scholarly journals Jurassic lithostratigraphy and stratigraphic development onshore and offshore Denmark

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 145-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olaf Michelsen ◽  
Lars H. Nielsen ◽  
Peter N. Johannessen ◽  
Jan Andsbjerg ◽  
Finn Surlyk

A complete updated and revised lithostratigraphic scheme for the Jurassic succession of the onshore and offshore Danish areas is presented together with an overview of the geological evolution. The lithostratigraphies of Bornholm, the Danish Basin and the Danish Central Graben are described in ascending order, and a number of new units are defined. On Bornholm, the Lower–Middle Jurassic coal-bearing clays and sands that overlie the Lower Pliensbachian Hasle Formation are referred to the new Sorthat Formation (Lower Jurassic) and the revised Bagå Formation (Middle Jurassic). In the southern Danish Central Graben, the Middle Jurassic succession formerly referred to the Lower Graben Sand Formation is now included in the revised Bryne Formation. The Lulu Formation is erected to include the uppermost part of the Middle Jurassic succession, previously referred to the Bryne Formation in the northern Danish Central Graben. The Upper Jurassic Heno Formation is subdivided into two new members, the Gert Member (lower) and the Ravn Member (upper). The organic-rich part of the upper Farsund Formation, the former informal ‘hot unit’, is established formally as the Bo Member. Dominantly shallow marine and paralic deposition in the Late Triassic was succeeded by widespread deposition of offshore marine clays in the Early Jurassic. On Bornholm, coastal and paralic sedimentation prevailed. During maximum transgression in the Early Toarcian, sedimentation of organic-rich offshore clays took place in the Danish area. This depositional phase was terminated by a regional erosional event in early Middle Jurassic time, caused by uplift of the central North Sea area, including the Ringkøbing–Fyn High. In the Sorgenfrei–Tornquist Zone to the east, where slow subsidence continued, marine sandy sediments were deposited in response to the uplift. Uplift of the central North Sea area was followed by fault-controlled subsidence accompanied by fluvial and floodplain deposition during Middle Jurassic time. On Bornholm, deposition of lacustrine muds, fluvial sands and peats dominated. The late Middle Jurassic saw a gradual shift to shallow marine deposition in the Danish Central Graben, the Danish Basin and Skåne, southern Sweden. During the Late Jurassic, open marine shelf conditions prevailed with deposition of clay-dominated sediments while shallow marine sands were deposited on platform areas. The Central Graben received sand by means of sediment gravity flows. The clay sediments in the Central Graben became increasingly rich in organic matter at the Jurassic–Cretaceous transition, whilst shallow marine coarse-grained deposits prograded basinwards in the Sorgenfrei– Tornquist Zone.

Clay Minerals ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 537-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Stewart

AbstractThe diagenetic history of the Upper Jurassic Fulmar Formation of the Central North Sea is described with emphasis on the Fulmar Field. The Fulmar Formation was deposited on a variably subsiding shallow-marine shelf under the influence of halokinetic and fault movements. The sediments are extensively bio-destratified although large-scale cross-bedding is locally preserved. The dominant mechanism of deposition is thought to have been storm-generated currents. Soft-sediment deformation structures are common and are attributed to syn- and post-depositional dewatering of the sandstones. The dewatering was associated with fractures and shear zones which reflect tectonic instability resulting from periodic salt withdrawal and/or graben fault movements. The dewatering may have been initiated by repacking of the sediments during earth movements or by the gradual build-up and sudden release of overpressures due to compaction and/or clay mineral dehydration during rapid burial at the end of the Cretaceous. The formation is composed of arkosic sandstone of similar composition to Triassic sandstones from which it was probably derived. The sandstones also contain limited amounts of marine biogenic debris including sponge solenasters, bivalve shells, rare ammonites and belemnites. Initial diagenesis began with an environment-related phase during which quartz and feldspar overgrowths and chalcedony and calcite cements were precipitated. These cements appear to form concretions adjacent to local concentrations of sponge debris and shell debris, respectively, and were disturbed after their formation by fracturing and dewatering. This was followed by an early burial stage of diagenesis which resulted in extensive dolomite cementation and minor clay mineral authigenesis (illite and chlorite). The last phase of mineral growth was probably pyrite. During early burial diagenesis, secondary porosity after feldspar and/or carbonate was produced, although the exact timing is not clear. The lack of both stylolitic developments and extensive illitization indicates that the late burial diagenesis stage was never reached, although sufficient clay diagenesis occurred to destroy all traces of mixed-layer illite-smectite (present in some shallower wells). The main control on reservoir behaviour is primary depositional fabric. Diagenesis only overprints these controls. Locally-cemented fracture sets act as baffles to fluid flow, but they are not extensive and the reservoir acts as one unit.


