Timing of magmatism, foreland basin development, metamorphism and inversion in the Anglo-Brabant fold belt

1997 ◽  
Vol 134 (5) ◽  
pp. 607-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. VAN GROOTEL ◽  
J. VERNIERS ◽  
B. GEERKENS ◽  
D. LADURON ◽  
M. VERHAEREN ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Subduction Zones ◽  
Foreland Basin ◽  
Fold Belt ◽  
East Anglia ◽  
Basin Inversion ◽  
Tectonic Model ◽  
The North ◽  
Basin Development ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
And Inversion

New data implying crustal activation of Eastern Avalonia along the Anglo-Brabant fold belt are presented. Late Ordovician subduction-related magmatism in East Anglia and the Brabant Massif, coupled with accelerated subsidence in the Anglia Basin and in the Brabant Massif during Silurian time, indicate a foreland basin development. Final collision resulted in folding, cleavage development and thrusting during the mid-Lochkovian to mid-Eifelian. In the southeast of the Anglo-Brabant fold belt, Acadian deformation produced basin inversion and the regional antiformal structure of the Brabant Massif. The uplift, inferred from the sedimentology, petrography and reworked palynomorphs in the Lower Devonian of the Dinant Synclinorium is confirmed by illite crystallinity studies. The tectonic model discussed implies the presence of two subduction zones in the eastern part of Eastern Avalonia, one along the Anglo-Brabant fold belt and another under the North Sea in the prolongation of the North German–Polish Caledonides.

scholarly journals Quaternary River Diversions in the London Basin and the Eastern English Channel

2007 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. R. Bridgland ◽  
P. L. Gibbard
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
North Coast ◽  
English Channel ◽  
East Anglia ◽  
The North ◽  
Course Changes ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
The Last Glacial

ABSTRACT The principal river of the London basin, the Thames, has experienced a number of course changes during the Quaternary. Some, at least, of these are known to result directly from glaciation. In the early Quaternary the river flowed to the north of London across East Anglia to the north coast of Norfolk. By the early Middle Pleistocene it had changed its course to flow eastwards near the Suffolk - Essex border into the southern North Sea. The Thames valley to the north of London was blocked by ice during the Anglian/Elsterian glaciation, causing a series of glacial lakes to form. Overflow of these lakes brought the river into its modern valley through London. It is thought that this valley already existed by the Anglian in the form of a tributary of the north-flowing River Medway, which joined the old Thames valley near Clacton. Also during the Anglian/Elsterian glaciation. British and continental ice masses are thought to have joined in the northern part of the North Sea basin, causing a large lake to form between the east coast of England and the Netherlands. It is widely believed that the overflow from this lake caused the first breach in the Weald-Artois Ridge, bringing about the formation of the Strait of Dover. Prior to the glaciation the Thames, in common with rivers from the continent (including the Rhine and Meuse), flowed into the North Sea Basin. It seems that, after the lake overflow, these rivers together drained southwards into the English Channel. Whether this southern drainage route was adopted during all later periods of low sea level remains to be determined, but it seems certain that this was the case during the last glacial.

The distribution, variation and origins of pre-Devensian tills in eastern England

1979 ◽  
Vol 287 (1024) ◽  
pp. 535-570 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Calcium Carbonate ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Heavy Minerals ◽  
Ice Streams ◽  
Mineral Contents ◽  
East Anglia ◽  
The North ◽  
East Midlands ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
General Movement

In order to define quantitatively the lithological properties of the pre-Devensian tills in eastern England, calcium carbonate contents and mechanical compositions of 501 samples from 289 sites have been measured and heavy minerals counted in 102 of them. The results show that the tills may be divided into two groups: ( a ) a North Sea Drift group consisting of the Norwich Brickearth, the Cromer Tills, the Marly Drift of Cromer type and till members of the Contorted Drift, which is characterized by high sand and low opaque heavy mineral contents; and ( b ) a Lowestoft Till group including the Lowestoft Till of East Anglia, the Chalky Boulder Clay of the east Midlands, the Calcethorpe and Wragby Tills and the Lowestoft-type Marly Drift, which is characterized by low sand and high opaque values. The qualitative similarity of the mineral suites in the two groups, however, suggests a common origin in the North Sea basin. Automated contouring (SYMAP) has been used to represent the spatial distribution of till properties. These confirm that the Lowestoft Till group can be spatially separated from the North Sea Drift group, and divided into a Calcethorpe-Marly facies high in carbonates and lying astride the Wash, and a Lowestoft-Wragby facies with moderate but variable contents of calcium carbonate and occupying the rest of the region. Trend surface analysis has been applied to the Lowestoft Till group. At the first order level there are decreasing trends across the region, from northeast to southwest, in calcium carbonate, amphibole and epidote values and increasing trends in silt and clay. These are interpreted as showing a general movement from the North Sea of sandy and chalky material which became progressively modified by assimilation of Mesozoic clays. Higher order surfaces, particularly those of sand, garnet and amphibole values, point to the Wash as the focus of this glacial activity. It is proposed that the most vigorous stream of ice entered eastern England at this point, levelling the Cretaceous scarps and excavating the Jurassic clays of the Wash-Fens basin, and then fanned out into most of the region to deposit the clay-rich Lowestoft-Wragby facies. The Calcethorpe-Marly facies is considered to represent chalky North Sea material carried by marginal, and weaker, ice streams directly onto the Chalk of Lincolnshire and north Norfolk. The North Sea Drift group is believed to be the product of another ice body, penecontemporaneous with that depositing the Lowestoft group, which entered Norfolk from a more easterly part of the North Sea, incorporating sediments from this basin, but without crossing substantial outcrops of Jurassic or Lower Cretaceous formations or Tertiary clays. The Marly Drift includes a variant showing lithological affinities with both Lowestoft and Cromer Tills and which may be the product of complex interaction between the two ice sheets. All the tills studied seem most likely to be of Anglian age.

