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Present-day structure and stages of tectonic evolution of Wrangel Island, Russian eastern Arctic Region

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Abstract

Present-day structure of Wrangel Island was formed during two main stages of Mesozoic-Cenozoic deformation. The general fold-thrust structural grain of the island, characterized by northern vergence and complicated by NW-trending right-lateral strike-slip faults, originated in the post-Triassic. Mesostructural data indicate a near-meridional orientation of regional compression. This deformation stage was related to the orogeny in the New Siberian-Chukchi Fold System, which occurred at the end of Neocomian in the pre-Aptian. The next stage was characterized by a near-meridional and NNW-SSE extension established by superposition of normal, right-lateral strike-slip, and pull-apart kinematics upon the former fold-thrust structure. Comparison of the structural and the published seismic data allows us to suggest the later stage of compression to be in the Late Cretacous-Paleocene, which is correlated to the Mid-Brookian angular unconformity in Arctic Alaska and North Chukchi Basin. Accordingly, the Cenozoic age (since Paleocene-Eocene) of the main extension and right-lateral transtension most likely corresponds to opening of the South Chukchi (Hope) Basin localized immediately to the south of the Wrangel-Herald Arch (High). The difference in structural patterns of the Silurian-Lower Devonian and the Upper Devonian (?)-Triassic rocks is evidence for deformation related to the Ellesmerian Orogeny in the Middle-Late Devonian.

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  1. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nakhimovskii pr. 36, Moscow, 117997, Russia

    V. E. Verzhbitsky

  2. Geological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pyzhevskii per. 7, Moscow, 119017, Russia

    S. D. Sokolov & M. I. Tuchkova

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Original Russian Text © V.E. Verzhbitsky, S.D. Sokolov, M.I. Tuchkova, 2015, published in Geotektonika, 2015, No. 3, pp. 3–35.

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Verzhbitsky, V.E., Sokolov, S.D. & Tuchkova, M.I. Present-day structure and stages of tectonic evolution of Wrangel Island, Russian eastern Arctic Region. Geotecton. 49, 165–192 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1134/S001685211503005X

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