most important hydrocarbon provinces.
These basins, together with the still little explored Northeast Barents Sea Basin, are
located in the foreland of the northern parts of the Uralian Orogen. Their evolution and
the age of their underlying crust differs significantly from that of the central and
southern Urals foreland basins. The TIMPEBAR project will contribute to the resource
assessment of this vast frontier area.
In the Pechora Basin, many drill holes penetrate its entire sedimentary fill and bottom in
basement; Neoproterozoic and Baikalian-age rift-related igneous rocks and island arc
volcanics have been reported. Available geophysical and well data provide a substantial
base for analysing the age, composition and structure of the basement. In the Barents Sea,
no wells have reached basement and its age has to be inferred from outcrops on the
mainland and high Arctic islands. Deep seismic profiles crossing the Pechora and Eastern
Barents Sea basins provide evidence of a crustal and upper mantle structure that differs
greatly from that of the Uralide foreland to the south. A vast amount of industrial
reflection-seismic profiles, in combination with results of deep wells, provide an
essential data base for analysing and modelling the architecture and evolution of the
Pechora and Eastern Barents Sea basins.
Analysis of existing data provides the foundation for multidisciplinary
investigations, including:
Determination of the age and composition of the Pechora basement by
geochronological and geochemical analyses of drill-cores from folded Baikalian age (?)
pre-Ordovician successions and their associated igneous and metamorphic rocks.
Complementary studies of the Polar Urals, Novaya Zemlya and Taimyr, where
Baikalian-age terranes occur, locally with ophiolites and high P/T metamorphic rocks.
Interpretation of the crustal structure of the Pechora and Eastern Barents
Sea basins from wide angle and near vertical seismic profiles, integrated with potential
field data.
Analysis of the structure, stratigraphy, sedimentology, metamorphism and
igneous activity of the Timan Range, providing control on the southwestern margin of the
Pechora Basin.
Integrated analysis of Barentsia, underlying the northwestern parts of the
Barents shelf.
Quantitative modelling of the evolution and thermal regime of the Pechora
and Eastern Barents Sea basins; comparison with the central and southern Uralian foredeep
basins.
Acquisition of selected new regional deep seismic profiles both on- and
off-shore (CMP and wide-angle, comparable to URSEIS’95), to obtain an image of the
crust and upper mantle, permitting analysis of their response to a sequence of
contractional and extensional events.
Get the TIMPEBAR text and figures out of the EUROPROBE 1996
publication by clicking on the corresponding text. Click on the figure and see the image
enlarged
PDF-viewers can be obtained through the net
for different operating systems.
Text (PDF file, 470 kb)
For more information please contact the project
leader:
Prof. David G. Gee
Dept. Earth Sciences
Uppsala University
Villavägen 16
S-75236 UPPSALA
SWEDEN
Tel: +46-18/18 23 80
Fax: +46-18/50 11 10
E-mail:eprobe@geofys.uu.se
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