Geological fieldwork in Northeastern Svalbard: Carboniferous and Permian stratigraphy

Introduction
The project
The fieldwork on Svalbard was conducted within the scope of the on-going projects in cooperation with the Norwegian Polar Institute "Late Palaeozoic sedimentology and stratigraphy of NE-Svalbard" and "Cyclicity of a Permian cold-water platform (NE Svalbard)", part of the geological mapping program on Svalbard (GEOKART). The general aims are to investigate Carboniferous/Permian strata with reg View of geologist side camp

ards to sedimentology and palaeoecology. This is done in order to reconstruct the depositional environment and to interpret sea level and climatic changes throughout the Carboniferous and Permian. Field work conducted during 2004 and 2005 was geared mainly toward Carboniferous strata; the most recent field work conducted during August 2006 concentrated on Permian strata. Future field work expanding on this is also planned for 2007.

The main goals of this cooperative project are:

geological mapping of Carboniferous and Permian outcrops, organizing the strata in the investigation area into litho-stratigraphic units of the different groups,
reconstructing sedimentary environments and depositional processes using facies analyses and other methods,
reconstruction of the palaeogeography by correlating the various vertical sections logged,
comparing Permian and Carboniferous cyclicities for insight on the effects of sea-level changes on depositional environments.

What makes Svalbard special for geologists?
Svalbard is unique geologically in that a complete, practically gap-free succession of rocks can be found on the archipelago from the Pre-Cambrian all the way up to the Tertiary (Geological time scale). This is a great portion of the Earth's history. In most other areas of the world, the rock record is not nearly as continuous, and only represents a much shorter segment of geological history.

But because of Svalbard's remote location and extensive ice cover, less is known about the geology of Svalbard, particularly in the Northeastern region, than in more accessible areas. Svalbard is thus a key research area, as there is still plenty to be explored. The lack of significant vegetation (with no trees, and only 10 % total vegetation in the region) and well-exposed, relatively undisturbed sedimentary deposits additionally make the Northeastern region of Svalbard a good area for Carboniferous/Permian sedimentology.

The content in the following pages outlines some basic geographical, historical and geologic information about Svalbard for general interest, in addition to information on the field work conducted in August 2006 and the further aims of the project.