Potential field modelling of the Baltica–Avalonia (Thor–Tornquist) suture beneath the southern North Sea

Magnetic anomaly maps of the Trans-European Suture Zone (TESZ) highlight the contrast between the highly magnetic crust of Baltica and the less magnetic terranes to the SW of the suture. Although the TESZ is imaged on gravity maps, anomalies related to postcollisional rifting and reactivated rift structures tend to dominate.

Seismic and potential field data have been used to construct 2-D crustal models along three profiles crossing the Baltica–Avalonia suture in the southern North Sea (SNS). The first of these models lies along a transect assembled from reflection line GECO SNST 83-07 and refraction profile EUGENO-S 2; the other two models are coincident with MONA LISA profiles 1 and 2. Additional structural information and density information for the cover sequence is available from released wells, while magnetic susceptibility values are compatible with values measured from borehole core samples.

Magnetic anomalies related to the suture are interpreted as due to magnetic Baltican basement of the Ringkøbing-Fyn High dipping SW beneath nonmagnetic Avalonian basement underlying the western part of the SNS. Low-amplitude, long-wavelength magnetic anomalies occurring outboard of the suture are interpreted as due to a mid-crustal magnetic body, possibly a buried magmatic complex. This might represent the ‘missing’ arc related to inferred southward subduction of the Tornquist Sea, or an exotic element emplaced during the collision between Avalonia and Baltica. The present model supports an imbricated structure within Baltica as indicated by the latest reprocessing of the MONA LISA seismic data.