Architecture and subsidence history of the intracratonic Hudson Bay Basin, northern Canada

The Phanerozoic Hudson Bay Basin is a large intracratonic basin that is almost completely encircled by Precambrian rocks of the Canadian Shield. The preserved sedimentary succession is up to 2500 m thick and consists mainly of Upper Ordovician to Upper Devonian limestones, dolostones, evaporites and minor siliciclastics that were deposited in shallow marine conditions. Backstripping, based on new paleontological data and well correlations, reveals an irregular subsidence history marked by several periods of exhumation. In seismic data, the Hudson Bay Basin appears to have a relatively simple geometry, characterized by a lower sedimentary package cut by high-angle faults, overlain by a saucer-shape, essentially underformed upper sedimentary package. Normal (or transtensional) faults imaged on seismic reflection profiles provide clear evidence for crustal extension during deposition of the older sedimentary packages or slightly later, indicating that the basin is, at least partly, extensional in nature. However, significant changes in the depocenter location during the Paleozoic and variable exhumation values required by new maturation data indicate that other mechanisms influenced the subsidence/exhumation history of the basin. In particular, the influence of far-field events and dynamic topography transmitted by large-scale mantle flow in the continental interior (creating long-wavelength tilting and unconformities) is suspected but not yet proven.