Late Carboniferous foreland basin formation and Early Carboniferous stretching in Northwestern Europe: inferences from quantitative subsidence analyses in the Netherlands

The large thickness of Upper Carboniferous strata found in the Netherlands suggests that the area was subject to long-term subsidence. However, the mechanisms responsible for subsidence are not quantified and are poorly known. In the area north of the London Brabant Massif, onshore United Kingdom, subsidence during the Namurian–Westphalian B has been explained by Dinantian rifting, followed by thermal subsidence. In contrast, south and east of the Netherlands, along the southern margin of the Northwest European Carboniferous Basin, flexural subsidence caused the development of a foreland basin. It has been proposed that foreland flexure due to Variscan orogenic loading was also responsible for Late Carboniferous subsidence in the Netherlands. In the first part of this paper, we present a series of modelling results in which the geometry and location of the Variscan foreland basin was calculated on the basis of kinematic reconstructions of the Variscan thrust system. Although several uncertainties exist, it is concluded that most subsidence calculated from well data in the Netherlands cannot be explained by flexural subsidence alone. Therefore, we investigated whether a Dinantian rifting event could adequately explain the observed subsidence by inverse modelling. The results show that if only a Dinantian rifting event is assumed, such as is found in the United Kingdom, a very high palaeowater depth at the end of the Dinantian is required to accommodate the Namurian–Westphalian B sedimentary sequence. To better explain the observed subsidence curves, we propose (1) an additional stretching event during the Namurian and (2) a model incorporating an extra dynamic component, which might well explain the very high wavelength of the observed subsidence compared with the wavelength of the predicted flexural foreland basin.     

Loch Macumber (early Carboniferous) of Atlantic Canada

Following the Acadian Orogeny, Atlantic Canada accommodated several, large, relatively deep lakes within a wrench-fault basin complex called the Maritime Basin. Late Devonian and Tournaisian lakes were hydrologically open, shallow to deep, mainly fresh water bodies. Middle Visean lakes, here collectively called Loch Macumber, were closed, deep, and meromictic. Their deposits comprise the first and thickest of five sequences in the Maritime Basin. Salinity in the loch increased with time from restricted marine or penesaline, to saline. Basin-centre facies consist of a thin, but extensive, sheet of black, peloidal laminated lime mudstones and an overlying thick evaporite complex. The carbonate sheet grades laterally into both laminated to thinly bedded marlstones, siliciclastic sandstones, and microbial, biocementstone mounds. Laminae consist of alternating carbonate and either silty carbonaceous shale or siliciclastic clay and silt. The mudstone and marlstone are locally interbedded with siliciclastic and carbonate turbidites, resedimented (?deep water) breccias, and olistostromes. Seasonal changes in anoxia and/or carbonate production produced rhythmic laminae of carbonate and carbonaceous shale. Carbonate grains consist of silt-sized microbial clots and rare arthropod carapaces and brachiopod shells. The mounds originated as tufa precipitated around subaqueous hydrothermal springs that supported chemosynthetic communities. Resedimentation processes including incipient brecciation, sliding, slumping, debris flows, and turbidity currents were common. The mounds trapped hydrocarbons from the surrounding laminite and sulphides from underlying hydrothermal vents. Increasing salinity with time resulted in sulphate and chloride precipitation that filled the basins and ended the life of Loch Macumber. After the deposition of thick evaporites the topography became less accentuated, the seas less saline, and the faunas more normal marine.     

Basin architecture and thermal maturation in the strike-slip Deer Lake Basin, Carboniferous of Newfoundland

