Structure and evolution of the Northeastern German Basin and its transition onto the Baltic Shield

The post-Permian sequence stratigraphical and structural evolution of the Northeastern German Basin and its transition onto the Baltic Shield has been studied in the Bay of Mecklenburg (SW Baltic Sea) by means of seismic interpretation. Five major sequences have been identified: Middle Triassic, Upper Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous and Cenozoic. Time–isochore maps allowed the identification of several phases of salt pillow growth. The contemporaneity of active salt tectonics and the well studied tectonic evolution of the Northeastern German Basin suggest a causative correlation. The E–W directed extension during the Triassic-Early Jurassic marking the beginning break-up of Pangaea is seen as the trigger process for the first period of salt movement. A fault system outside the limit of the Zechstein evaporates is understood as the consequence of thin-skinned faulting and brittle thick-skinned deformation that accompanied this extension. The observed pronounced erosion of Upper Triassic and Lower Jurassic strata is considered to result from the uplift due to the Mid North Sea Doming event in Middle Jurassic times. The seismic data show an undisturbed Late Cretaceous succession which reflects a period of rising sea level, tectonic quiescence and no salt movement. In contrast to the salt pillows which emerged above Triassic fault systems in the westernmost Baltic and western North German Basin, the Cenozoic salt movement activity is the most pronounced. This period of reactivated salt pillow growth started coevally with the onset of the Alpine orogeny at the Cretaceous/Cenozoic transition when the Africa-Arabian plate collided with Eurasia. Generally, no significant faults were identified in the overburden of the salt floored southern Bay of Mecklenburg where ductile Zechstein salt decouples deep rooted faulting from supra-salt deformation.     

Re-entrants of Zechstein Z2 salt in the Mid North Sea High

The study of recently-acquired seismic data in the Southern Basin of the British North Sea has led to identification of some interesting re-entrant channels of Zechstein Z2 (Stassfurt) salt rock projecting northwards from the Southern Salt Basin into the Mid North Sea High (MNSH) area. The lithostratigraphic relationships of the various Zechstein units in these re-entrants and on the adjacent shelf areas, together with their morphology, are discussed, and there is speculation as to the reasons for the occurrence of MNSH low areas which are not related to faulting.     

On the structural evolution of the Central Trough in the Norwegian and Danish sectors of the North Sea

The Central Trough of the North Sea is not a simple rift graben. It is an elongated area of regional subsidence which was initiated in mid Cretaceous times and continued to subside through to the late Tertiary. Its form is not representative of pre-mid Cretaceous tectonics.In Late Permian times the North Sea was divided into a northern and southern Zechstein basin by the E-W trending Mid North Sea-Ringkøbing-Fyn High. The latter was dissected by a narrow graben trending NNW through the Tail End Graben and the Søgne Basin. The Feda Graben was a minor basin on the northern flank of the Mid North Sea High at this time. This structural configuration persisted until end Middle Jurassic times when a new WNW trend separated the Tail End Graben from the Søgne Basin. Right lateral wrench movement on this new trend caused excessive subsudence in the Tail End and Feda Grabens while the Søgne Basin became inactive.Upper Jurassic subsidence trends continued during the Early Cretaceous causing the deposition of large thicknesses of sediments in local areas along the trend. From mid Cretaceous times the regional subsidence of the Central Trough was dominant but significant structural inversions occurred in those areas of maximum Early Cretaceous and Late Jurassic subsidence.     

