Skip to main content Skip to secondary navigation

Wrangel Island, Arctic Russia

Main content start

Structures on Wrangel Island are believed to represent the western continuation of the Brooks Range fold and thrust belt of northern Alaska. With renewed explorationof Alaska’s Chukchi Shelf, Wrangel Island represents a unique exposure to test the continuity of structures, lithologies and facies from Alaska to Russia across offshore regions. No significant new data have been published for Wrangel Island since the thorough study by Kos’ko et al. (1993, GSC. Bull. 461). The study of the deformational history of Wrangel Island (Miller et al., 2017) provides evidence that the main structural fabrics are likely related to crustal extension rather than shortening and concludes that the rocks on the island do not represent the western continuation of the Brooks Range fold and thrust belt of northern Alaska.

We visited the island in 2006 with the logistic support of the director and scientific staff of Wrangel Wildlife Preserve.  The trip involved four weeks of waiting for weather clearance for helicopter flights and three weeks of fieldwork, compromised at times by logistics and weather. We carried out geologic mapping, structural measurements and sampled extensively for paleontology, geochronology and thermochronology.  Supported by American Chemical Society, PRF # 45432-AC8.

Satellite photo of Wrangel Island near Alaska, covered in ice.
This image, courtesy of NASA shows Arctic Ice at its maximum measured retreat in September of 2007. Wrangel Island is the small island near Alaska labelled "W". To get to Wrangel, I flew from California to Moscow, then all the way across Russia to an Arctic coastal town of Pevek, where we waited for 17 days for weather and logistic clearance for a helicopter trip to Wrangel. Wrangel Island is a Russian Wildlife Preserve known for its large concentration of polar bear dens, walrus in the fall, muskox and caribou herds, in addition to snow owls, snow geese and a variety of other wildlife.

New Data on the Ages of Sedimentary and Igneous Rocks on Wrangel Island and the Details of the Deformational History

  • Deformational history and thermochronology of Wrangel Island, East Siberian Shelf and coastal Chukotka, Arctic Russia Miller, E.L., Akinin, V. V., Dumitru, T.A., Gottlieb, E.S., Grove, M., Meisling, K and Seward, G., 2017, in, Pease, V. & Coakley, B. (eds) Circum-Arctic Lithosphere Evolution. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 460, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP460.
  • Geochronology of basement rocks on Wrangel Island and Chukotka, Russian Arctic Gottlieb, E. S., Akinin, V. V., Miller, E. L. and Pease, V.,2017, in, Pease, V. & Coakley, B. (eds) Circum-Arctic Lithosphere Evolution. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 460, doi:10.1144/SP460.1
  • Paleozoic and Mesozoic stratigraphy and U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology of Wrangel Island, Russia: Constraints on paleogeography and paleocontinental reconstructions of the Arctic Miller, E.L., Gehrels, G.E., Pease, V. and Sokolov, S., 2010, AAPG Bulletin, v. 94, p. 665-692.

Publications:

Dumitru, T. A., E. L. Miller, P. B. OSULLIVAN, J. M. Amato, K. A. Hannula, et al. 1995. “CRETACEOUS TO RECENT EXTENSION IN THE BERING STRAIT REGION, ALASKA.” TECTONICS 14 (3). AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION: 549–63.

Katkov, S. M., E. L. Miller, I. I. Podgorny, J. Toro, and D. B. Stone. 2006. Deformation History of Central Chukotka (Alarmaut Uplift) Northeastern Arctic Russia. Edited by D. B. Stone. Origin of Northeastern Russia: Geophysical Institute Report UAG-R-330. Paleomagnetism, Geology and Tectonics, University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Miller, E. L., J. Toro, G. Gehrels, M. Tuchkova, S. Katkov, et al. 2006. Detrital Zircon Ages from Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous Myrgovaam Basin Sandstones (Rauchua Trough), Western Chukotka, NE Russia. Edited by D. B. Stone et al. Orign of Northeastern Russia. Paleomagnetism, Geology and Tectonics: Geophysical Institute Report . University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK.

Miller, E. L., V. Verzhbitsky, and Stone et al. 2009. Structural Studies near Pevek Russia: Implications for Formation of the East Siberian Shelf and Makarov Basin of the Arctic Ocean. Edited by Stone et al. Geology, Geophysics and Tectonics of Northeastern Russia: A Tribute to L. Parfenov. Vol. 8. Stephan Mueller Special Publication Series. European Geophysical Union.