A regional net erosion map for the greater Barents Sea shows that the different areas in the Barents Sea region have been subject to different magnitudes of uplift and erosion. Net erosion values vary from 0 to more than 3000 m. The processes have important consequences for the petroleum systems. Reservoir quality, maturity of the source rocks and the migration of hydrocarbons are affected by the processes. Owing to changes in the PVT conditions in a hydrocarbon-filled structure, uplift and erosion increase the risk of leakage and expansion of the gas cap in a structure. Understanding of the timing of uplift and re-migration of hydrocarbons has been increasingly important in the exploration of the Barents Sea.

Since the advent of North Sea exploration, a variety of new advances have been made in understanding basin dynamics and regional variations in structural style that are well-founded on the stratigraphy of the better known basins. New insights have also been made into the influence of Palaeozoic compressional and inversion tectonics on the structure of Mesozoic successor basins. This paper, based in part on these advances, offers a new, post plate tectonics, model for the structural and stratigraphic development of Mesozoic and Tertiary basins between mid-Norway and the Bay of Biscay.The tectono-stratigraphic evolution of this region can now be simply described in terms of a southward propagating ‘Arctic’ rift and a northward propagating ‘Atlantic’ rift. These rifts, formed by polyphase extension, remained largely separate entities until the Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous. Thereafter, the rifts and their successor basins became a single entity represented by the Rockall Trough, Faeroe–Shetland Basin and Møre Basins only modified by later Cretaceous events and the Early Tertiary break-up of the North Atlantic and Norwegian–Greenland Sea.The ‘Arctic’ rift was initiated possibly as early as the Late Palaeozoic, nucleating on Caledonian and Late Devonian structures in the strike-parallel Caledonian terranes. Polyphase extensional events between the Permo-Triassic and Late Jurassic with intervening phases of passive subsidence resulted in rifts and basins of opposing polarity, sometimes superposed or offset, trending from the Barents Sea into the greater North Sea area.In contrast, the ‘Atlantic’ rift was probably initiated by rifting between North America and Africa in Late Triassic to Early Jurassic times. Its northward propagation was at first limited by the E-W and NE-SW Hercynian and Caledonian terranes of the British Isles and northeast Canada. The main subsequent major phase of extension initiated in the Late Jurassic and continuing through the Early Cretaceous progressively opened the North Atlantic from south to north through into the Bay of Biscay.The northward propagation of the Atlantic rift from Biscay into the Rockall Trough and Faeroe–Shetland Basin–Møre Basin completed the linkage to the Arctic rift possibly as early as the Late Jurassic and certainly by the Albo–Aptian. The ensuing rift, underlain by highly stretched continental crust, extended from the Barents Sea via the Vøring Plateau, Møre Basin into the Rockall Trough.The subsequent Late Cretaceous history of the linked system of rifts is characterized by both extension and inversion of unknown origin. In the Early Tertiary, rifting associated with voluminous volcanism along the entire margin and on the scale of the Deccan Traps heralded the break-up by spreading of the Norwegian–Greenland Sea and the northern North Atlantic. A subsequent phase of rifting elevated the Jameson Land Basin of East Greenland exhuming major oil accumulations. In contrast, co-eval phases of inversion in the Vøring Basin, Møre Basin and the Faeroe–Shetland Basin have had a positive impact on prospectivity. Inversion in the Celtic Sea is more probably related to the Pyrennean orogeny.The model of ‘Arctic’ and ‘Atlantic’ rifts offers a new and simpler predictive model of source and reservoir distribution. In the ‘Arctic’ rift, i.e. the North Sea, West of Shetland and offshore Norway–Greenland, volumetrically significant source-bed systems are confined to the Permo–Triassic, Toarcian, Middle and Late Jurassic. In the ‘Atlantic’ rift, between the Celtic Sea, Iberia and the Grand Banks, the major sources seem to be of Toarcian and Late Jurassic age. Cretaceous source beds are minor in the linked rift. However, the multiple phases of rifting and later burial or inversion history have severely affected the maturity of the Jurassic, although appeal to remigration is clearly necessary in the Faeroe–Shetland Basin.Distribution of the major reservoirs in both rifts can be best understood in relation to phases of rift propagation and subsequent subsidence. Thus, the early rifts and their immediate successor passive basins are characterized by shallow marine sedimentation. In contrast, the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous rifts were subject to stretching that resulted in initially deep marine environments and very thick infill of later Cretaceous sediments. Significant sand input to the linked rifts only began in the Early Tertiary as a result of the uplift and unroofing of Scotland that heralded the opening to the North Atlantic.

. (2010) 'Lithospheric cooling and thickening as a basin forming mechanism. ', Tectonophysics.,. pp. 184-194. Further information on publisher's website:http://dx.doi.org/10. 1016/j.tecto.2010.09.014 Publisher's copyright statement: NOTICE: this is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Tectonophysics. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A denitive version was subsequently published in Tectonophysics, 495, 3-4, 3 December 2010, 10.1016/j.tecto.2010.014. Additional information:Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64

The Vøring Basin forms an integral part of the passive margin off central Norway. Three phases of extension and three phases of compression record the transition from rifting to sea-floor spreading between Norway and Greenland. The first regional extensional event is of Early Cenomanian age, causing relative uplift of the Gjallar Ridge and development of a regional depocentre in the Rås Basin. A second extensional event is represented by Late Campanian faulting on the Nyk High and along the Fles Fault Complex. A compressional event in the Late Maastrichtian led to inversion of the Râs Basin. This was followed by a regional extensional event in Late Palaeocene, leading to the continental break-up between Norway and Greenland in Earliest Eocene. After the onset of sea-floor spreading, the Vøring Basin has remained in overall compression, with two major compressional events identified in Early Eocene and Mid-Oligocene.

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