Provenance of the Lower Triassic Bunter Sandstone Formation: implications for distribution and architecture of aeolian vs. fluvial reservoirs in the North German Basin

AbstractThe geometry of sedimentary basins is normally described by the interpretation of seismic reflectors. In addition to that, rock properties of the sedimentary successions between these reflectors give further insight into the subsurface geology. Here, we present a model for the Bay of Mecklenburg, situated at the northeastern margin of the North German Basin. The model consists of eight layers; it covers seismic velocities of sediments from the Neogene down to the base of the Permian Zechstein. We use eight seismic profiles for model building and apply seismic migration velocity analysis in combination with pre-stack depth migration. The results are interval velocities down to a depth of 5000 m. A further aim of the study is to investigate the sensitivity of these indirectly deduced velocities in comparison to direct measurements within drill holes. The velocities from this study are in good agreement with earlier results from vertical seismic profiling at a nearby well. Cenozoic and Mesozoic strata within the Bay of Mecklenburg show clear depth-dependent velocity trends. A comparison of these trends with predicted compaction trends shows that burial anomalies within Lower Triassic units are significantly higher than in Upper Cretaceous units. This finding could be explained by a greater amount of erosion during Upper Jurassic/Lower Cretaceous times than during Cenozoic times. The Zechstein layer shows a decreasing interval velocity with increasing thickness. Our study demonstrates that seismic velocities deduced from surface-based measurements are of high value in areas with sparse drilling coverage.

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Seismic tomographic interpretation of Paleozoic sedimentary sequences in the southeastern North Sea

Geophysics ◽

10.1190/1.1996908 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 70 (4) ◽

pp. R45-R56 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Lars Nielsen ◽

Hans Thybo ◽

Martin Glendrup

Keyword(s):

North Sea ◽

Velocity Structure ◽

Seismic Velocity ◽

P Wave ◽

Wide Angle ◽

North German Basin ◽

Sedimentary Sequences ◽

The North ◽

Crystalline Crust ◽

German Basin

Seismic wide-angle data were recorded to more than 300-km offset from powerful airgun sources during the MONA LISA experiments in 1993 and 1995 to determine the seismic-velocity structure of the crust and uppermost mantle along three lines in the southeastern North Sea with a total length of 850 km. We use the first arrivals observed out to an offset of 90 km to obtain high-resolution models of the velocity structure of the sedimentary layers and the upper part of the crystalline crust. Seismic tomographic traveltime inversion reveals 2–8-km-thick Paleozoic sedimentary sequences with P-wave velocities of 4.5–5.2 km/s. These sedimentary rocks are situated below a Mesozoic-Cenozoic sequence with variable thickness: ∼2–3 km on the basement highs, ∼2–4 km in the Horn Graben and the North German Basin, and ∼6–7 km in the Central Graben. The thicknesses of the Paleozoic sedimentary sequences are ∼3–5 km in the Central Graben, more than 4 km in the Horn Graben, up to ∼4 km on the basement highs, and up to 8 km in the North German Basin. The Paleozoic strata are clearly separated from the shallower and younger sequences with velocities of ∼1.8–3.8 km/s and the deeper crystalline crust with velocities of more than 5.8–6.0 km/s in the tomographic P-wave velocity model. Resolution tests show that the existence of the Paleozoic sediments is well constrained by the data. Hence, our wide-angle seismic models document the presence of Paleozoic sediments throughout the southeastern North Sea, both in the graben structures and in deep basins on the basement highs.

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