Rhenium-Osmium in the Arctic
Project Leader: Bernard Bingen, Holly Stein og Judith Hannah
Project duration: 01. January 2007 - 01. January 2012
Samples from five biostratigraphically and geochemically well-characterized sections, representing a broad spectrum of Paleozoic to Mesosoic source rocks, were selected for this study.
Stratigraphic context of the five studied black shale sections. Click to enlarge the image.
The Re-Os team sampling IKU shallow drill cores under supervision of SINTEF Petroleum Research. From left to right: Bernard Bingen, Guangping Xu, Holly Stein, and Judith Hannah.(1) The Upper Jurassic to Lower-Cretaceous Hekkingen Formation is the thickest and most widespread marine black shale with source rock potential in the Barents Shelf. The Hekkingen Formation is available in several shallow wells drilled by IKU (now SINTEF Petroleum Research) in the Nordkapp Basin, Tromsø Basin and Nordland Shelf. Sampling of these is planned for the fall of 2009.
(2) The Triassic Vikinghøgda and Botneheia Formations are exposed in Svalbard in the Central Spitsbergen Basin, and have been the focus of detailed stratigraphic, paleontologic and geochemical studies for decades. We sampled these formations in three localities along the Isfjorden in Svalbard in 2007.
(3) The Triassic Steinkobbe Formation is an offshore correlative to the Vikinghøgda and Botneheia Formations. A black shale is described in the Svalis Dome area of the Barents Shelf from several IKU shallow drill cores. The Steinkobbe Formation is cited as a probable source rock for recent oil discoveries in the Barents Shelf. It is a key research target and was sampled in 2007.
The Re-Os team at Constable Pynt airport, East Greenland, on the way to Triaselv Canyon in Jameson Land. From left to right: Holly Stein, Guangping Xu, Bernard Bingen, Maxence Paul and Judith Hannah.
(4) The Upper Permian Ravnefjeld Formation is exposed in Jameson Land in East Greenland. Stratigraphically, the black shale is close to the Permian-Triassic boundary. We sampled in 2008 the classical section of Permian-Triassic transition along the Triaselv canyon in Jameson Land.
(5) An upper Permian black shale interval was intersected in shallow IKU wells in the Mid-Norwegian Shelf. This interval is hosted in a marine turbidite sequence, and probably correlates with the Ravnefjeld Formation in East Greenland. This section indicates a broader geographic extent for Upper Permian black shales than generally assumed, and consequently permits including an Upper Permian source rock in the Mid-Norwegian Shelf. We sampled this interval in 2008.