Jurassic to Early Cretaceous basin configuration(s) in the Fingerdjupet Subbasin,SW Barents Sea

The Fingerdjupet Subbasin in the southwestern Barents Sea sits in a key tectonic location between deep rifts in the west and more stable platform areas in the east. Its evolution is characterized by extensional reactivation of N-S and NNE-SSW faults with an older history of Late Permian and likely Carboniferous activity superimposed on Caledonian fabrics. Reactivations in the listric NNE-SSW Terningen Fault Complex accommodated a semi-regional rollover structure where the Fingerdjupet Subbasin developed in the hangingwall. In parallel, the Randi Fault Set developed from outer-arc extension and collapse of the rollover anticline.N-S to NNE-SSW faults and the presence of other fault trends indicate changes in the stress regime relating to tectonic activity in the North Atlantic and Arctic regions. A latest Triassic to Middle Jurassic extensional faulting event with E-W striking faults is linked to activity in the Hammerfest Basin. Cessation of extensional tectonics before the Late Jurassic in the Fingerdjupet Subbasin, however, suggests rifting became localized to the Hammerfest Basin. The Late Jurassic was a period of tectonic quiescence in the Fingerdjupet Subbasin before latest Jurassic to Hauterivian extensional faulting, which reactivated N-S and NNE-SSW faults. Barremian SE-prograding clinoforms filled the relief generated during this event before reaching the Bjarmeland Platform. High-angle NW-prograding clinoforms on the western Bjarmeland Platform are linked to Early Barremian uplift of the Loppa High. The Terningen Fault Complex and Randi Fault Set were again reactivated in the Aptian along with other major fault complexes in the SW Barents Sea, leading to subaerial exposure of local highs. This activity ceased by early Albian. Post-upper Albian strata were removed by late Cenozoic uplift and erosion, but later tectonic activity has both reactivated E-W and N-S/NNE-SSW faults and also established a NW-SE trend.     

华北板块东部新生代断裂构造特征与盆地成因

华北板块东部新生代的构造特征及动力学演化主要受左行郯庐断裂带和右行兰考-聊城-台安-大洼-法哈牛断裂带的控制。这两条断裂都是新生代岩石圈断裂。在兰考-聊城-台安-大洼-法哈牛断裂带以西,新生代伸展盆地为NNE走向的铲形正断层控制的箕状断陷;两断裂之间为北断南超的NWW走向的断陷盆地;郯庐断裂以东的北黄海盆地为南断北超的Nww走向的断陷盆地。这些构造特征继承了该区中生代的构造格局,但其构造性质发生了根本变化,在这两条走滑方向相反的断裂带控制下,这两条断裂带内古近纪以张扭作用下的裂陷为主,随后以伸展断陷为主,第四纪沿两断裂带局部发生挤压,而鲁西地块和渤海湾盆地区仍然为伸展正断。渤海湾盆地及邻区这些新生代复杂的断块或断裂构造格局受控于应力-应变-基底格局3个基本要素。     

南海北部深水区东西构造差异性及其动力学机制

南海北部深水区位于南海洋陆转换带,构造运动活跃,构造特征复杂。同时,南海北部深水区石油、天然气、天然气水合物等矿产资源丰富。因此,加强南海北部深水盆地构造特征分析,揭示南海北部陆缘构造属性与南海形成演化机制,对于南海深部过程演变研究、油气资源评价与地质灾害防治等具有重要的意义。本论文通过对南海北部深水区陆架-陆坡结构、盆地构造特征与演化规律的分析,指出研究区东西存在明显的构造差异性,并分析了其动力学机制。南海北部深水区东部陆架-陆坡结构为宽洼窄隆型,而西部为窄洼宽隆型。东部珠江口盆地深水凹陷均为半地堑结构,剖面上呈不对称的箕状;西部琼东南盆地除北礁凹陷为南段北超的小型半地堑外,其它凹陷均为地堑结构,为南北双断式沉积体系。在构造演化方面,东部中中新世末结束裂后期进入新构造活动期,白云凹陷构造活动性增强,表现为快速的沉降和显著的晚期断裂作用;而西部晚中新世末才进入新构造活动期,深水区表现为快速沉积作用,断裂活动较弱。     

