Geological setting, composition and morphology of injective sandy bodies in Lower Permian deposits of the south part of Novaya Zemlya are described. Formation of these bodies is interpreted as a result of liquefaction of sandy beds and extrusion of the formed suspension into the host clayey sediments. This process was caused by high sedimentation rates in a prograding submarine fan environment fed with siliciclastics from the rising Urals orogene to the south of Novaya Zemlya.
Two structural-formational zones are recognized in the Devonian and Carboniferous deposits of Novaya Zemlya: the Barents zone and the Kara zone. The first one is characterized by thick, predominantly carbonate deposits, containing a rich complex of benthic fossils, and corresponds to the shelf paleoenvironments. The second one is characterized by thin hemipelagic argillaceous, lime and siliceous deposits, containing scarce pelagic fossils. This zone is suggested to represent bathyal paleoenvironments (slope and basin floor). The main control on sedimentation in both zones provided relative sea-level rises and falls, which repeated with mean periodicity equal to an age (third-order cycles). Sea-level highstands correspord to periods of low sedimentation rates and stagnation in deep-water zone. Sea-level lowstands were favourable to intensification of sediment gravity flows and better aeration of bottom waters.
The Lower Devonian sediments are widespread in the south of Novaya Zemlya and are well represented in sections of different facies marine strata; this has caused close attention to them by stratigraphers. Over the last quarter of a century, thematic lithologic-stratigraphic studies have been repeatedly undertaken in the south of Novaya Zemlya, in the course of which a unified regional scheme of the Lower and Middle Devonian stratigraphy has been developed and continues to be refined
