Quantification of the magnitude of net erosion in the southwest Barents Sea using sonic velocities and compaction trends in shales and sandstones

Abstract

During specific intervals within Mesozoic and Cenozoic times, several areas of the southwestern Barents Sea were subjected to uplift and erosion. Areas with missing shallow stratigraphic interval sections and major erosion can be seen at several places along interpreted regional profiles in the southwestern Barents Sea. A new Normal Compaction Trend (NCT) for two selected shale– and sandstone–dominated lithologies has been constructed based on sonic logs in the southwestern Barents Sea. The shale– dominated NCT is calibrated to the Cretaceous shales in the Northern North Sea and Norwegian Sea and applied to the Cretaceous shales of the Barents Sea. The sandstone–dominated NCT is calibrated to the Lower Jurassic Åre Formation of the Norwegian Sea and applied to the Lower Jurassic–Upper Triassic coastal plain section in the Barents Sea. By utilising the NCT model, the study estimates net apparent erosion in 28 selected Barents Sea wells based on comparison of sonic log velocities. A net apparent erosion map of the study area was constructed by gridding of the well values. The accuracy of the map is limited in areas with little well control, such as in the northwest, where the east–west transition into the southwestern Barents Sea region is poorly constrained. With that in mind, the map clearly shows two regional trends which dominate the erosion pattern in the study area; an increasing amount of erosion towards the north and a sharp decrease of erosion westwards of the hinge zone into the southwestern Barents Sea. The highest erosion estimates are observed towards Svalbard, with values up to 2500 m. The results of this study can be further utilized in petroleum system studies in the eroded areas.