Paper Summary

Chukchi and East Siberian Seas region represents one of the most remote and poorly studied areas of East Arctic. Wrangel Island is located between East Siberian and Chukchi Seas and composed of metamorphic Wrangelian Complex and overlying Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian and Triassic sedimentary sequences. In the present-day tectonic setting the sequences of the Island are deformed by North-vergent thrust faults and related folds, representing the near-frontal part of Late Kimmerian fold belt of Northeastern Eurasia. The collisional-related deformation probably took place in Neocomian (pre-Aptian) time, as it was shown for Chukotka Peninsula (Katkov, 2007; Sokolov et al., 2002). Sedimentary sequences, exposed on Wrangel Island provide unique information about the age and composition of the Chukchi and East Siberian Seas shelf, very promising for the oil and gas discoveries.