Deep Structure of the North Kara Terrane Based on Integrated Interpretation of Data along Regional Lines 3–AR and 4–AR

The considered territory covers the northern part of the Kara Shelf and an adjacent onshore of the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago and Taimyr Peninsula. Geophysical investigations (seismic wide-angle reflection/refraction profiling - WARRP, multichannel seismic – MCS, and gravity/magnetic measurements) along regional lines 3-AR and 4-AR allow to connect geological data of the Island Pioneer (Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago) and northern part of the Taimyr Peninsula, and to provide new data concerning the deep structure of the North-Kara Terrane (plate). The purpose of this article is to illustrate new results about the deep geological structures of the North Kara Terrane. The full section of the Earth’s crust with basic crust boundaries and intra-sedimentary horizons was first studied in the North-Kara Terrane. The sedimentary cover is composed of the thick Vendian, and Cambrian terrigenous sediments, mainly carbonate rocks of the Lower and Middle Paleozoic, terrigenous-carbonate deposits of the Upper Paleozoic, and thin terrigenous Mesozoic-Cenozoic sediments. The total thickness of the Paleozoic sediments exceeds the thickness of the overlying Mesozoic sediments to a great extent. New information about deep Paleozoic complexes of sedimentary cover is important for evaluation of the hydrocarbon potential of this northern region.