The Hambergfjellet Formation on Bjørnøya – sedimentary response to early Permian tectonics on the Stappen High

Abstract

On Bjørnøya, the exhumed crest of the Stappen High, the lower Permian (Cisuralian) Hambergfjellet Formation represents the only exposed part of the Bjarmeland Group carbonate platform, which occurs widely elsewhere in the subsurface of the Barents Shelf. A complex stratigraphic architecture has earlier been noted for the Hambergfjellet Formation and thickness estimates range from c. 50 to more than 100 m. Moreover, the unit lacks a formal type section, which hampers accurate regional correlations and comparisons. In this stratigraphic study, we integrate new field observations and microfacies analysis with data from previous work to present a composite section which is proposed as the type section for the Hambergfjellet Formation. Four internal units are recognized. Units A and B (post ?late Asselian–?Sakmarian), which consist of mixed carbonate and siliciclastic rocks interpreted to be of shallow marine origin, are restricted to a series of fault-bounded basins defined by gently rotated basement fault blocks. Locally, units A and B onlap or truncate lowermost Permian strata and appear to transgressively fill in antecedent topography presumably created during Sakmarian uplift and erosion of the Stappen High. The distorted character of unit A suggests that slumping was an important process during the initial phase of infilling, amid or soon after transgression. Unit C (?Sakmarian–?early Artinskian) is a thick-bedded, sheet-like limestone unit which contains fauna elements consistent with deposition on a warm-water carbonate platform occasionally subject to subaerial exposure. Unit D (late Artinskian) is a brachiopod-dominated, fusulinid-bearing, bioclastic limestone unit deposited on a fully marine, transitional warm-temperate to cool-water carbonate platform which developed during a late Artinskian circum-Arctic transgression. The unit only occurs in the eastern part of the outcrop belt on southern Bjørnøya due to fault-controlled tilting and peneplanation prior to deposition of the Miseryfjellet Formation (Kungurian–Wordian) limestones. Distinct evidence, including breccia pipes, points to prolonged exposure and karstification of the Hambergfjellet Formation carbonate platform prior to transgression and submergence of the Stappen High in the middle to late Permian (Guadalupian). The presence of angular and highly diachronous unconformities at the base and top of the formation, a series of small grabens, internal dip variations, as well as a conspicuous north to north-eastward thinning manifest tectonism pre-dating the late Permian extensional event along the western Barents Shelf margin. As such, we shed a new light on the Permian tectonostratigraphic evolution of the Stappen High.