The Indian Plate has been the focus of intensive research concerning the flood basalts of the Deccan Traps. Here we document a volcanostratigraphic analysis of the offshore segment of the western Indian volcanic large igneous province, between the shoreline and the first magnetic anomaly (An 28 ∼63 Ma). We have mapped the different crustal domains of the NW Indian Ocean from stretched continental crust through to oceanic crust, using seismic reflection and potential field data. Two volcanic structures, the Somnath Ridge and the Saurashtra High, are identified, extending ∼305 km NE–SW in length and 155 km NW–SE in width. These show the internal structures of buried shield volcanoes and hyaloclastic mounds, surrounded by mass‐wasting deposits and volcanic sediments. The structures observed resemble seismic images from the North Atlantic and northwest Australia, as well as volcanic geometries described for Réunion and Hawaii. The geometry and internal seismic facies within the volcanic basement suggest a tholeiitic composition and subaerial to shallow marine emplacement. At the scale of the western Indian Plate, the emplacement of this volcanic platform is constrained by structural lineations associated with rifting. By reviewing the volcanism in the Indian Ocean and plate reconstruction of the area, the timing of the volcanism can be associated with eruption of a pre‐Deccan continental flood basalt (∼75–65.5 Ma). The volcanic platform in this study represents an addition of 19–26.5% to the known volume of the West Indian Volcanic Province.

Sand injectites and related features that are interpreted to have formed by large-scale, often sudden,¯uid escape in the shallow (typically <500 m) crust are readily imaged on modern seismic data. Many of the features have geometrical similarity to igneous dykes and sills and cross-cut the depositional stratigraphy. Sand injectites may be multiphase and form connected, high-permeability networks that transect kilometre-scale intervals of otherwise ®ne-grained, low-permeability strata. North Sea examples often form signi®cant hydrocarbon reservoirs and typically contain degraded, low-gravity crude oil. Fluid inclusion and stable isotope data from cements in sand injectites record a mixing of aqueous¯uids of deep and shallow origin.

Subaerial exposure of carbonate platforms is generally recorded by karstification and pedogenesis, whereas erosion features such as incisions along emersion surfaces have seldom been observed and studied. However, the recognition of incisions and the characterization of their fill may facilitate definition and hierarchy of sequence boundaries, especially along exposure surfaces that do not otherwise present clear petrographic evidence for emersion. In the Natih Formation (Late Albian-Early Turonian, Oman), two successive incision surfaces are present in the upper part of the first third-order depositional sequence. Seismic interpretation of regional subsurface data has allowed the quantification of progradational geometries within the Natih sequence I carbonate platform and the correlation of incision surfaces with forced regressive prograding wedges on the margins of the intrashelf basin. Detailed geological sections and correlations have been made from three outcrop localities, allowing a precise description of geometries and facies of incision fills. Morphology, orientation, and extent of these incisions have been assessed from detailed seismic interpretation coupled with forward seismic modeling. The integration of outcrop and seismic data sets at the regional and local scales allows the interpretation and discussion of the origin and factors controlling the development of these incisions and a refinement of the stratigraphic model. These two incisions record rapid sea-level variations (500 ky) with a magnitude of approximately 20 and 30 m that occurred during the early Cenomanian. This is probably not a unique case, since for the same time interval, incisions have been observed in siliciclastic systems in western Canada and India and in carbonate systems on the Arabian plate.

The Song Hong-Yinggehai (SH-Y) and Qiongdongnan (Qi) basins together form one of the largest Cenozoic sedimentary basins in SE Asia. Here we present new records based on the analysis of seismic data, which we compare to geochemical data derived from cores from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1148 in order to derive proxies for continental weathering and thus constrain summer monsoon intensity.The SH-Y Basin started opening during the Late Paleocene–Eocene. Two inversion phases are recognized to have occurred at c. 34 Ma and c. 15 Ma. The Qi Basin developed on the northern, rifted margin of South China Sea, within which a large canyon developed in a NE–SW direction.Geochemical and mineralogical data show that chemical weathering has gradually decreased in SE Asia after c. 25 Ma, whereas physical erosion became stronger, especially after c. 12 Ma. Summer monsoon intensification drove periods of faster erosion after 3–4 Ma and from 10–15 Ma, although the initial pulse of eroded sediment at 29.5–21 Ma was probably triggered by tectonic uplift because this precedes monsoon intensification at c. 22 Ma. Clay mineralogy indicates more physical erosion together with high sedimentation rates after c. 12 Ma suggesting a period of strong summer monsoon in the Mid-Miocene.

The Volund Field lies in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea (Quad 24/9). This field produces from a ‘classic’ large-scale sandstone injection complex located in Lower Eocene strata. The sandstone reservoir has been injected into the lower permeability surrounding mudstones of the Sele and Balder formations and Hordaland Group to create an ‘intrusive trap’. The Volund Field consists of a deeper central unit of stacked sandstone sills, surrounded by shallower, steeper-dipping injected sandstone dykes, which make excellent reservoirs with consistently high porosity and permeability. Many of the steeply-dipping injected dykes appear to have excellent connectivity from the water leg through the oil leg and into the gas cap. The complex was identified on seismic data that exhibit a Class 3 amplitude versus offset (AVO) signature on the far-offset stack reflection seismic volume. The seismic data have been used to successfully locate horizontal production wells. Volund seismic geobodies have been extracted and incorporated into the reservoir geomodel to determine the geometry of the injectite features and to populate sands within the injection complex. Volund Field (estimated mean gross resource of 54 mmboe (million barrels oil equivalent)) is producing oil from four horizontal branches (end December 2012), with one water injector well, and has a common oil–water contact and gas–oil contact.