Cenozoic sequence stratigraphy of the central and northern North Sea Basin: tectonic development, sediment distribution and provenance areas

• Published in: Marine and petroleum geology Vol. 12; no. 8; pp. 845 - 879
• Main Authors: Jordt, Henrik, Faleide, Jan Inge, Bjørlykke, Knut, Ibrahim, Maged T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 1995
• Subjects: Cenozoic sequence stratigraphy; outbuilding directions; sea-level variations; subsidence-uplift patterns; subsidence-uplift patterns; outbuilding directions; Cenozoic sequence stratigraphy; sea-level variations
• ISSN: 0264-8172; 1873-4073
• DOI: 10.1016/0264-8172(95)98852-V

The Cenozoic succession in the central and northern North Sea has been investigated to establish a regional sequence stratigraphic framework. Changes in sediment distribution indicate a complex pattern of regional vertical movements along older Palaeozoic and Mesozoic structures in Cenozoic times. These vertical movements, mainly related to tectonic processes along the continental margin to the north and north-west, were responsible for the generation and removal of provenance areas for sediments delivered to the North Sea basin through Cenozoic time. During the early through middle Palaeogene, sediments were mainly sourced from areas in the west and from the Atlantic margin in the north. Uplift in the northern North Sea in the late Eocene was, in the earliest, Oligocene followed by marked basin subsidence and tectonic uplift of southern Norway. A similar pattern of tectonic movements resulted in subaerial exposure of the northern North Sea in the early Miocene, followed by significant tectonic subsidence in the basin and along the Atlantic margin in late Miocene-Pliocene times. At the same time, southern Norway was uplifted and became a major sediment source. After the Miocene-Pliocene subsidence-uplift events, glacial processes in southern Norway and fluvial processes in a large drainage area east and south-east of the North Sea were responsible for the main sediment influx to the North Sea. The Cenozoic depositional sequences in the North Sea developed in close interaction with regional tectonic movements and changes in provenance areas. Tectonic movements in north-west Europe overprinted global sea-level changes, so that the generation of depositional sequences and sequence boundaries apparently occurred independently of the rate of eustatic sea-level change.