From source to sink – A provenance study of Late Paleozoic and Mesozoic reservoir sands in the Barents Sea. - Annual report 2009

Annual report VISTA 2009
From Source to Sink - A provenance study of Late Paleozoic and Mesozoic reservoir sands in the Barents Sea 

Project director: Andresen, Arild
Post-doc/ scholar: Bue, Edina Pozer
Project duration: 01.05.09- 30.04.12
Technical contact person in Statoil: ??
Division head: Amundsen, Lasse
Project number: 6254

Object:
The Barents Sea formed part of a large epicontinental sea/basin surrounded by various land areas prior opening of the North Atlantic -Arctic oceans in the early Paleogene. These  land areas shed sediments into the area now occupied by the Barents Sea. To reconstruct the paleogeography of the Barents Sea through time, and to test the various paleogeographic reconstructions for the Arctic, we plan to carry out provenance studies of Late Paleozoic and Mesozoic reservoir sands using LA-ICPMS technology to date zircons present in the sediments. By carrying out similar analyses on zircons from the inferred source regions surrounding the Barents Sea (Norway, Svalbard, N and NE Greenland, Franz Joseph Land and Novaya Semlya) we expect to be able to identify the source regions of the main reservoir sands, and thereby to reconstruct the change in paleogeography through time, and the main transport systems bringing sand into the basins.

Status:
Due to a late project start (01.05.09) our results are so far limited.  We have, however, carried out field work in Lofoten (July) and Svalbard (September)  and are now processing the collected material. We have also received material from NPD, colleceted during their cruises to Edgeøya. We have so far analyzed the zircon from 4 stratigraphically different sandbodies in the Svalbard area. The preliminary results were presented at the VISTA meeting in Trondheim in September 2009 and the Nordic Winter Meeting in Oslo in January 2010. The preliminary data are available on request(as a PowerPoint presentation) .
Edina is as a Ph.D. student required to take course work equivalent to 30 credits (= one full semester). She has so far completed two graduate coarses (20 credits) both we very good grades..

Publications:
Bue, E.P., Andresen, A., Andersen, T & Solbakken, R.T. (2010): Provenance of Mesozoic sediments from Svalbard based on LA-MC-ICPMS analyses of clastic zircons: Preliminary results. Abstracts and Proceedings  of the Norwegian Geological Society of Norway, Volume 1,29-30.