Geodynamic Conditions of Oil-and-Gas Accumulations in the Ural–Novaya Zemlya Belt

Abstract

This paper provides a brief tectonic and geological overview of the Ural– Novaya Zemlya Forebelt of Oil-and-Gas Accumulation and describes the conditions under which the hydrocarbon deposits were formed in the structures of high- and low-angle reverse faults (upthrust-and-thrust) on the eastern side of the belt. It is shown that the early stages of belt formation are associated with Paleozoic subduction and obduction processes that occurred in the transition zone between the Paleo-European continent and the Ural paleo-ocean located eastward (in modern coordinates) of the continent. The intensive cover-folded dislocations of the western vergency are fixed into the eastern side of the Ural–Novaya Zemlya Forebelt of Oil-and-Gas Accumulation. We associate these dislocations with the continental collision that occurred during the closure of the Ural paleo-ocean in the Late Paleozoic, and in the northern-most segments of the belt, probably in the Early Mesozoic. The structural paragenesis of the eastern side of the Ural–Novaya Zemlya Forebelt of Oil-and Gas-Accumulation includes upthrust–thrusts and thrusts, as well as structural units of different sizes, which were formed under the conditions of latitudinal compression.