Abstract The Deer Lake Basin is an entirely non-marine basin associated with the Cabot fault zone. Structural and stratigraphic evidence strongly suggest dextral strike-slip movements along the fault zone during Tournaisian-Visean time. Two elongated, end-on structural blocks (probable positive flower structures) contain fold axes and second-order faults oriented obliquely to fault traces bounding the blocks, in a manner implying dextral movements. In one part of the basin, the stratigraphic thickness of a long homoclinal section of later basin-fill sediment (Deer Lake Group) greatly exceeds the suggested depth to basement based on gravity measurements, a situation common to strike-slip basins. Formations representing basin fill can be arranged into megasequences (from oldest to youngest: Anguille Group, Wetstone Point and Wigwam Brook Formations, Deer Lake Group, Howley Formation) corresponding to lateral growth stages of the basin. Gravity, magnetic, and seismic data show that depths to basement on either side of the end-on flower structures are comparable, so that the youngest strata in the basin (Howley Formation) are not underlain by earlier basin fill. These geophysical data, therefore, corroborate the geological conclusion of onlapping stratigraphic relations. The geophysical data suggest participation of basement in Carboniferous gravity faulting and show the location of the subsurface extension of the Taylors Brook Fault in the western part of the Deer Lake Basin. Thermal maturation of the Anguille and Deer Lake Groups, as measured by vitrinite reflectance, clay mineral assemblages, illite crystallinity, and Rock-Eval pyrolysis, indicate a much higher level of maturation for the Anguille than for the Deer Lake Group. Palaeotemperatures for the Anguille and Deer Lake Groups are estimated to be around 200 and 100^oC, respectively, suggesting that Anguille Group rocks are overmature whereas Deer Lake Group strata are within the oil-generating window. Onlapping stratigraphic relations and areally homogeneous time/temperature effects, however, have created a situation in which the Deer Lake Group and Howley Formation have similar maturation levels.     

The marine transgression in the Middle Carboniferous of Brøggerhalvøya (Svalbard)

The change from continental to marine conditions in the Middle Carboniferous on Brøggerhalvøya started at the end of the Bashkirian with short-term transgressive events at the top of the Brøggertinden Formation. Local basin subsidence was responsible for the pulsatory nature of the transgression. The establishment of a shallow marine carbonate-dominated environment is represented by the Moscovian Scheteligfjellet Member which overlies the post-Caledonian red beds of the Brøggertinden Formation. The Scheteligfjellet Member is the lowermost member of the Nordenskioldbreen Formation and shows distinct lateral facies variations. Three facies associations can be distinguished: lagoonal facies, shoal facies and open marine facies. The succeeding two members were deposited in subtidal areas of the carbonate platform. A basin subsidence event at the Carboniferous/Permian boundary was responsible for a short shift into deeper depositional environments during a time of worldwide regression. After this a continuous regression led to supratidal conditions at the top of the Nordenskioldbreen Formation.     

A new method of palaeofield magnitude correction for thermally altered samples and its application to Lower Carboniferous lavas

Summary. Some lavas of Early Carboniferous age from Scotland and Derbyshire have been analysed for palaeofield magnitude by the application of a new correction to data obtained by the Shaw method. Its application has yielded field magnitude values from data which had previously been rejected. A modern pottery specimen and recent lavas from Sicily and Westman Island have also been analysed.
An average virtual dipole moment (VDM, Smith) of 2.5 ± 0.4 × 10²² A m² was determined for the Early Carboniferous. This is only 30 per cent of the present-day VDM.     

Devonian–Carboniferous slivers within the basement area of north-east Oscar II Land, Spitsbergen

Formed during an early compressional period in the opening of North Atlantic Ocean, a Tertiary fold-thrust belt extends along the mid-to- southern part of the western coast of Spitsbergen. Complex thrust structures involve the basement (Caledonian and older) and many shallow dipping thrust faults dissect the overlying cover rocks (Devonian and younger) in Oscar II Land in the northern part of the belt. Some of these faults occur within the basement rocks with slivers or fault blocks of the cover rocks from south-western Brøggerhalvøya to innermost St. Jonsfjorden in north-eastern Oscar II Land. Six of the slivers contain Carboniferous rocks and one is a fault-bounded block with Devonian rocks. These steeply west-dipping faults form a complex fault system- EOFC (Engelskbukta-Osbornbreen Fault Complex) - within the basement area. The lithological units of the basement are separated by faults within the EOFC, which is structurally continuous with the Brøggerhalvøya fold-thrust zone to the north and is thought to continue to the fold-thrust zone on the south-eastern coast of St. Jonsfjorden. Some previous authors considered that the two lithologically contrasting Vendian diamictites and intervening Moefjellet Formation are stratigraphically continuous and defined two separate tilloid successions in the present area. This interpretation has been extended over the whole of western Spitsbergen. However, the present study indicates that these two tilloid formations and the Moefjellet Formation are separated by the faults, probably thrusts, within the EOFC and are not in a continuous stratigraphic relation. Therefore, the two-stage history of Vendian glaciation seems questionable.     

