North Chukchi–Podvodnikov and Zhokhov–Wrangel Composite Tectono-Sedimentary Elements, East Siberian Arctic

The North Chukchi–Podvodnikov (NChP) and Zhokhov–Wrangel (ZhW) composite tectono-sedimentary elements (CTSEs) occupy the northern parts of the East Siberian Sea and adjacent parts of the deep-water Podvodnikov and Toll basins of the Arctic Ocean. The NChP CTSE formed as a rift basin and includes one of the largest depocentres in the Arctic, the North Chukchi Basin. It contains a 23 km-thick succession of presumably Cretaceous and Cenozoic deposits, which may be underlain by either exhumed mantle or by incipient oceanic crust. Long-offset multichannel seismic profiles and seismic refraction data allow many details of the basin's geology to be imaged. The ZhW CTSE is located in the front of Late Mesozoic New Siberian–Chukchi Fold-and-Thrust Belt. In the Cretaceous and Cenozoic, it was dissected both by late contractional deformation and by succeeding extension, which was probably related to the boundary between the Eurasian and North American lithospheric plates. In this chapter we summarize the geology of the NChP and ZhW CTSEs, and propose a stratigraphic model based on seismic data calibrated with the drilled stratigraphy of the US Chukchi Sea. We also briefly speculate on possible hydrocarbon plays and systems based on an analogy with Arctic Alaska.