Arctic geology and petroleum potential / Геология и нефтегазоносность Арктики

Significant thicknesses of organic-rich shales accumulated under predominantly marine depositional conditions in the Arctic region during the Mesozoic era. Deposition of these shales was most prevalent during the Triassic and Late Jurassic, but also extended into the Cretaceous in Arctic North America. 
Triassic organic-rich shales are represented by the Sassendalen Group of Svalbard and its equivalents in the Barents Sea, the Schei Point and Blaa Mountain Groups of the Sverdrup Basin, and the Shublik Formation of northern Alaska and adjacent northwestern Canada. The oldest Triassic organic-rich shales are the mid-Early Triassic shales of the Barents Sea and northeastern Sverdrup Basin, whereas the youngest are the Upper Triassic shales of Canada and Alaska. Deposition of these shales was most widespread during the Middle Triassic. Organic geochemical data indicate a remarkable degree of similarity in the character of the organic matter in the Triassic shales over the entire region. 
Deposition of organic-rich shales occurred over a greater area during the Late Jurassic, as represented by the Hekkingen and Janusfjellet Formations of the western Barents Shelf, the Bazhenov Formation of Western Siberia and the dark shales of the Timan-Pechora Basin, the Ringnes Formation of the Canadian Arctic Islands and the Kingak Shale of Alaska. Organic-rich shales of the Pebble Shale Unit and Hue Shale of northern Alaska, the Boundary Creek and Smoking Hills Formations of the Beaufort-Mackenzie Basin and the Kanguk Formation of the Sverdrup Basin represent important potential source-rocks of Cretaceous age in the North American Arctic. 
The occurrence of potential hydrocarbon source-rocks in the Barents Sea and adjacent areas is controlled by both regional palaeogeography and local depositional conditions. Prediction of source-rock character is vital to the evaluation of a potential exploration area, and definition of the depositional constraints on organic-rich shale occurrence is an important objective for further work. <...>