1991 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. A. Knutson ◽  
I. C. Munro

AbstractThe Beryl Field, the sixth largest oil field in the UK sector of the North Sea, is located within Block 9/13 in the west-central part of the Viking Graben. The block was awarded in 1971 to a Mobil operated partnership and the 9/13-1 discovery well was drilled in 1972. The Beryl A platform was emplaced in 1975 and the Beryl B platform in 1983. To date, ninety-five wells have been drilled in the field, and drilling activity is anticipated into the mid-1990s.Commercial hydrocarbons occur in sandstone reservoirs ranging in age from Upper Triassic to Upper Jurassic. Structurally, the field consists of a NNE orientated horst in the Beryl A area and westward tilted fault blocks in the Beryl B area. The area is highly faulted and complicated by two major and four minor unconformities. The seal is provided by Upper Jurassic shales and Upper Cretaceous marls.There are three prospective sedimentary sections in the Beryl Field ranked in importance as follows: the Middle Jurassic coastal deltaic sediments, the Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic continental and marine sediments, and the Upper Jurassic turbidites. The total ultimate recovery of the field is about 800 MMBBL oil and 1.6 TCF gas. As of December 1989, the field has produced nearly 430 MMBBL oil (primarily from the Middle Jurassic Beryl Formation), or about 50% of the ultimate recovery. Gas sales are scheduled to begin in the early 1990s. Oil and gas production is forecast until licence expiration in 2018.The Beryl Fields is located 215 miles northeast of Aberdeen, about 7 miles from the United Kingdom-Norwegian boundary. The field lies within Block 9/13 and covers and area of approximately 12 000 acres in water depths ranging from 350-400 ft. Block 9/13 contains several hydrocarbon-bearing structures, of which the Beryl Fields is the largest (Fig. 1). The field is subdivided into two producing areas: the Beryl Alpha area which includes the initial discovery well, and the Beryl Bravo area located to the north. The estimated of oil originally in place is 1400 MMBBL for Beryl A and 700 MMBBL for Beryl B. The fiel has combined gas in place of 2.8 TCF, consisting primarily of solution gas. Hydrocarbon accumulations occur in six reservoir horizons ranging in age from Upper Triassic to Upper Jurassic. The Middle Jurassic (Bathonian to Callovian) age Beryl Formation is the main reservoir unit and contains 78% of the total ultimate recovery.The field was named after Beryl Solomon, the wife of Charles Solomon, who was president of Mobil Europe in 1972 when the field was discovered. The satellite fields in Block 9/13 (Nevis, Ness and Linnhe) are named after Scottish lochs.


1991 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-173
Author(s):  
John Warrender

AbstractThe Murchison oil field forms part of the Brent oil province in the East Shetland Basin, northern North Sea. The field, which straddles the UK-Norway international boundary, was discovered in 1975 and began production with Conoco (UK) Ltd as Operator, in 1980. Like many oil accumulations in the East Shetland Basin the trap consists of a northwesterly dipping rotated fault block of Jurassic-Triassic age sourced and sealed by unconformable Upper Jurassic shales. The productive reservoir consists of Middle Jurassic Brent Group sandstones which represent the south to north progradation of a wave/tide influenced delta system. The Brent Group on Murchison has an average thickness of 425 ft with average porosities of 22% and permeabilities in the 500-1000 md range in producing zones. The maximum hydrocarbon column thickness is approximately 600 ft. The oil is undersaturated and no gas cap is present. Recoverable reserves are 340 MMBBL from a total oil in place figure of 790 MMBBL. Oil production which is via a single steel jacket platform peaked at 127 000 BOPD in 1983 and currently averages 45 000 BOPD. Economic field life is expected to be at least 20 years.The Murchison Field is located in the East Shetland Basin, northern North Sea at approximate latitude 61° 23' N, longitude 1° 43.5' E, 120 miles northeast of the Shetland Islands (Fig. 1). The field straddles the UK-Norway international boundary with the greater portion in the UK Block 21 l/19a and the lesser portion in Norway Block 33/9. Water depth is -512 ft BMSL. In the context of the North Sea the field is of medium size with an areal closure of approximately 7 square miles and contains 790 million barrels of oil in place. The productive reservoir consists of coastal deltaic sandstones of the Middle Jurassic Brent Group which lie between the marine shales of the Lower Jurassic Dunlin Group and the marine, organic-rich shales of the Upper Jurassic Humber Group. The trap is structural comprising a single, northwesterly dipping rotated fault block which has been sourced and sealed by the overlying Upper Jurassic shales. The field is named after the Scottish geologist Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871), who is best known for his contribution to Palaeozoic stratigraphy.


