Kapp Toscana Gp

Name The group is named after a cape on the southern coast of Van Keulenfjorden.

Type area Central eastern Spitsbergen.

Thickness Up to >475 m in Svalbard, up to 2000 m (?) on the Barents Sea Shelf.

Lithology The Kapp Toscana Group comprises shales, siltstones and sandstones of Late Triassic to Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) age in Svalbard and on the Barents Sea Shelf. The group starts with the grey shales of the Tschermakfjellet Formation which normally grade upward into the immature sandstones of the De Geerdalen Formation (Storfjorden Subgroup). This interval contains a number of coarsening-upward successions with increasing proportions of sandstone towards the SW, NE and E, while shales dominate in the central areas of Svalbard. On Svalbard, the upper part forms a condensed clastic sedimentary succession, only a few metres thick in southern and western Svalbard, which gradually is more completely developed towards the east (Wilhelmøya Subgroup). Equivalents on the Barents Sea Shelf show a comparatively thick development (Realgrunnen Subgroup; Worsley et al. 1988). Sandstones and shales also dominate the group in the Barents Sea.

Distribution The group is exposed along the Tertiary fold-thrust belt on western Spitsbergen, in central and eastern Spitsbergen, as well as on Barentsøya, Edgeøya, Hopen, Kong Karls Land and Bjørnøya. It continues in the subsurface between these islands and southwards across the Barents Sea Shelf to the Bjarmeland Platform and the Hammerfest and Nordkapp basins.

Age Ladinian