Intro:

• 1.5 milllion acres
• 105 miles east west, varying from 16-40 miles north south
• bounded on the west by Canning and Stains River, North by the Beaufort Sea, east by Archilik River, and South by township lines and approximately the 1000 ft. elevation contour.
• 100,000 acres are owned by Native Alaskans (Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation). The village of Kaktovik, population 200, is in the 1002 region on Barter Island. Only village in ANWR.

Geological History:

• "Developement of Devonian to Triassic south-facing (in present-day coordinates) passive continental margin."
• "Northern Part- margin rifted in Jurassic to early cretacious time for an unknown parent continent"
• "Coeval with the North, and arc-continent collision occured in the south, producing and orogenic land  mass and adjacent foreland basin."
• "As the foreland basin filled, continuing deformation resulted in a foreland fold and thrust belt."
• "Youngest foreland basin sediments, where fold and thrust belt intersects and overrides the earlier formed rift margin and when the deformatioin and related sedimentation continues to present."
• More geologically comples that anywhere in Northern Alaska.
• Part of the North Slope geologic provinces.
• Petroleum-prospective rocks aer restricted to mostly the Mississippiand and younger rocks.
• same as in Prudoe Bay and Mackenzie Delta region of Canada

Geography

• Mostly lies within the Artic Coastal Plain physiographic province
• Area is treeless, tundra covered and 99% wetland
• foothills(95%), river flooded plains(25%), hilly coastal plains(22%), lagoons and oceans(5%), thaw lake plains(5%), mountains (less than 1%)

Plate Tectonic Setting

• part of small continental fragment call Artic Alaska microplate
• history-(contreversial) most hypothesises- Cretacous rifting and the opening of the oceanic Canadian basin of the Artic ocean.

Surface Geology

• 95% covered by "a veneer of unconsolidated, frozen sediments of late cenozoic (mostly Quaternary) age, generally less than 100 ft thick.