Siberian Origins of Neoproterozoic to Upper Triassic Rocks of Arctic Alaska

Evidence for a connection of the Arctic Alaska plate (including Chukotka) with Siberia from Cambrian until Late Triassic time can be made on the basis of paleobiogeography. Arctic Alaska contains a number of biogeographically distinctive megafossils for select time intervals, notably the Middle Cambrian, Early and Late Ordovician, Early and Middle Devonian, Mississippian, and Late Triassic. Middle Cambrian trilobites are strictly Siberian in affinity, but also show close affinities with coeval trilobites from the Farewell terrane of SW Alaska. Late Ordovician brachiopods, gastropods, trilobites, and ostracodes are known from the Shublik Mountains, NE Brooks Range and York Mountains of the Seward Peninsula. Affinities are likewise primarily with Siberia (sharing the primarily Siberian pentameroid brachiopod genera Tcherskidium and Eoconchidium and the strictly Siberian trilobite genus Monorakos), but also with the Farewell terrane. Late Early Devonian and Middle Devonian brachiopods and calcareous green algae from Arctic Alaska are similarly allied with Siberia and the Farewell and Alexander terranes of southern Alaska. Early Mississippian faunas from the lower part of the Lisburne Group and underlying Endicott Group contain relatively widespread fauna, including taxa recognized both in North America and Eurasia, consistent with the relatively cosmopolitan paleobiogeographic conditions of this interval. However, Late Mississippian brachiopod fauna from the upper part of the Lisburne Group contain many brachiopods of strictly Eurasian affinities, notably the gigantoproductids, which are unknown in cratonic North America, but widespread across Eurasia and even North Africa. Late Mississippian lycopods from this terrane have previously been noted as demonstrating strong Angaran affinities. Permian faunas of Arctic Alaska show strong affinities as well with the Siberian Arctic, virtually lacking any fusilinids and reefal buildups, which in contradistinction are commonly found in the Canadian Arctic Islands Richly diverse Upper Triassic fauna (halobiid and monotid bivalves, brachiopods) are present in the both the Shublik Formation and Otuk Group. These show closer affinities with NE Siberia rather than to western or northern North America, suggesting close spatial relationships between Siberia and Arctic Alaska at least until Late Triassic time. Sedimentary provenance studies in eastern Brooks Range Precambrian rocks indicate age ranges that are dissimilar to Proterozoic detrital-zircon ages from clastic rocks of the northern Canadian Cordillera and Canadian Arctic Islands where a detrital source within the Grenville orogen is indicated. Paleocurrent directions for the Neoproterozoic Katakturuk Dolomite in the northeast Brooks Range and similar-age units in the adjacent Victoria Island and Amundsen Basin are in approximately 100 degree opposition for a counterclockwise rotational- restored Arctic Alaska. Upper Devonian clastics of northern Alaska are in 180 degree opposition to coeval units in the Canadian Arctic Islands when the Arctic Alaska plate is restored in the rotational model. Therefore, based on paleobiogeography, sediment provenance, stratigraphy and sedimentology, tectonic models for the opening of the Canada Basin must take into account that Triassic and older rocks in Arctic Alaska have Siberian origins or were deposited proximal to Siberia.