Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wzw2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-02T09:45:12.078Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Halokinetic initiation of Mesozoic tectonics in the southern North Sea: a regional model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

M. R. Allen ,
P. A. Griffiths ,
J. Craig ,
W. R. Fitches  and
R. J. Whittington
M. R. Allen
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Studies, Llandinam Building, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Dyfed SY23 3DB, UK
P. A. Griffiths
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Studies, Llandinam Building, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Dyfed SY23 3DB, UK
J. Craig
Affiliation:
LASMO plc, 100, Liverpool Street, London EC2M 2BB, UK
W. R. Fitches
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Studies, Llandinam Building, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Dyfed SY23 3DB, UK
R. J. Whittington
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Studies, Llandinam Building, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Dyfed SY23 3DB, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The North Dogger Fault Zone is located at the northern margin of the UK Southern North Sea Basin, at the edge of the mobile Zechstein Supergroup, and was particularly active during late Triassic and early Jurassic times. It resembles geometrically, and is related tectonically to, the Dowsing Fault Zone which was initiated in late Scythian time along the southwestern edge of the mobile salt. It is proposed that both of these basin-bounding fault systems were initiated in response to the buoyant growth of salt swells in the centre of the Southern North Sea Basin. Passive folding of the Triassic strata over the swells, which accommodated the shape changes caused by halokinesis, led to extension on the fault zones at the edge of the mobile Zechstein salt.

Type
Rapid Communications
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 131 , Issue 4 , July 1994 , pp. 559 - 561
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cameron, T. D. J., Crosby, A., Balson, P. S., Jeffery, D. H., Lott, G. K., Bulat, J. & Harrison, D. J. 1992. United Kingdom offshore report: the geology of the southern North Sea. London: HMSO for the British Geological Survey. 152 pp.Google Scholar
Glennie, K. W. & Boegner, P. L. E. 1981. Sole Pit inversion tectonics. In Petroleum Geology of the Continental Shelf of North-west Europe (eds Ming, L. V. and Hobson, G. D.), pp. 110–120. London: Heydon & Son.Google Scholar
Griffiths, P. A., Allen, M. R., Craig, J., Fitches, W. R. & Whittington, R. J. (in press). Distinction between fault and salt control on Mesozoic sedimentation on the southern margin of the Mid North Sea High. In Permian and Triassic Rifting in Northwest Europe (ed. Boldy, S. A. R.). Geological Society of London, Special Publication.Google Scholar
Jenyon, M. K. 1985. Basin-edge diapirism and updip salt flow in the Zechstein of the Southern North Sea. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 69, 53–64.Google Scholar
Jenyon, M. K. 1987. Regional salt movement effects in the English Southern Zechstein Basin. In The Zechstein Facies in Europe (ed Peryt, T. M.), pp. 77–92. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Jenyon, M. K. & Cressell, P. M. 1987. The Southern Zechstein salt basin of the British North Sea, as observed in regional seismic traverses. In Petroleum Geology of Northwest Europe (eds Brooks, J. and Glennie, K. W.), pp. 277–92. London: Graham and Trotman.Google Scholar
Van Hoorn, B. 1987. Structural evolution, timing and tectonic style of the Sole Pit inversion. Tetonophysics 137, 239–84.Google Scholar
Walker, I. M. & Cooper, W. G. 1987. The structural and stratigraphie evolution of the north-east margin of the Sole Pit Basin. In Petroleum Geology of Northwest Europe (eds Brooks, J. and Glennie, K. W.), pp. 263–75. London: Graham & Trotman.Google Scholar
Ziegler, P. A. 1990. Geological Atlas of Western and Central Europe, 2nd ed. The Hague: Shell Internationale Petroleum Maatschappij. 239 pp.Google Scholar