Devonian–Permian sedimentary basins and paleogeography of the Eastern Russian Arctic: An overview

Abstract

The Arctic basins attract broad international interest because of the region's potentially significant undiscovered hydrocarbon resources. The Russian High Arctic ismostly represented by broad shelves, with a few wells drilled only in its western part (Kara and Barents shelves). This contribution provides an overview of the geological setting, stratigraphy, paleogeography, and tectono-sedimentary evolution of themiddle–late Paleozoic basins of the Eastern Russian Arctic, including: Severnaya Zemlya, the New Siberian Islands, northern Siberia, the Taimyr and Chukotka peninsulas, and Wrangel Island. Reconstructing the geological evolution of the Eastern Russian Arctic during the middle–late Paleozoic is very difficult because the region was overprinted by a number of late Paleozoic to early Mesozoic tectonic events.