Notes on the stratigraphy, extent and tectonic implications of the Minkinfjellet Basin, Middle Carboniferous of central Spitsbergen

A part of the Carboniferous basin stratigraphy, the clastic to carbonaceous Minkinfjellet "Member" of the Nordenskioldbreen Formation in Central Spitsbergen, is deposited in an asymmetric basin structure (here referred to as the Minkinfjellet Basin), similar to the underlying Ebbadalen Formation. The western boundary -situated within the Billcfjorden Fault Zone -has probably been a little farther east than during deposition of the Ebbadalen strata. The thickness attains ca. 350 m in central parts of the basin, and the strata strongly attenuates to the east and south. The base and top are interpreted as low-angle stratigraphical unconformities. The boundary with the overlying Cadcllfjellet Member of the Nordenskioldbreen Formation is locally disrupted by carbonate breccias of suggested earthquake origin. Formation rank is suggested for the sedimentary succession of the Minkinfjellet basin.     

Post glacial lacustrine event sedimentation in an ancient mountain setting: Carboniferous Lake Malanzán (Western Argentina)

Lacustrine deposits of the Malanzán Formation record sedimentation in a small and narrow mountain paleovalley. Lake Malanzán was one of several water bodies formed in the Paganzo Basin during the Late Carboniferous deglaciation. Five sedimentary facies have been recognized. Facies A (Dropstones-bearing laminated mudstones) records deposition from suspension fall-out and probably underflow currents coupled with ice-rafting processes in a basin lake setting. Facies B (Ripple cross-laminated sandstones and siltstones) was deposited from low density turbidity currents in a lobe fringe environment. Facies C (Massive or graded sandstones) is thought to represent sedimentation from high and low density turbidity currents in sand lobes. Facies D (Folded sandstones and siltstones) was formed from slumping in proximal lobe environments. Facies E (Wave-rippled sandstones) records wave reworking of sands supplied by turbidity currents above wave base level.The Lake Malanzán succession is formed by stacked turbidite sand lobe deposits. These lobes were probably formed in proximal lacustrine settings, most likely relatively high gradient slopes. Paleocurrents indicate a dominant direction from cratonic areas to the WSW. Although the overall sequence shows a regressive trend from basin fine-grained deposits to deltaic and braided fluvial facies, individual lobe packages lack of definite vertical trends in bed thickness and grain size. This fact suggests aggradation from multiple-point sources, rather than progradation from single-point sources. Sedimentologic and paleoecologic evidence indicate high depositional rate and sediment supply. Deposition within the lake was largely dominated by event sedimentation. Low diversity trace fossil assemblages of opportunistic invertebrates indicate recolonization of event beds under stressed conditions.Three stages of lake evolutionary history have been distinguished. The vertical replacement of braided fluvial deposits by basinal facies indicates high subsidence and a lacustrine transgressive episode. This flooding event was probably linked to a notable base level rise during postglacial times. The second evolutionary stage was typified by the formation of sand turbidite lobes from downslope mass-movements. Lake history culminates with the progradation of deltaic and braided fluvial systems     

Tectono-sedimentary analysis of alternate-polarity half-graben basin-fill successions: Late Devonian-Early Carboniferous Horton Group, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

Abstract The Devono-Carboniferous Horton Group of Cape Breton Island was mostly deposited in two fault-bounded asymmetric sub-basins which were part of a large intracontinental rift system. This system lay at a palaeolatitude of about 10–15^o S–a warm, semi-arid climate. The half-graben sub-basins had opposed polarity, were approximately 100 times 50 km in size and were separated by a narrow zone of elevated Acadian basement. These features are common to the adjacent structural segments of known rifts, and are unlike those of transtensive pull-apart systems. Sedimentation occurred in four successive depositional systems which reflect a tectonic evolution of increased and then decreased extensional subsidence through the 8–12 Myr interval represented. Post-Acadian sedimentation began with System 1 bimodal volcanics and grey distal braided fluvial sediments deposited in a slowly subsiding broad linear sag basin. System 2 consists of reddened braidplain sediments near fault-bounded margins and mudflat/playa sediments in sub-basin centres, deposited in two discrete asymmetric sub-basins with a general upward-fining trend. Gradual expansion of the mudflat setting and confinement of coarse marginal fades is interpreted as a response to increasingly rapid and deep fault-bounded subsidence. Depositional System 3, is a complex of grey lacustrine offshore, shoreline and fan delta facies deposited in two adjacent half-graben segments with opposed polarity of asymmetry. An increased rate of tectonic subsidence allowed a large standing body of water to accumulate lacustrine sediments along the axis of each sub-basin during this phase of maximum subsidence. System 4 consists of reddened proximal alluvial fan, medial fluvial and distal grey meandering fluvial/floodplain sediments which accumulated in sub-basins with fault-bounded margins and asymmetry identical to those of earlier systems, indicating a continuation of tectonic style. However, an overall coarsening-upward trend indicates waning of active fault-related subsidence and consequent progradation of marginal coarse wedges to fill the sub-basins. Rapid marine transgression and deposition of Windsor Group carbonates, evaporites and elastics continued within a more extensive rift basin during renewed fault-bounded subsidence.     

