Fieldwork
After all these safety-related trainings, we were finally ready to do our job in the field. This part of the course provided us with excellent outcrops (siliciclastic, carbonate and mixed systems) being onshore analogues for the Barents Sea subsurface. My team consisted of three geologists: Marita (University of Bergen), Thomas (Aarhus University) and me. Our task was clear: log the outcrops, prepare daily reports and presentations for the instructors and other groups, interpret facies, facies associations, EoD, systems tracts, key surfaces...
I should simplify that now: conduct a complex sequence-stratigraphic analysis of the given outcrops.
Geology of Svalbard and the Barents Sea shelf (Dallman et al., 1999).
From outcrop to subsurface treasures!
How we were moving and where we lived in the field? M/S Staalbas, quite old but very cosy vessel with kind staff and open-bridge policy. Home, sweet home. Excellent conditions and food (including delicious bread baked on a daily basis). After a whole day spent on logging, we were happy to take advantage of a hot tub :) Just hot water in the middle of glaciers, fjords and wilderness. Very relaxing.
Day 1 we landed in Asvindalen, Billefjorden to work on high-frequency carbonate cycles and log the Upper Carboniferous-Lower Permian Wordiekammen Formation.
FS Stålbas - our cosy and warm home in the Arctic (courtesy of S.A.Grundvåg).
Lars is extremely well prepared for a randez vous with Isbjørn.
Teletubbies before landing onshore.
Approaching, really fast.
Asvindalen, logging Gipsdalen Group.
Locating ourselves on the map.
Higher, higher. Am I on Mars?
Troels, Hans logging hard (left), Lars looking for a new reservoir for Barents. Did it (link below).
http://www.tu.no/petroleum/2013/09/16/sammenligner-lundin-funn-med-gigantfunn-i-russland
Daily office work. And long discussions :)
Day 2 and 3 we moved to the Tertiary foreland basin in Van Keulenfjorden to and work on the steep slopes of Brogniartfjellet. Our aim for upcoming two days was to log the Paleogene Frysjaodden/Battfjellet/Aspelintoppen Formations representing continental and shallow marine environment + look at slope and basin floor system on Storvola (only remotely, but still AWESOME!).
William presenting geology of the area. Beautiful clinoforms...
...and this is how they look like in real.
Our spot for that day. Can you see individual parasequences? :)
Ripples, you see my master...
Tidal environment + bird foot delta. Nice glacier behind.
SSD and... that's not my fault!
Anybody there?
Let's go home guys.
Daily presentation of logged section + preliminary interpretations.
William's story about Storvola.
Closer look at Storvola.
Storvola constitutes the UNIS Field Laboratory, where one is able to look at slope and basin floor system in outcrop scale, this is an excellent analogue for subsurface. It's not weird, that a lot of geological excursions (both academia and industry) visit that place. I also really recommend you to do so.
Day 3 and 4 - time for Ullaberget, also in Van Keulenfjorden. It provides beautiful exposure of the Lower Cretaceous (Helvetiafjellet Formation) succession interpreted to have been deposited in continental, shallow marine and deltaic environment.
Overview of Ullaberget.
Introduction by William.
Groups working on the lower part.
Snorre and Lars supervising.
Lunch break.
CU, TU, SU = Beautiful parasequences.
Progradation you know ;)
Excellent preservation of trace fossils - Diplocraterion (1 feet-long hammer).
Higher and higher...
Roots.
Trough cross lamination in fine-grained sandstone.
Science first! (that was safer than it may seem to be on this picture).
Our group - Marita, Thomas and me.
One of my favourite photographies.
The picture above won the 1st prize in the EAGE/EFG Photo Contest 2014, you can also have it on your own wall buying an official EAGE Calendar 2015 (click link below).
http://bookshop.eage.org/Webshop/product_details.aspx?prod_code=ZA0024&cat_code=MERCHANDIS
Hot tub, pure pleasure.
Day 6 we landed on Akseløya - a narrow island playing a role of a natural dam dividing Bellsund and Van Mijenfjorden. There we had a chance to work on the Upper Paleozoic carbonates of the Kapp Starostin Formation (Tempelfjorden Group).
Landing on Omaha Beach...
Daily duty before logging activities - introduction by Carbonator (Lars) ;)
We found evidence of subaerial exposure!
PSBD (Portable Sequence Boundary Detector) - Frodo.
Lunch break, quite warm and sunny.
Akseløya and my equipment.
Thanks to almost vertical dip of strata, we were able to follow the Upper Paleozoic stratigraphy with just crossing the island.
Closer look at a very prominent fold at Midterhuken, associated with Tertiary transpression.
While retreating, the chopper reported on approaching polar bear. Alert!