北黄海盆地西部坳陷地质构造特征及演化

北黄海盆地位于华北地台东南部,北为辽东隆起,东为朝鲜北部地块,包括6个彼此分割的二级构造单元。北黄海西部坳陷位于盆地西部,构造较复杂,发育5条主要断层及一些次级断层,具有拉张、扭动、反转等3种构造样式,以拉张正断层为主。其形成演化与北黄海盆地的构造演化史密切相关,经历了从中生代到新生代的多期演化,包括中生代断陷、古近纪叠加断陷、新近纪拗陷等3个主要演化阶段。     

东海陆架盆地中生代残留地层特征及其构造启示

东海陆架盆地是位于中国东部华南大陆边缘的一个中、新生代叠合盆地,具有较大油气潜力。目前东海陆架盆地油气的发现均来自于新生界,对中生代残留地层的各方面特征认识不足:在空间上通常集中于特定构造单元,且基本位于盆地西部;在时间上主要涉及白垩纪和侏罗纪,且多是定性或半定量的研究。本文在前人研究的基础上,收集、整理了研究区目前最新、最全的反射地震资料和钻井数据,从钻遇中生界井的标定出发,以地震资料的层序划分和解释为基础,进行残留地层的研究,空间上统一盆地东、西两大坳陷带,时间上统揽白垩纪、侏罗纪以及前侏罗纪三个时期。结果表明,东海陆架盆地中生代残留地层遭受了后期严重的剥蚀改造,总体呈现东厚西薄、南厚北薄的特征,残留地层范围随时间不断东扩。对比各时期残留地层平面展布特征,揭示了东海陆架盆地的演变过程:三叠纪时期盆地原型为被动大陆边缘坳陷型盆地,早、中侏罗世时期为活动大陆边缘弧前盆地,晚侏罗世—晚白垩世时期为大陆边缘弧后伸展盆地;与此相对应,古太平洋板块俯冲肇始于晚三叠世—早、中侏罗世时期,板块后撤始于晚侏罗世。东海陆架盆地在中生代的东侧边界位于钓鱼岛隆褶带的东侧。     

Lower Tertiary volcanic rocks off Kristiansund — Mid Norway

Grab samples from the Norwegian continental shelf show that diapiric structures occurring within a sequence of Mesozoic and Tertiary sediments represent volcanic rocks consisting of porphyritic olivine-nephelinite. The KAr age of 55.7 ± 0.9 m.y. shows that the area affected by Lower Tertiary magmatism in the North Atlantic region also included the continental shelf off Mid Norway. The highly undersaturated nature of these volcanic rocks, however, indicates that they are unlikely to be closely related to the widespread tuff horizons of the same age known from the North Sea.     

Evolution of the western Barents Sea

Information from multichannel seismic reflection data complemented by seismic refraction, gravity and magnetics forms the basis for a regional structural and evolutionary model of the western Barents Sea during post-Caledonian times. The western Barents Sea contains a thick succession, locally > 10 km, of Upper Paleozoic to Cenozoic sedimentary rocks covering a basement of probably Caledonian origin. The area is divided into three regional geological provinces: (1) an east-west trending basinal province between 74°N and the coast of Norway; (2) an elevated platform area to the north towards Svalbard; and (3) the western continental margin. Several structural elements of different origin and age have been mapped within each of these provinces. The main stratigraphic sequence boundaries have been tentatively dated from available well information, correlation with the geology of adjacent areas, and correlation with the interregional unconformities caused by relative changes of sea level. The main structural elements were developed during three major post-Caledonian tectonic phases: the Svalbardian phase in Late Devonian to Early Carboniferous times, the Mid and Late Kimmerian phase in Mid Jurassic to Early Cretaceous times and Cenozoic tectonism related to the progressive northward opening of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea. The sediments are predicted to be of mainly clastic origin except for a thick sequence of Middle Carboniferous — Lower Permian carbonates and evaporites. Salt diapirs have developed in several sub-basins, especially in the Nordkapp Basin where they form continuous salt walls that have pierced through > 7 km of sediments.     

