From source to sink – A provenance study of late Palaeozoic and Mesozoic reservoir sands in the Barents Sea

Models of the depositional evolution of the Barents Sea region based on seismic data and drill cores indicate that this epicontinental sea was filled in towards the west and northwest in the Triassic (Glørstad-Clark et al., 2010). These models can be tested and refined by direct sampling and provenance analyses of sediments exposed on Svalbard, the uplifted north-western corner of the Barents Sea shelf. The provenance analyses are done by comparing the zircon age populations and other heavy-mineral signatures, such as garnets or rutiles, in the studied sediments with rocks from potential source areas. The source areas of the early Triassic and Jurassic sandstones on Svalbard are not yet known, but zircon age populations from samples collected on Svalbard and Bjørnøya are expected to constrain the source regions.

Samples for our study have been provided by Statoil, colleagues from UNIS and UIO as well as from fieldwork on Svalbard and other parts of Norway. Further selection of samples will be carried out in co-operation with representatives from Statoil and the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. We also plan to analyse heavy minerals from samples of Mesozoic sediments and pre-Mesozoic terrains in Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land and Norway. Permission to analyse samples collected by the Holtedahl-expedition to Novaya Zemlya has already been granted by the Natural History Museum in Oslo.