North Kara and Vize-Ushakov Composite Tectono-Sedimentary Elements, Kara Sea

The North Kara Shelf and adjoining Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago represent a region of a complex tectonic interplay between two large Arctic fold-and-thrust belts: the Early Mesozoic Pay-Khoy–Novaya Zemlya–South Taimyr belt in the SW and the Late Paleozoic Taimyr–Severnaya Zemlya belt in the SSE and east; and an inferred early Carboniferous deformation zone in the north. Contractional deformations of different ages formed a series of basement highs and inverted sediment-cored swells that separate deeply subsided sedimentary basins. In the framework of this volume's terminology, this region consists of two composite tectono-sedimentary elements (CTSEs): the Vize–Ushakov CTSE and the North Kara CTSE. The principal difference between these elements is in the age of the underlying basement rocks, which, in turn, determines the stratigraphic span of the overlying sedimentary successions. In this chapter we characterize the geology of this remote Arctic region based on the available seismic data supported by published results and our own studies.