Geological structure and petroleum resource potential of the North Sea basin

The North Sea basin occupies a spacious depression almost isometric in shape. In the west and northwest, the basin is bordered by the continental crust consolidated during the Precambrian, Caledonian, and Hercynian orogenic epochs, which now forms epiplatformal orogenic structures. They are represented by the London-Brabant uplift and the Arden massif in the southwest and south and the Baltic Shield in the east and northeast. The North Sea basin may be considered as an ancient aulacogen that was transformed in the Early Mesozoic into a complex system of continental rifts and grabens. The sedimentary cover of the basin is represented by a thick (8.5?C12.5 km) Ordovician-Quaternary sequence. Oil and gas generation in the sedimentary cover of the basin is likely connected with four main productive sequences: the coaliferous Upper Carboniferous (Westphalian), the subsalt Zechstein, the Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous (Lotharingian, Toarcian, Kimmeridgian, and Weldian bituminose shales), and the shaly Cenozoic. The large oil and gas reserves in the North Sea??s sedimentary cover (over 280 fields) implies that the above-mentioned sequences have realized their oil-generating potential. The present-day position of the main oil and gas generation zones in the sedimentary section of the North Sea explains the distribution of the oil and gas fields through the basin from the genetic standpoint. The petroleum resource potential of the basin is still significant. In this regard, most promising are the spacious shelf areas, turbidite sediments, deep Paleozoic sequences, and continental slopes in the northern part of the basin, which remains insufficiently investigated.     

Late Devonian rifting in the central North Sea: Evidence from altered felsic volcanic rocks in the Embla oil field

In the Embla oil field on the northern flank of the Mid North Sea High, the central North Sea, multiple quartz porphyric volcanic beds at ca. 4600 m depth form part of a volcano-sedimentary interval above the Caledonian basement as interpreted from seismic data. Zircon U–Pb laser ablation ICPMS date one bed to 374 ± 3 Ma, indicating that the volcanic rocks and interbedded sediments are early Famennian and correlate to the Buchan Formation. The volcanic rocks have been extensively clay and carbonate altered in a near-surface environment, but high field strength element data show that the protoliths were alkali rhyolites, yielding intra-plate signatures in tectonic discrimination diagrams. Famennian quartz porphyric volcanic rocks have also been reported from well A17-1 on the southern flank of the Mid North Sea High. The Famennian volcanism on the northern and southern flanks testify to an active magmatic environment in the central North Sea in the early Famennian, supporting the existence of a late Devonian proto-Central Graben rift extending northwards into the central North Sea. The rift is likely an early example of strain localisation to a zone of reduced crustal strength along the Caledonian suture between Avalonia and Baltica.     

华南中生代岩相变化及海相地层时空分布

在搜集大量资料的基础上，分析了华南中生代地层时代、岩性、岩相对比关系，重点综述了中生代海相地层的时空分布特征。受所处构造部位的控制，华南中生代岩相时空变化总体上可分为3个区：东区(闽西南-粤东-粤北-粤中)、中区(粤西-桂东)、西区(滇西-滇东南)。中区在早三叠世以后完全隆升成陆，仅局部有山间盆地碎屑沉积。海相地层集中于东西两区，但存在明显的东西差异：海侵时间在东区为早三叠世、晚三叠世-早侏罗世和早白垩世，西区为中三叠世和中侏罗世；海侵方向在东区来自东南，西区则为中特提斯滇缅海的-部分。晚三叠世-早侏罗世的粤东海盆发育厚达5000m的海相和海陆交互相沉积，可能向南延伸到台西南盆地和南沙群岛东部，但它与南海西部围区的同时代海盆并不直接相通。     

