Barents Sea Arctic Cenozoic Evolution and Paleogeographical Reconstructions

Project Information

BRAVO

Grant agreement ID: 101102324

DOI

10.3030/101102324

EC signature date 14 March 2023

Start date 1 September 2023

End date 30 November 2026

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 306 232,80

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BRAVO (Barents Sea Arctic Cenozoic Evolution and Paleogeographical Reconstructions)

Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2025-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Gateways, seaways, and passages are conduits that connect ocean basins and are crucial features for ocean circulation patterns, today and in the past. Furthermore, oceans are significant drivers of climate change via heat and moisture transport, as reported via global CO2 and O2 levels. Therefore, reconstructing high-quality paleobathymetry-topography is important to produce reliable ocean circulation and climatic models for our scientific community and wider society. The Barents Seaway is an underexplored ocean gateway that played a key role in modulating global climate and ocean circulation patterns in the Cenozoic (the last 66 Myr). A data-driven constraint on timing and geometry of this gateway will provide robust climatic and oceanographic models that are crucial for projecting past climate change to the present and future. BRAVO’s ambition is to provide the most reliable paleobathymetric-topographic reconstruction of the Barents Seaway for the Cenozoic. BRAVO’s results will be self-consistent 4D Earth models (space and time) of paleobathymetry-topography of the Barents Seaway and corresponding sedimentary pathways and accumulation. BRAVO’s research theme on Arctic climate change is aligned well with the recent EU policy on a stronger engagement for a sustainable Arctic and climate.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

1. Paleogeographical modelling using GPlates. We've used publicly available paleogeography and extracted their plate movement directions and velocities. In some cases, we also modified them to match with general understanding of regional and local tectonic development using GMT scripts.

2. Source-to-sink modelling using Badlands. We imported those paleogeography sets to Badlands software. Then, we set other source-to-sink parameters, such as sea level curve, sediment diffusion parameters and tectonic/subsidence uplift rate. The simulation results were then compared with seismic dataset.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The coupling between GPlates and Badlands software is the first development of its kind. This allows for a sediment dispersal simulation in continuously moving plate margins.