Sedimentary facies and palaeogeography of the Arctic area in Russia during the Precambrian

Five palaeogeographic units have been distinguished for the Arctic area in Russia during the Precambrian, including bathyal-abyssal, shallow sea, littoral, alluvial and uplift areas. The sedimentary records are absent in the uplift areas. The conglomerate + sandstone + mudstone and metamorphic clastic rocks + carbonate rocks associations prevail over the alluvial areas. In the littoral to shallow sea areas, the deposits consist dominantly of metamorphic clastic rocks + carbonate rocks associations, evaporate + carbonate rocks associations and sandstone + mudstone + carbonate rocks associations, with locally evaporate and conglomerate + sandstone + mudstone associations. In the bathyal-abyssal areas, oceans are widespread. During the Precambrian, the littoral to shallow sea areas once predominated, and occupied the East Siberian Platform, West Siberian Basin, Ochotsk block, Chukchi block and northern Barents Sea block. The bathyal-abyssal areas appeared only in the areas east of the West Siberian Basin. The uplifted areas appeared in the Baltic Shield and its adjacent areas, Anabar block and Aldan Shield within the East Siberian Platform, The alluvial areas were restricted to the central part of the Timan-Pechora Basin. It follows that the Precambrian strata occur on a wide range of scales in the Arctic area in Russia, and lithologically consist of carbonate rocks and metamorphic clastic rocks. The approaches to the sedimentary facies and palaeogeography of the Arctic area in Russia during the Precambrian may provide useful information for the studies of the sedimentary facies and palaeogeography in other geological times.