Author(s):  
Finn Surlyk ◽  
Peter Alsen ◽  
Morten Bjerager ◽  
Gregers Dam ◽  
Michael Engkilde ◽  
...  

The East Greenland Rift Basin comprises a series of Jurassic subbasins with different crustal configurations, and somewhat different tectonic histories and styles. The roughly N–S elongated basin is exposed in central and northern East Greenland over a length of more than 600 km and a width of up to 250 km. The southernmost exposures are found in the largest subbasin in Jameson Land, while the northernmost exposures are on Store Koldewey and in Germania Land. The focus of the present revision is on the Jurassic, but the uppermost Triassic and lowermost Cretaceous successions are included as they are genetically related to the Jurassic succession. The whole succession forms an overall transgressive–regressive megacycle with the highest sea level and maximum transgression in the Kimmeridgian. The latest Triassic – Early Jurassic was a time of tectonic quiescence in East Greenland. Lower Jurassic deposits are up to about 950 m thick and are restricted to Jameson Land and a small down-faulted outlier in southernmost Liverpool Land. The Lower Jurassic succession forms an overall stratigraphic layer-cake package that records a shift from Rhaetian–Sinemurian fluvio-lacustrine to Pliensbachian – early Bajocian mainly shallow marine sedimentation. Onset of rifting in the late Bajocian resulted in complete reorganisation of basin configuration and drainage patterns, and the depositional basin expanded far towards the north. Post-lower Bajocian early-rift deposits are up to about 500–600 m thick and are exposed in Jameson Land, Liverpool Land, Milne Land, Traill Ø, Geographical Society Ø, Hold with Hope, Clavering Ø, Wollaston Forland, Kuhn Ø, Th. Thomsen Land, Hochstetter Forland, Store Koldewey and Germania Land. Upper Jurassic rift-climax strata reach thicknesses of several kilometres and are exposed in the same areas with the exception of Liverpool Land and Germania Land. In the southern part of the basin, the upper Bajocian – Kimmeridgian succession consists of stepwise backstepping units starting with shallow marine sandstones and ending with relatively deep marine mudstones in some places with sandy gravity-flow deposits and injectites. In the Jameson Land and Milne Land Subbasins, the uppermost Jurassic – lowermost Cretaceous (Volgian–Ryazanian) succession consists of forestepping stacked shelf-margin sandstone bodies with associated slope and basinal mudstones and mass-flow sandstones. North of Jameson Land, block-faulting and tilting began in the late Bajocian and culminated in the middle Volgian with formation of strongly tilted fault blocks, and the succession records continued stepwise deepening. In the Wollaston Forland – Kuhn Ø area, the Volgian is represented by a thick wedge of deep-water conglomerates and pebbly sandstones passing basinwards into mudstones deposited in fault-attached slope aprons and coalescent submarine fans. The lithostratigraphic scheme established mainly in the 1970s and early 1980s is here revised on the basis of work undertaken over subsequent years. The entire Jurassic succession, including the uppermost Triassic (Rhaetian) and lowermost Cretaceous (Ryazanian–Hauterivian), forms the Jameson Land Supergroup. The supergroup is subdivided into the Kap Stewart, Neill Klinter, Vardekløft, Hall Bredning, and Wollaston Forland Groups, which are subdivided into 25 formations and 48 members. Many of these are revised, and 3 new formations and 14 new members are introduced.


Author(s):  
Lars Stemmerik ◽  
Gregers Dam ◽  
Nanna Noe-Nygaard ◽  
Stefan Piasecki ◽  
Finn Surlyk

