New insights into the stratigraphy and petroleum potential of the Baffin shelf's Cretaceous rocks

Abstract

Abstract Cretaceous rocks underlie most of the northeast Baffin shelf, are present in Cumberland Sound, and may underlie the southeast Baffin shelf. New palynological, Rock Eval, and vitrinite reflectance analyses of bedrock samples, obtained from the Baffin shelf and Hudson Strait during a shallow core-hole drilling programme undertaken in the 1970s and 1980s, provide a better understanding of the stratigraphy and petroleum potential of the region. The samples from the Buchan Gulf, Scott Inlet, and Home Bay areas on the northeast Baffin shelf, which were originally considered to be of primarily Campanian age, are now considered to be Coniacian to early Campanian. Non-marine Aptian-Albian rocks occur in the Padloping area, farther south along the northeast Baffin shelf, and in Cumberland Sound. Based on Rock Eval and vitrinite reflectance data, the Cretaceous rocks sampled on the Baffin shelf contain gas-prone Type III kerogen and are immature to marginally mature. However, the presence of an oil seep off Scott Inlet indicates that more mature source rocks capable of generating oil exist in the region. Additional shallow cores would further define the biostratigraphic and geochemical aspects of strata on the Baffin shelf.