An integrated thermal history study of the Beaufort-Mackenzie basin of northern Canada is underway using multiparameter data gathered as part of a twelve year petroleum systems research project. New and legacy percent vitrinite reflectance (%Ro) data for approximately 81 wells have been compiled and standardized in order to make maps and cross sections showing thermal maturity trends and to provide paleotemperature constraints for thermal models. Data were quality-assessed by comparing measured %Ro values with other temperature-sensitive indicators (Rock-Eval pyrograms, liptinite fluorescence, and degree of apatite fission track (AFT) thermal annealing) and inconsistent legacy %Ro data were reinterpreted in conjunction with new sample analyses. Extensive organic matter recycling is the major issue affecting data quality and interpretation whereas other factors such as sample caving and oil staining (%Ro suppression) are important but less significant. Multikinetic AFT thermochronology data were obtained for 60 (mainly core) samples from 25 key wells with standardized %Ro data to provide constraints on the timing and rates of burial and exhumation across the study area. Also, thermal maturity and shale compaction trends were used to estimate net erosion magnitudes related to multiple phases of Tertiary deformation and exhumation.

Measured %Ro is highest in exhumed strata along the southern basin margin and lowest in thick Cenozoic strata offshore (north) on the Beaufort shelf. Thermally immature strata persist to depths of > 4 km and to temperatures > 100°C on the outer Beaufort shelf due to rapid deposition of the thick (> 2.5 km) Plio-Pleistocene Iperk Sequence. Shale compaction trends suggest that 0.5-2 km of postrift Tertiary strata have been eroded from southern and southeastern onshore areas. %Ro-based erosion estimates are more variable and can give much higher values (by a factor of 3 or 4) than the compaction-based estimates, particularly in the Tertiary fold belt of the western and southern areas of the basin. There is a discontinuous increase in maturity across the unconformity that separates Jurassic synrift and Permian prerift strata along the southern basin margin. In the area south of Richards Island, maturity trends suggest that up to 4 km of Permo-Triassic strata may have been eroded prior to the deposition of Jurassic sediments. In the Anderson Plain to the east, erosion has been more extensive and Devonian rocks lie near the surface. Thermal modeling of AFT data from a Devonian sample in the Kugaluk N-02 well (AFT age: 216 Ma) suggests that exhumation was well underway in the Triassic, possibly in association with the onset of rifting. Exhumation may have continued until the Early Cretaceous, followed by reburial under 1-2 km of Cretaceous-Cenozoic sediments that were removed subsequently by erosion. The %Ro data provide important maximum paleotemperature constraints for integrated thermal history models based on multikinetic, AFT thermochronological data collected for the synrift and postrift successions.