台西盆地乌丘屿凹陷新生代构造演化特征

以区域地质、地震等资料为基础,系统研究了台西盆地乌丘屿凹陷构造特征及其形成演化。台西盆地的发育受欧亚板块、印度板块、太平洋板块和菲律宾海板块4大板块共同作用的影响。中生代晚期,台西盆地区域应力场从挤压转为松弛,地壳拉张减薄。新生代初期拉张形成裂谷,乌丘屿凹陷是在此背景下发育而成东断西超的半地堑式陆缘断陷。乌丘屿凹陷的构造发育与演化过程,可分为4个阶段,分别为中生代晚期的裂前阶段、古新世至渐新世的断陷阶段、中新世的坳陷阶段和上新世至第四纪的区域沉降阶段。     

Regional sedimentology and petroleum geology of marine,late Bathonian-Valanginian sandstone in the North Sea

A large number of marine, late Bathonian-Valanginian sandstone units have been identified in the North Sea, north of the Mid North Sea High. This paper discusses their complex areal distribution and outlines sedimentological models. The sandstone formations are interpreted as shallow marine, transgressive and regressive units interbedded with beach, lagoonal and coastal plain deposits. Coarse grained scarp fed fans occur along fault-controlled rift margins.The total proven recoverable reserves in these sandstone reservoirs are 2.3 x 10⁹ ton oil equivalent, of which approximately one third is oil. The play types are intimately linked with the Mesozoic rift system of the Viking, Witch Ground and Central Grabens. Along this rift system the sand units provide good trapping potential and they are generally interbedded with or lie immediately below the Kimmeridgian-Ryazanian source rocks, so that migration paths are relatively simple and migration efficiency is high.     

Different expressions of rifting on the South China Sea margins

Rifting of continental margins is generally diachronous along the zones where continents break due to various factors including the boundary conditions which trigger the extensional forces, but also the internal physical boundaries which are inherent to the composition and thus the geological history of the continental margin. Being opened quite recently in the Tertiary in a scissor-shape manner, the South China Sea (SCS) offers an image of the rifting structures which varies along strike the basin margins. The SCS has a long history of extension, which dates back from the Late Cretaceous, and allows us to observe an early stretching on the northern margin onshore and offshore South China, with large low angle faults which detach the Mesozoic sediments either over Triassic to Early Cretaceous granites, or along the short limbs of broad folds affecting Palaeozoic to Early Cretaceous series. These early faults create narrow troughs filled with coarse polygenic conglomerate grading upward to coarse sandstone. Because these low-angle faults reactivate older trends, they vary in geometry according to the direction of the folds or the granite boundaries. A later set of faults, characterized by generally E–W low and high angle normal faults was dominant during the Eocene. Associated half-graben basement deepened as the basins were filling with continental or very shallow marine sediments. This subsequent direction is well expressed both in the north and the SW of the South China Sea and often reactivated earlier detachments. At places, the intersection of these two fault sets resulting in extreme stretching with crustal boudinage and mantle exhumation such as in the Phu Khanh Basin East of the Vietnam fault. A third direction of faults, which rarely reactivates the detachments is NE–SW and well developed near the oceanic crust in the southern and southwestern part of the basin. This direction which intersects the previous ones was active although sea floor spreading was largely developed in the northern part, and ended by the Late Miocene after the onset of the regional Mid Miocene unconformity known as MMU and dated around 15.5 Ma. Latest Miocene is marked by a regional basement drop and localized normal faults on the shelf closer to the coast. The SE margin of the South China Sea does not show the extensional features as well as the Northern margin. Detachments are common in the Dangerous Grounds and Reed Bank area and may occasionally lead to mantle exhumation. The sedimentary environment on the extended crust remained shallow all along the rifting and a large part of the spreading until the Late Miocene, when it suddenly deepened. This period also corresponds to the cessation of the shortening of the NW Borneo wedge in Palawan, Sabah, and Sarawak. We correlate the variation of margin structure and composition of the margin; mainly the occurrence of granitic batholiths and Mesozoic broad folds, with the location of the detachments and major normal faults which condition the style of rifting, the crustal boudinage and therefore the crustal thickness.     

