Research paperMesozoic rift to post-rift tectonostratigraphy of the Sverdrup Basin, Canadian Arctic

•Pre-rift deposits were fed by a tectonically active sediment source region.•Rifting began at approximately 200-190 Ma.•Syn- and early post-rift deposits are truncated by an unconformity at ∼135-130 Ma.•The igneous syn- and post-rift record is consistent with a magma-poor rifted margin.

Jurassic-Cretaceous rift successions and basin geometries of the Sverdrup Basin are reconstructed from a review and integration of stratigraphy, igneous records, outcrop maps, and subsurface data. The rift onset unconformity is in the Lower Jurassic portion of the Heiberg Group (approximately 200-190 Ma). Facies transgress from early syn-rift sandstones of the King Christian Formation to marine mudstones of the Jameson Bay Formation. The syn-rift succession of marine mudstones in the basin centre, Jameson Bay to Deer Bay formations, ranges from Early Jurassic (Pleinsbachian) to Early Cretaceous (Valanginian). Early post-rift deposits of the lower Isachsen Formation are truncated by the sub-Hauterivian unconformity, which is interpreted as a break up unconformity at approximately 135-130 Ma. Cessation of rift subsidence allowed for late post-rift sandstone deposits of the Isachsen Formation to be distributed across the entire basin. Marine deposition to form mudstone of the Christopher Formation throughout the Canadian Arctic Islands and outside of the rift basin records establishment of a broad marine shelf during post-rift thermal subsidence at the start of a passive margin stage. The onset of the High Arctic Large Igneous Province at approximately 130 Ma appears to coincide with the breakup unconformity, and it is quite typical that magma-poor rifted margins have mainly post-rift igneous rocks. We extend the magma-poor characterization where rifting is driven by lithospheric extension, to speculatively consider that the records from Sverdrup Basin are consistent with tectonic models of retro-arc extension and intra-continental rifting that have previously been proposed for the Amerasia Basin under the Arctic Ocean.