Cross-border megasequence stratigraphy of the Northern, Central and Southern North Sea: a comparative tectono-stratigraphic synthesis

2021 ◽  
pp. SP494-2020-228
Author(s):  
Stefano Patruno ◽  
Henk Kombrink ◽  
Stuart G. Archer
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Foreland Basin ◽  
First Order ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Southern North Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
Lithostratigraphic Units ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Basin Fill

AbstractThe Devonian-Recent tectono-stratigraphic history of the Northern, Central and Southern North Sea is here reviewed at a regional scale and four novel cross-border pseudo-Wheeler diagrams are presented to summarize the stratigraphic evolution of the cycles of basin fill and uplift/erosion. In this scheme, six first-order megasequence boundaries have been defined, characterized by extensive and long-lasting erosional hiatuses and major coastal regressions: (1) Caledonian (or Base Devonian) Unconformity; (2) Variscan-Saalian (or Base Permian) Unconformity; (3) Mid Cimmerian (or Intra-Aalenian) Unconformity; (4) Late Cimmerian (or Base Cretaceous) Unconformity; (5) Atlantean (or Near-Base Tertiary) Unconformity; (6) Eridanos (or Mid-Miocene) Unconformity. These surfaces have been linked to regional causal factors ranging from: orogenesis-related compressional uplifts, in either active plate margin settings (1) or foreland basin settings (2); intra-plate dynamically supported uplifts associated with the development of mantle plumes (3, 5 and 6); the end-of-rifting and associated widespread erosion of tilted fault block crests (4).The aforementioned megasequence boundaries punctuate the geodynamic evolution of the North Sea area and facilitate the sub-division of the entire the North Sea sedimentary basin fill into six megasequences, named here from A to F. All the lithostratigraphic units of the North Sea (formations and members) have been described within the context of this first-order tectono-stratigraphic framework. The correlation power of certain stratigraphic markers are also compared and contrasted, together with the potential cross-border equivalence of sedimentary units on different sides of the political median lines.

Multiple episodes of regional exhumation and inversion identified in the UK Southern North Sea based on integration of palaeothermal and palaeoburial indicators

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul F. Green ◽  
Ian R. Duddy ◽  
Peter Japsen
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Vitrinite Reflectance ◽  
Southern North Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
Regional Tectonic ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
The Uk ◽  
And Inversion ◽  
Multiple Episodes ◽  
Track Analysis

AbstractWe present a consistent synthesis of palaeothermal (apatite fission track analysis (AFTA) and vitrinite reflectance) data from UK Southern North Sea wells with the regional pattern of exhumation defined from sonic velocity data. Cenozoic exhumation across most of the region began in the Paleocene between 63 and 59 Ma. Amounts of removed section are around 1 km across the offshore platform, increasing to 2 km or more on the Sole Pit axis. Neogene exhumation within this area began between 22 and 15 Ma, and led to removal of up to 1 km of section. Along the eastern flank of the Sole Pit axis, sonic data define a pre-Chalk event, and AFTA data from these wells show that exhumation began between 120 and 93 Ma. This timing correlates with events defined from AFTA data in the Sorgenfrei–Tornquist Zone, further east, presumably reflecting a response to regional tectonic stresses. East of the Sole Pit axis, AFTA and sonic velocities suggest that Neogene exhumation dominates, while further east towards the central parts of the North Sea Mesozoic sediments appear to be at maximum burial today except for local effects related to salt movement. The multiple episodes of exhumation and burial defined here have important implications for exploration.

Coast erosion and sediment circulation on the coast of eastern England

1972 ◽  
Vol 272 (1221) ◽  
pp. 171-171
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Dynamic Topography ◽  
East Anglia ◽  
Thames Estuary ◽  
Dutch Coast ◽  
Southern North Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea

Sediment is considered to travel southward along the English coast and northward along the Dutch coast and this has been interpreted as being part of a counter clockwise circulation in the North Sea. There is evidence that the transport along the English coast is interrupted at a number of places, e.g. the Wash and the Thames Estuary, placing major traps in its path and there are discontinuities in the bank formations due to reversal of movement off East Anglia. Recent work suggests that there are some well defined sediment streams in the southern North Sea with very restricted means of transfer from one stream to another. It is possible that in some sandwave fields we are observing fossil topography rather than present dynamic topography, e.g. in areas such as the Sandettie.

