Paleozoic Carbonates Record the 4D evolution of Salt Domes in the Barents Sea

Abstract

During the Late Paleozoic, the Barents Sea was at the edge of the Pangea Supercontinent, recording major climatic and oceanographic changes in the large Panthalassa Ocean (Shulgin et al., 2018). These changes preclude major tectonic events in the Urals and further south, in Central Europe (Faleide et al., 1993; Glorstad‐Clark et al., 2010). This paper focuses on a region located ~150 km to the North of Finnmark, in Northern Norway (Fig. 1). It relates, for the first time, how the geometry and distribution of Carboniferous and Permian mounds relates to vertical movements of the Samson Dome, and adjacent platform areas (Fig. 1a). In essence, this work will demonstrated Samson Dome area presented a much different palaeogeography in the Carboniferous and Permian from the present day, hinting at the presence of sheltered (shallow) platform areas away from the salt structures that are imaged, on seismic data, at present (Figs. 1b and 1c). The identification of such sheltered areas suggests that either: a) older salt structures (pillows, ridges) existed away from the Samson Dome and salt was subsequently withdrawn from below them during the Mesozoic, or b) important vertical movements in the Mesozoic led to the subsidence of Paleozoic carbonate platforms.