Comparative analysis of marine paleogene sections and biota from West Siberia and the Arctic Region

• Published in: Stratigraphy and geological correlation 2010-12, Vol.18 (6), p.635-659
• Main Authors: Akhmet’ev, M. A., Zaporozhets, N. I., Iakovleva, A. I., Aleksandrova, G. N., Beniamovsky, V. N., Oreshkina, T. V., Gnibidenko, Z. N., Dolya, Zh. A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Archaeology; Arctic zone; Azolla; Biota; Comparative analysis; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Eocene; Ferns; Geophysics/Geodesy; Historical Geology; Marine biology; Paleobiology; Paleocene; Paleogene; Russian Academy of Sciences; Sedimentary basins; Sedimentation & deposition; Sedimentology; Stratigraphy; Structural Geology; This Issue is Dedicated to the 80th Jubilee of the Geological Institute
• ISSN: 0869-5938; 1555-6263
• DOI: 10.1134/S0869593810060043

The analysis of the main biospheric events that took place in West Siberia and the Arctic region during the Early Paleogene revealed the paleogeographic and paleobiogeographic unity of marine sedimentation basins and close biogeographic relations between their separate parts. Most biotic and abiotic events of the first half of the Paleogene in the Arctic region and West Siberia were synchronous, unidirectional, and interrelated. Shelf settings, sedimentation breaks, and microfaunal assemblages characteristic of these basins during the Paleogene are compared. The comparative analysis primarily concerned events of the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) and beds with Azolla (aquatic fern). The formation of the Eocene Azolla Beds in the Arctic region and West Siberia was asynchronous, although it proceeded in line with a common scenario related to the development of a system of estuarine-type currents in a sea basin partly isolated from the World Ocean.