北黄海盆地东部坳陷东南部层序地层特征及沉积体系

以层序地层学为理论指导,通过对地震、钻井、测井及古生物等资料的研究,建立了北黄海盆地东部坳陷东南部的层序格架。研究区的中生界可分为1个一级层序、2个二级层序、5个三级层序,在此层序格架内进行了沉积相划分及沉积体系研究,厘定了扇三角洲、辫状河三角洲、浊积扇和湖泊沉积等4种沉积体系。断陷早期,JSQ1的西部与东部分别发育了中型的扇三角洲与辫状河三角洲沉积体系;断陷中期,西部的扇三角洲沉积体系逐步扩展并在其前端多发育小型浊积扇,东部的辫状河三角洲沉积体系亦持续扩张且在JSQ4沉积期规模达到最大;断陷晚期,KSQ1内仅发育盆缘的小型扇体和滨浅湖相沉积,东部、南部隆起区未接受沉积或沉积较薄并剥蚀殆尽。沉积体系的平面展布和纵向演化受古构造与古地貌的控制。     

The influence of the Sabatayn Evaporites on the hydrocarbon prospectivity of the Eastern Shabwa Basin, Onshore Yemen

The Shabwa Basin is the northeastern extension of the Marib-Al Jawf-Shabwa system of Mesozoic grabens, located onshore in the Republic of Yemen. An evaporitic sequence with an estimated maximum depositional thickness of 300 metres was deposited during the Tithonian. It is designated the Sabatayn Formation and exerts significant control on most of the play elements in the principal hydrocarbon play systems anticipated in the northeastern part of the basin. Migration of hydrocarbons from pre-salt source rocks into intra-and post-salt reservoirs is restricted by the evaporites. Localised heat flow perturbations introduced by the salt, increase the maturity of post-salt source rocks. Post and intra-salt reservoirs are structured by listric faulting on a salt detachment, salt pillowing due to post-depositional loading, by local salt dissolution and by late folding due to gravity sliding of the post-salt section on a salt detachment. Early dissolution and reprecipitation of salt is responsible for occlusion of porosity in intra-salt clastic reservoirs.     

Seismic response to collapse structures in the Southern North Sea

The presence of probable salt dissolution-associated collapse structures in the North Sea based on the evidence of contemporary seismic data was discussed by Lohmann (1972). Since then, little attention has been paid to them in North Sea literature, although many oil companies will have studies on file. This Paper describes and illustrates a selection of such features in the area from recent seismic data, and suggest a broad classification for them as they are seen on the seismic section, based on mode of origin. Reference will also be made to certain types of carbonate dissolution and collapse effects.     

Tectonics related to the North Anatolian Fault in the Sea of Marmara: evidence from seismic reflection data

The North Anatolian Fault crosses the Sea of Marmara from east to west. Tectonic features of the Sea of Marmara were studied using multi-channel deep seismic reflection data. The northern branch of the North Anatolian Fault is active as a right lateral strike-slip fault zone and indicates both negative and positive flower structures. The North Anatolian Fault splays into two faults at the Sea of Marmara as a northern branch and north segment of the southern branch. The northern branch named the Main Marmara Fault extends in a complicated manner from the north of the Kapıdağı Peninsula to westward in the Sea of Marmara. The north segment of southern branch extends between the Gemlik and Bandırma gulfs in the south of the Sea of Marmara. In addition, uplift areas arose by compression and a push-up style in between the Kapıdağı Peninsula and the Main Marmara Fault. The North Anatolian Fault is characterized by a negative flower structure in basins and push-up style in uplift areas in the Sea of Marmara. An uplift area arose between the north segment of the southern branch and the northern branch of the North Anatolian Fault. The north segment of the southern branch of the North Anatolian Fault is a strike-slip fault and displays a pull-apart style in the seismic reflection data.