scholarly journals Oligocene dinoflagellate cysts from the North Alpine Foreland Basin: new data from the Eggerding Formation (Austria)

2012 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Soliman
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Foreland Basin ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Dinoflagellate Cysts ◽  
The North ◽  
North Alpine Foreland Basin ◽  
Mediterranean Regions ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Alpine Foreland ◽  
Alpine Foreland Basin

Oligocene dinoflagellate cysts from the North Alpine Foreland Basin: new data from the Eggerding Formation (Austria)In spite of detailed geological and geophysical investigations, information available on palynostratigraphy for the successions deposited in the Austrian part of the North Alpine Foreland Basin (NAFB) is scanty. For the first time, relatively diverse and well preserved Oligocene dinocyst assemblages, comprising 53 genera and 138 species, are presented from the organic-rich sediments of the Eggerding Formation. These assemblages contribute to the biostratigraphy of the Oligocene deposits within the NAFB. Dinocysts such asChiropteridium lobospinosum, Membranophoridium aspinatum, Cordosphaeridiumspp.,Enneadocystaspp.,Deflandreaspp.,Spiniferites/Achomosphaeragroup,Hystrichokolpomaspp.,Apteodiniumspp.,Glaphyrocysta/Areoligeracomplex andWetzeliellaspp. represent the main palynological elements. The occurrence ofChiropteridiumspp.,Tuberculodinium vancampoae, Distatodinium biffiiandWetzeliella gochtiiis of particular importance for regional correlations within the Lower Oligocene sediments. A comparison with age-controlled assemblages from the North Sea Basin, Carpathian and circum-Mediterranean regions substantiate the attribution to the Rupelian. Lack or sporadic occurrence of the oceanic taxa (e.g.NematosphaeropsisandImpagidinium) and dominance ofGlaphyrocysta/Areoligeraindicate an inner-neritic marine setting during the deposition of the studied intervals. Although, it is difficult to reconstruct precisely the climatic conditions based on the recorded dinocysts, warm? sea surface water is suggested. A variation in salinities is interpreted based on the abundances ofHomotrybliumspp. The abundance of Peridiniaceae taxa (e.g.Lejeunecysta, Wetzeliella, and Deflandrea) indicates nutrient-rich surface water.

Tectonic controls on Cenozoic foreland basin development in the north-eastern Andes, Colombia

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauricio Parra ◽  
Andrés Mora ◽  
Carlos Jaramillo ◽  
Vladimir Torres ◽  
Gerold Zeilinger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Foreland Basin ◽  
The North ◽  
Basin Development ◽  
North Eastern

scholarly journals The Last Scottish Ice Sheet

2018 ◽  
Vol 110 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 93-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin K. BALLANTYNE ◽  
David SMALL
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Irish Sea ◽  
Ice Streams ◽  
East Anglia ◽  
Ice Cap ◽  
The North ◽  
Outer Hebrides ◽  
Moray Firth ◽  
The North Sea

ABSTRACTThe last Scottish Ice Sheet (SIS) expanded from a pre-existing ice cap after ∼35 ka. Highland ice dominated, with subsequent build-up of a Southern Uplands ice mass. The Outer Hebrides, Skye, Mull, the Cairngorms and Shetland supported persistent independent ice centres. Expansion was accompanied by ice-divide migration and switching flow directions. Ice nourished in Scotland reached the Atlantic Shelf break in some sectors but only mid-shelf in others, was confluent with the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet (FIS) in the North Sea Basin, extended into northern England, and fed the Irish Sea Ice Stream and a lobe that reached East Anglia. The timing of maximum extent was diachronous, from ∼30–27 ka on the Atlantic Shelf to ∼22–21 ka in Yorkshire. The SIS buried all mountains, but experienced periods of thickening alternating with drawdown driven by ice streams such as the Minch, the Hebrides and the Moray Firth Ice Streams. Submarine moraine banks indicate oscillating retreat and progressive decoupling of Highland ice from Orkney–Shetland ice. The pattern and timing of separation of the SIS and FIS in the North Sea Basin remain uncertain. Available evidence suggests that by ∼17 ka, much of the Sea of the Hebrides, the Outer Hebrides, Caithness and the coasts of E Scotland were deglaciated. By ∼16 ka, the Solway lowlands, Orkney and Shetland were deglaciated, the SIS and Irish Ice Sheet had separated, the ice margin lay along the western seaboard, nunataks had emerged in Wester Ross, the ice margin lay N of the Cairngorms and the sea had invaded the Tay and Forth estuaries. By ∼15 ka, most of the Southern Uplands, the Firth of Clyde, the Midland Valley and the upper Spey valley were deglaciated, and in NW Scotland ice was retreating from fjords and valleys. By the onset of rapid warming at ∼14.7 ka, much of the remnant SIS was confined within the limits of Younger Dryas glaciation. The SIS, therefore, lost most of its mass during the Dimlington Stade. It is uncertain whether fragments of the SIS persisted on high ground throughout the Lateglacial Interstade.

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