Constraining recycled detritus in quartz‐rich sandstones: Insights from a multi‐proxy provenance study of the Mid‐Carboniferous,Clare Basin,western Ireland

Quartz‐rich sandstones can be produced through multiple sedimentary processes, potentially acting in combination, such as extensive sedimentary recycling or intense chemical weathering. Determining the provenance of such sedimentary rocks can be challenging due to low amounts of accessory minerals, the fact that the primary mineralogy may have been altered during transport, storage or burial and difficulties in the recognition of polycyclic components. This study uses zircon and apatite U‐Pb geochronology, apatite trace elements, zircon‐tourmaline‐rutile indices and petrographic observations to investigate the sedimentary history of mineralogically mature mid‐Carboniferous sandstones of the Tullig Cyclothem, Clare Basin, western Ireland. The provenance data show that the sandstones have been dominantly and ultimately sourced from three basement terranes: older Laurentian‐ associated rocks (ca. 900–2500 Ma) which lay to the north of the basin, peri‐Gondwanan terranes (ca. 500–700 Ma) to the south and igneous intrusive rocks associated with the Caledonian Orogenic Cycle (ca. 380–500 Ma). However, the multi‐proxy approach also helps constrain the sedimentary history and suggests that not all grain populations were derived directly from their original source. Grains with a Laurentian or a Caledonian affinity have likely been recycled through Devonian basins to the south. Grains with a peri‐Gondwanan affinity appear to be first cycle and are potentially derived from south/southwest of the basin. Taken as a whole, these data are consistent with input into the basin from the south and southwest, with the reworking of older sedimentary rocks, rather than intensive first‐cycle chemical weathering, likely explaining the compositional maturity of the sandstones. This study highlights the need for a multi‐proxy provenance approach to constrain sedimentary recycling, particularly in compositionally mature sandstones, as the use of zircon geochronology alone would have led to erroneous provenance interpretations. Zircon, together with U‐Pb geochronology from more labile phases such as apatite, can help distinguish first‐cycle versus polycyclic detritus.     

Upper Carboniferous cyclic shelf deposits, Kapp Kåre Formation, Bjørnøya, Svalbard: response to high frequency, high amplitude sea level fluctuations and local tectonism

The upper Bashkirian-Moscovian Kapp KIre Formation is well-exposed in coastal cliff sections along the west coast of Bjørnøya, Svalbard. It is composed of stacked cycles of nixed siliciclastics and carbonates in the lower Bogevika Member and of cyclic shelf carbonates in the overlying Efuglvika Member. The uppermost Kobbebukta Member consists of shelf carbonates and syntectonic conglomerates and sandy turbidites. The shift in cycle types reflects an overall transgression of the region during the Moscovian combined with renewed tectonic activity and uplift of eastern Bjørnøya during the late Moscovian. Twelve carbonate facies and 6 siliciclastic facies are distinguished. The carbonate facies range from intertidal dolomitic mudstones with pseudomorphs after gypsum to subwavebase, intensely bioturbated wackestones. Most carbonates are deeper subtidal facies and shallow marine carbonate facies are only common in the transgressive part of mixed siliciclastic-carbonate cycles of the Bogevika Member. Incorporating the effects of high amplitude, high frequency glacioeustacy and active extensional tectonism, a dynamic model is developed to explain the spatial variability of facies observed within the Kapp Kke Formation. Observations from Bjørnøya are placed within the context of the regional structural and stratigraphic framework so that significance of the study to ongoing exploration efforts in the Barents Sea can be evaluated. Most important, our observations suggest that dolomitized, porous carbonate buildups are most likely to be found in the upper Moscovian succession in areas where accommodation space increased temporarily due to local tectonism.