Geology topics

Research about Norton Basin

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Norton Basin.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS1980

Origin of gasoline-range hydrocarbons and their migration by solution in carbon dioxide in Norton basin, Alaska.

Carbon dioxide from a submarine seep in Norton Sound, Alaska, carries a minor component of gas- and gasoline-range hydrocarbons. The molecular and isotopic compositions of the hydrocarbon gases and the presence of gasoline-range hydrocarbons indicate that these molecules are derived from thermal alteration of marine and/or nonmarine organic matter buried within Norton basin. In the gasoline-range hydrocarbons, individual cyclic and branched-chain molecules are much more abundant than straight-chain hydrocarbons. This distribution suggests that the hydrocarbon mixture is an immature, petroleumlike condensate of lower temperature origin than normal crude oil. The submarine seep provides a natural example in support of a carbon dioxide solution transport mechanism thought to be operative in the migration of hydrocarbons in certain reservoirs.

Alaska↗

USGS1980

Preliminary free-air gravity map, Norton Basin, Alaska

Gravity data shown here were measured with LaCoste and Romberg sea gravimeter S-53 mounted on a 3 axis inertial platform (LaCoste and others, 1967, Valiant and LaCoste, 1976). Primary navigation was by satellite, integrated with course and speed measurements from doppler sonar and gyrocompass. Gravity data were filtered prior to recording with a four-minute averaging filter to remove high frequency effects of ship motion and with an 84 minute notch filter to remove Schubert-period oscillations. The gravity computer applied a correction for "inherent" cross coupling error (LaCoste and others, 1967).

Alaska↗

USGS1979

Resource report for proposed OCS lease sale 57: Norton Basin, Alaska

This report is a summary of information about an area of the northern Bering Sea continental shelf that is bounded by the Seward Peninsula on the north, by the line of the United States-Russia Convention of 1867 on the west, and by St. Lawrence Island and the coastline that rims Norton Sound on the south and east. Scholl and Hopkins (1969) report that a sedimentary basin underlies the offshore area. More recent data, which form the basis of part of this report, show the basin is deepest beneath Norton Sound; also, the basin has sufficient depth and areal extent that the basin may be a target for development of hydrocarbon resources after Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lease Sale 57. The informal, but widely used, name for the basin is Norton Basin. The following discussion includes regional geology, geologic history, and offshore structure and stratigraphy as background data to discussion of the hydrocarbon potential and resource appraisal of the offshore area. Sections on environmental geology and on the technology and manpower needed and available for development of offshore resources are also included.

Alaska↗