Evolution of provenance areas and petroleum potential of Barents sea Mesozoic deposits: dating of clastic zircon from Fersmanovskaya-1 well and paleogeography reconstructions

The authors present the results of integrated geological and geophysical data and petroleum potential analysis of the Barents Sea region, as well as the new data of U/Pb (LA ICP-MS) dating and morphological studies of clastic zircon on four Triassic and Jurassic sandstone samples taken from the Fersmanovskaya-1 well (the Barents Sea). These works allowed describing provenance of clastic material for Triassic and Jurassic deposits and update the regional paleogeography reconstructions. In the Middle Triassic, terrigenous material was mainly transported from south - south-east - from the Hercynian structures of Polar Urals and Novaya Zemlya (370-220 Ma), Neoproterozoic sequences of the Timansky orogen, and from the Urals Palaeozoic series composed, among others, of the products of Protourals-Timansky orogen scouring (580-525 Ma). In the Late Triassic, the Urals sources remain prevailing, influence of Neoproterozoic zircon decreases sharply, and role of Caledonian zircons in the amount of sedimentary material increases (450-400 Ma). In Early Jurassic, a new source of the Paleoproterozoic zircon (1.95-1.8 Ma) appears in the scouring areas. There were no considerable changes in Middle Jurassic. Therefore, Jurassic transportation of clastic material to the Barents Sea region could take place from south to north and/or from south-east to north-west