Reconstruction of a Transect across the Brooks Range, North Alaska: Insights from RSCM Thermometry, Low T thermochronology and Seismic Study

Maélianna Bigot-Buschendorf

"The Brooks Range, northern Alaska, results from the Mesozoic collision of continental arcs with the Arctic continental margin in the back-arc domain of the Pacific subduction. The detailed tectonic sequence, including patterns of deformational events during the Cenozoic, remains partly unconstrained. This is critical to better understand the large-scale tectonic processes and possible control by climate changes in this Arctic region. To reconstruct time-temperature evolution across the Brooks Range, we integrate results from thermometry using Raman Spectrometry on Carbonaceous Material (RSCM), multi-equilibrium thermobarometry and low-temperature thermochronological data, including (U-Th)/He. Re-interpretations of seismic lines in the Beaufort Sea and Mackenzie delta and correlation of on-shore and off-shore tectonic and deposition sequences are proposed along an orogenic wedge scale profile. We precise the timing of thin-skinned thrusting in the Northern part of the Brooks Range from the upper Cretaceous to the Eo-Oligocene. Timing and rates of exhumation related to out-of-sequence duplexing in the Doonerak window is also quantified. All these data are integrated to understand relationships between the Pacific subduction system, tectonic-climate interactions in the Brooks Range and dynamics of onshore-offshore mass transfer in the Arctic region. "

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90177©3P Arctic, Polar Petroleum Potential Conference & Exhibition, Stavanger, Norway, October 15-18, 2013