NOTE: This article was published in a former series of GEUS Bulletin. Please use the original series name when citing this article, for example: Stemmerik, L., Dam, G., Noe-Nygaard, N., Piasecki, S., & Surlyk, F. (1998). Sequence stratigraphy of source and reservoir rocks in the Upper Permian and Jurassic of Jameson Land, East Greenland. Geology of Greenland Survey Bulletin, 180, 43-54. https://doi.org/10.34194/ggub.v180.5085 _______________ Approximately half of the hydrocarbons discovered in the North Atlantic petroleum provinces are found in sandstones of latest Triassic – Jurassic age with the Middle Jurassic Brent Group, and its correlatives, being the economically most important reservoir unit accounting for approximately 25% of the reserves. Hydrocarbons in these reservoirs are generated mainly from the Upper Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay and its correlatives with additional contributions from Middle Jurassic coal, Lower Jurassic marine shales and Devonian lacustrine shales. Equivalents to these deeply buried rocks crop out in the well-exposed sedimentary basins of East Greenland where more detailed studies are possible and these basins are frequently used for analogue studies (Fig. 1). Investigations in East Greenland have documented four major organic-rich shale units which are potential source rocks for hydrocarbons. They include marine shales of the Upper Permian Ravnefjeld Formation (Fig. 2), the Middle Jurassic Sortehat Formation and the Upper Jurassic Hareelv Formation (Fig. 4) and lacustrine shales of the uppermost Triassic – lowermost Jurassic Kap Stewart Group (Fig. 3; Surlyk et al. 1986b; Dam & Christiansen 1990; Christiansen et al. 1992, 1993; Dam et al. 1995; Krabbe 1996). Potential reservoir units include Upper Permian shallow marine platform and build-up carbonates of the Wegener Halvø Formation, lacustrine sandstones of the Rhaetian–Sinemurian Kap Stewart Group and marine sandstones of the Pliensbachian–Aalenian Neill Klinter Group, the Upper Bajocian – Callovian Pelion Formation and Upper Oxfordian – Kimmeridgian Hareelv Formation (Figs 2–4; Christiansen et al. 1992). The Jurassic sandstones of Jameson Land are well known as excellent analogues for hydrocarbon reservoirs in the northern North Sea and offshore mid-Norway. The best documented examples are the turbidite sands of the Hareelv Formation as an analogue for the Magnus oil field and the many Paleogene oil and gas fields, the shallow marine Pelion Formation as an analogue for the Brent Group in the Viking Graben and correlative Garn Group of the Norwegian Shelf, the Neill Klinter Group as an analogue for the Tilje, Ror, Ile and Not Formations and the Kap Stewart Group for the Åre Formation (Surlyk 1987, 1991; Dam & Surlyk 1995; Dam et al. 1995; Surlyk & Noe-Nygaard 1995; Engkilde & Surlyk in press). The presence of pre-Late Jurassic source rocks in Jameson Land suggests the presence of correlative source rocks offshore mid-Norway where the Upper Jurassic source rocks are not sufficiently deeply buried to generate hydrocarbons. The Upper Permian Ravnefjeld Formation in particular provides a useful source rock analogue both there and in more distant areas such as the Barents Sea. The present paper is a summary of a research project supported by the Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy (Piasecki et al. 1994). The aim of the project is to improve our understanding of the distribution of source and reservoir rocks by the application of sequence stratigraphy to the basin analysis. We have focused on the Upper Permian and uppermost Triassic– Jurassic successions where the presence of source and reservoir rocks are well documented from previous studies. Field work during the summer of 1993 included biostratigraphic, sedimentological and sequence stratigraphic studies of selected time slices and was supplemented by drilling of 11 shallow cores (Piasecki et al. 1994). The results so far arising from this work are collected in Piasecki et al. (1997), and the present summary highlights the petroleum-related implications.


Sedimentology ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 631-644 ◽  
Author(s):  
James P. Hendry ◽  
Mark Wilkinson ◽  
Anthony E. Fallick ◽  
Nigel H. Trewin

2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan T Petersen ◽  
Paul L Smith ◽  
James K Mortensen ◽  
Robert A Creaser ◽  
Howard W Tipper

Jurassic sedimentary rocks of southern to central Quesnellia record the history of the Quesnellian magmatic arc and reflect increasing continental influence throughout the Jurassic history of the terrane. Standard petrographic point counts, geochemistry, Sm–Nd isotopes and detrital zircon geochronology, were employed to study provenance of rocks obtained from three areas of the terrane. Lower Jurassic sedimentary rocks, classified by inferred proximity to their source areas as proximal or proximal basin are derived from an arc source area. Sandstones of this age are immature. The rocks are geochemically and isotopically primitive. Detrital zircon populations, based on a limited number of analyses, have homogeneous Late Triassic or Early Jurassic ages, reflecting local derivation from Quesnellian arc sources. Middle Jurassic proximal and proximal basin sedimentary rocks show a trend toward more evolved mature sediments and evolved geochemical characteristics. The sandstones show a change to more mature grain components when compared with Lower Jurassic sedimentary rocks. There is a decrease in εNdT values of the sedimentary rocks and Proterozoic detrital zircon grains are present. This change is probably due to a combination of two factors: (1) pre-Middle Jurassic erosion of the Late Triassic – Early Jurassic arc of Quesnellia, making it a less dominant source, and (2) the increase in importance of the eastern parts of Quesnellia and the pericratonic terranes, such as Kootenay Terrane, both with characteristically more evolved isotopic values. Basin shale environments throughout the Jurassic show continental influence that is reflected in the evolved geochemistry and Sm–Nd isotopes of the sedimentary rocks. The data suggest southern Quesnellia received material from the North American continent throughout the Jurassic but that this continental influence was diluted by proximal arc sources in the rocks of proximal derivation. The presence of continent-derived material in the distal sedimentary rocks of this study suggests that southern Quesnellia is comparable to known pericratonic terranes.


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