Evolution of Mesozoic fluvial systems along the SE flank of the West Siberian Basin, Russia

The Mesozoic stratigraphy in the subsurface of the West Siberian Basin contains prolific hydrocarbon accumulations, and thus the depositional environments of marine and marginal marine Jurassic and Cretaceous age sediments are well-established. However, no information is currently available on strata of equivalent age that crop out along the SE basin margin in the Mariinsk–Krasnoyarsk region, despite the potential of these exposures to supply important information on the sediment supply routes into the main basin. Detailed sedimentological analysis of Jurassic–Cretaceous clastic sediments, in conjunction with palaeo-botanical data, reveals five facies associations that reflect deposition in a range of continental environments. These include sediments that were deposited in braided river systems, which were best developed in the Early Jurassic. These early river systems infilled the relics of a topography that was possibly inherited from earlier Triassic rifting. More mature fluvial land systems evolved in the Mid to Late Jurassic. By the Mid Jurassic, well-defined overbank areas had become established, channel abandonment was commonplace, and mudrocks were deposited on floodplains. Coal deposition occurred in mires, which were subject to periodic incursions by crevasse splay processes. Cretaceous sedimentation saw a renewed influx of sand-grade sediment into the region. It is proposed that landscape evolution throughout the Jurassic was driven simply by peneplanation rather than tectonic processes. By contrast, the influx of sandstones in the Cretaceous is tentatively linked to hinterland rejuvenation/ tectonic uplift, possibly coeval with the growth of large deltaic clinoform complexes of the Neocomian in the basin subsurface.