Day 6 afternoon - tradition of this course, which is BBQ party on Akseløya. Reasonable portion of beer/wine, hot-dogs and whale steaks - my first time, delicious! Flavour close to a liver :) Dicsussion, field games and more... We transported that all with our small motorboat.
Arranging a BBQ spot.
Me.
Preparing food.
Frodo anchored. Standby, sausage alert!
Consumption in progress.
Full team of sequence stratigraphers AD 2013 :)
Awaiting for pick up, the weather getting worse (and waves getting higher...).
Day 7 - relocation to Adolfbukta, Billefjorden to log complex outcrops representing Billefjorden and Gipshuken Group. Our goal was to look at pre- syn- and post-rift deposits in mixed (clastic-carbonate-evaporite) system. The valley (Kampesteindalen) is really challenging in terms of geology, the section we worked on was interpreted to have been deposited in prodeltaic environment.
Introduction by William and Snorre.
Overview of Kampesteindalen.
Hmm... Water is nice enough, you can swim.
Lunch break nearby the section we logged.
Frodo is also keen on lunch :)
Upper part of the valley, normal fault (50-200 m offset), HC seepage observed.
A view on a tremendous glacier - Nordenskiöldbreen.
Fjord's topography expressed by the distance between the vessel and the shore.
Then we moved to Petuniabukta (geo-sightseeing from Staalbas), to look at Ebbadalen and another rift-related deposits.
Petuniabukta and Ebbadalen. A small, white dot on the shore is the station of my university.
Pyramiden - an abandoned Soviet (and later Russian) coal mining settlement founded in 1911. Although mining activity was uneconomic from the begining, the settlement was abandoned in 1998. It was the northernmost located coal mine in the world. There used to live up to 1000 people in the 1980. decade. Pyramiden is now available for tourists (summer season, issued by up to 10 people of staff), there is a 'hotel' and restaurant.
Geology - the settlement is located right in the Billefjorden Fault Zone, where we were able to observe rift-related deposits such as alluvial fans (see panoramic view). Great analogue for rift basins petroleum systems.
Approaching Pyramiden's "harbour".
Can you read it?
The busiest post office in the world!
Snorre presenting details of syn-rift facies.
Well expressed, prominent alluvial fans on the right side.
The sculpture in memory of...
...the last produced tone of coal - March 31, 1998.
Now you can see how big Nordenskiöldbreen is.
79. North they say.
Comrade Lenin, the same one as in Barentsburg.
Fancy swimming pool, evidence of welfare.
A short visit in the bar.
Thriller theme...
Rotterdam or Singapore? ;)
Day 8 - we move from Pyramiden, Billefjorden to Diabasodden, Sassenfjorden to take a look at outcrops of the Kapp Toscana and Adventdalen Group (Triassic-Jurassic-Cretaceous).
Approaching really fast.
Safe on land, ready to go!
Intro by Snorre.
Just walk along the beach and follow the stratigraphy.
O Sequence Boundary, Where Art Thou? (very prominent).
Let's walk toward the Upper Jurassic.
Just cross the valley. BCU should be somewhere below the snow on the top.
If you are a petroleum geologist, work on the Northern Atlantic province and hear "Upper Jurassic"... you should put two and two together and search for two important elements: very rich source rock (Kimmeridge/Draupne/Agardhfjellet Formation) and BCU (Base Cretaceous Unconformity) - a very important seismic marker in this region.
Kimmeridge Clay Formation on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimmeridge_Clay
Speed logging in the river.
Somebody's watching our backs...
Snorre happy when found organic-rich paper shale...
Power break on the most important source rock in Europe! :)
A cabin, awaiting for the motorboat.
Come back - after that great time spent in the field, we arrived in Longyearbyen. We have now ten days for field report preparation and education before the final exam.
Stålbas back in Longyearbyen harbour.
'Awful' weather in Nybyen when we need to study hard...
On the last day of the course, we all gathered at UNIS and faced 3 h-long written exam. Quite tough, questions were a mix of the field knowledge and theory learnt in the classroom.
To conclude the story, I made my dream about studies in the Arctic come true, learnt a lot, logged excellent outcrops and met fantastic people. I will never regret any single NOK spent on that ;)
Now, it's time to get back to reality in Poland, my M.Sc. thesis is still in progress - the drill cores are waiting for me, new concepts and ideas are on the way!
BONUS - Relay Run - charity event in Longyearbyen a couple days before the exam, we also had our team there: Marita, Thomas, Rasmus, Mikkel and Fredrik. See how crazy uniforms all the participants wore :)
The Sequence Stratigraphers.
Interesting girls (and doggy too).
The winning teams.
