Inventory of onshore petroleum seeps and stains in Greenland: a web-based GIS model
Open Access
- 23 September 2021
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland in GEUS Bulletin
Abstract
A new inventory on onshore petroleum seeps and stains in Greenland has been released by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland as a web-based GIS model on the Greenland Mineral Resources Portal: Petroleum Seeps and Stains in Greenland. Knowledge on oil and gas seeps, oil stains and solid bitumen occurrences provides key information on mineral and petroleum systems, especially in frontier basins. As the understanding of recent and previous migrations of fluids and gases is important for both mineral and petroleum explorations in Greenland, this new inventory has been developed to facilitate exploration and new activities. The classification includes the following types of occurrences: (1) oil seeps, (2) gas seeps, (3) mud diapirs, pingos and gas-rich springs, (4) oil stains in volcanics, carbonates and sandstones, (5) solid macroscopic bitumen and (6) fluid inclusions and other evidence of micro-seepage. The inventory comprises detailed information on localities, coordinates and sample numbers. It also includes descriptions of features and geology, references to data, reports and publications. All information is summarised in either a mineral or petroleum systems context. Petroleum seeps and stains have been reported from most Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic basins in Greenland where they add important information on petroleum systems, especially distribution and facies variation of source rocks, petroleum generation and later migration, accumulation, remigration, uplift and degradation. The inventory is designed to be updated with additional localities and descriptions and new organic geochemical data. This paper provides a general overview of classification, nomenclature, organisation and content of the inventory. We introduce the regional distribution of petroleum seeps and stains in Greenland and general interpretations in the context of mineral and petroleum systems.Keywords
This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit:
- A mid-Cretaceous petroleum source-rock in the North Atlantic region? Implications of the Nanok-1 fully cored borehole, Hold with Hope, northeast GreenlandMarine and Petroleum Geology, 2020
- Exhumed hydrocarbon traps on the North Atlantic margin: Stratigraphy, palaeontology, provenance and bitumen distribution, an integrated approachBasin Research, 2019
- Hydrocarbon seeps in petroliferous basins in China: A first inventoryJournal of Asian Earth Sciences, 2018
- Inventory of Onshore Hydrocarbon Seeps in Romania (HYSED-RO Database)Geosciences, 2017
- Unusual resinite-rich coals found in northeastern Greenland and along the Norwegian coast: Petrographic and geochemical compositionInternational Journal of Coal Geology, 2013
- Bitumen biomarkers in the Mid-Proterozoic Ilímaussaq intrusion, Southwest Greenland – A challenge to the mantle gas theoryMarine and Petroleum Geology, 2012
- Chapter 42 Greenland petroleum exploration: history, breakthroughs in understanding and future challengesGeological Society, London, Memoirs, 2011
- Tectonomagmatic events during stretching and basin formation in the Labrador Sea and the Davis Strait: evidence from age and composition of Mesozoic to Palaeogene dyke swarms in West GreenlandJournal of the Geological Society, 2009
- Significance of hydrocarbon seepage relative to petroleum generation and entrapmentMarine and Petroleum Geology, 2005
- Fluid inclusion evidence for a Cretaceous–Palaeogene petroleum system, Kangerlussuaq Basin, East GreenlandMarine and Petroleum Geology, 2005