BASE - Basement weathering and fracturing on- and offshore Norway

The BASE project "BASE - Basement weathering and fracturing on- and offshore Norway" aims to gain new geological (subsurface) understanding of fractured and weathered basement rocks on- and offshore Norway. Largely relying on recently recovered onshore basement wells and existing offshore shallow boreholes, we will improve the current understanding of offshore unconventional crystalline basement petroleum plays. BASE has started fieldwork in central parts of Norway this autumn, and are finalizing the recruitment process for 3 post-doc fellows for three different work packages (petrology / geomorphology / geochronology). The first publication on postglacial weathering throughout the country has been published in "Geomorphology" and a manuscript on fault patterns in fractured bedrock in central Norway is currently being evaluated in the journal GSA Bulletin. Several outreach products have been published (see appendix) and the first partner meeting of the consortium is scheduled for early January 2022.

By means of environmentally safe and technologically innovative approaches, BASE aims to gain new geological (subsurface) understanding of fractured and weathered basement rocks on- and offshore Norway. Largely relying on recently recovered onshore basement wells and existing offshore shallow boreholes, we will improve the current understanding of offshore unconventional crystalline basement plays, while also further strengthening the correlations between the off- and onshore domains. Together with our five industry partners, BASE will establish an integrated Earth-Science expertise platform for the development and implementation of innovative analytical, technical and conceptual tools and the generation of new geochronological constraints upon- and quantitative understanding of the key processes that govern fracturing, faulting, and weathering of the crystalline basement on- and offshore Norway. The BASE platform will help to guide companies towards a better assessment of basement plays offshore with analogous knowledge from onshore borehole and outcrop studies. The necessary Norwegian geological competence for the onshore part of the study will be provided by the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) and will be elevated and integrated through international partnerships with the University of Bologna (Italy) on the improved structural characteristics of basement blocks. State-of-the-art infrastructures for the characterization and dating of fractured and weathered rocks at the NGU will be further supported by the expertise of our national (NTNU) and international partners (Japan, Canada, Denmark etc). BASE will have a gender-balanced structure at the task-leader level and will incorporate an educational component for three early-career scientists. Supervision and career development plans for the early-career scientists will be realized through partnership with UiT The Arctic University of Norway.