Sequence stratigraphic analysis of Paleogene central North Sea well-log, seismic and biostratigraphic data recognizes patterns of cyclic sedimentation seen in the physical stratigraphy and biostratigraphy. Numerous authors have documented cyclic sedimentation resulting from relative changes in sea level in northwest Europe, but interregional integration of these observations with North Sea subsurface data is lacking in the literature. Presented here is a chronostratigraphic correlation framework for the Paleogene of northwest Europe, built by integrating subsurface and outcrop data using sequence stratigraphic first principles. Biostratigraphic data from many sources is ordered with the composite standard method. Graphic correlation of this data documents certain correlations and helps suggest previously unrecognized ties.Paleogene North Sea sediments record five major regressions and their intervening major transgressions. Overprinting this low frequency signal are 19 higher frequency sequence cycles that control lithofacies distribution. In northwest Europe, western basins (London-Hampshire, Paris and Belgian) have shallow marine to non-marine settings which reveal basinward and landward facies shifts that indicate sea level changes. The biostratigraphy of these shallow water deposits is linked to deep water central North Sea biostratigraphy by correlating through deeper water deposits outcropping in Denmark that have been tied to western basin stratigraphy. Using this biostratigraphic framework, key bounding surfaces are correlated between basins using sequence stratigraphic principles. Depositional sequences are recognized onshore that are completely sediment starved in the North Sea. The mixing of low and high frequency sea level signals requires that all of northwest Europe be studied to recognize the 'true' signal. Final correlations resolve 30 depositional sequences with five long-term sea-level changes that can vary from one sub-basin to another.Geologists have recognized transgressions and regressions in northwest European Tertiary sediments since the late 18th century, as Lavoisier noted in 1766 the 'flux and reflux' of the sea represented by map units in the Paris Basin (Rappaport 1969). These sediments challenge us to unravel their stratigraphic equivalence, from shelf to basin and region to region. Sequence stratigraphy is an infant technique compared with traditional correlation procedures of lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and even magnetostratigraphy. A geologist using sequence stratigraphy can synthesize results from more traditional correlation methods and suggest ways to solve stratigrapbic contradictions. A sequence stratigrapher uses regional and local stratigraphic and sedimentological observations to reconstruct the relative sea-level history represented within the rock record. Chronostratigraphic charts (Wheeler 1958) represent deposition and lacuna along a given profile through time, graphically identifying depositional sequences. A basin's chronostratigrahic chart will show a record ...

-A sequence stratigraphic analysis o f well log, seismic, and biostratigraphic data has documented a pattern of cyclic sedimentation for the Palaeogene of the Central North Sea. Previously published research has also documented cyclic sedimentation related to sea lcvcl changes. Integrating Central North Sea subsurface sections with Palaeogene outcrop from NW Europe, using sequence stratigraphic first principles and the graphic correlation method, has produced a chronostratigraphic framework for the Palaeogene of NW Europe.Northwestern Europe basins (London-Hampshire, Paris, and Belgian) have shallow marine t o nonmarine environments, revealing basinward and landward facies shifts indicating sea level changes. The problem correlating NW Europe with North Sea deposits bas been addressed by correlating a biostratigraphy to the decp water deposits outcropping in Denmark. Once a biostratigraphy joining the subsurface and outcrops is built, key bounding surfaces arc correlated between basins. We find that: ( 1 ) scdimentation in thc deep basin occurs as depositional pulses, separated by time-correlative biostratigraphic data terraces (hiatal intervals), which correspond to persistent seismic reflectors; (2) not all sequenc'e boundaries are resolvable by graphic correlation, but the method brackets packages defined by seismic, log interpretation and biostratigraphy; and (3) correlation with outcrops reveals the true significance of the hiatal intervals. .I. Micropalaeonrol. 13( 1 ): 55-80, September 1994.

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