--> ABSTRACT: An Integrated Approach to Investigating Thermal Histories in Fold and Thrust Belts - an Example from the Sverdrup Basin, Canada, by Dennis C. Arne, Marcos Zentllli, Alexander Grist, Michael Collins, and Ashton Embry; #91019 (1996)

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An Integrated Approach to Investigating Thermal Histories in Fold and Thrust Belts - an Example from the Sverdrup Basin, Canada

Dennis C. Arne, Marcos Zentllli, Alexander Grist, Michael Collins, and Ashton Embry

The interpretation of thermal histories in fold and thrust belts complicated by a variety of factors, such as overthrusting, groundwat recharge and uplift of rocks in response to regional isostatic adlustments. The timing of these events with respect to the formation of structural traps has important implications for hydrocarbon charge models in deformed terrane Vitrinite reflectance (R0) data can be used to determine the timing of structure relative to peak temperatures, whereas apatite fission-track analysis (AFTA) data can be used to determine the absolute time of cooling. Evidence differential cooling across thrust faults can be used to constrain the timing fault movement if it is assumed that cooling was due to exhumation.

The Sverdrup Basin of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago is an intracratonic rift basin initiated during the late Paleozoic. Compression of the Sverdrup Basin occurred during the early to mid-Tertiary Eurekan Orogen Thermal maturity data from the Sawtooth Range, Fosheim Peninsula indicate that thrusting post-dated maximum temperatures in the Mesozoic to Cenozc sequence affected by deformation. Preliminary AFTA data from the hangingwall of the Vesle Fiord Thrust Fault suggest an Eocene time thrusting, consistent with geological and geophysical constraints on the timir of the Eurekan Orogeny. Additional AFTA data from nearby petroleu exploration wells reveal kilometer-scale exhumation on broad, region anticlines during the Tertiary, as well as considerable erosion off-structure. These data suggest that maximum temperatures preceded the formation structural traps during the Eurekan Orogeny.

AAPG Search and Discover Article #91019©1996 AAPG Convention and Exhibition 19-22 May 1996, San Diego, California