Thin, condensed coarse-grained shallow-marine successions can be difficult to describe and interpret, especially in the subsurface because they commonly lack finer grained intervals which are typically associated with sequence stratigraphic surfaces. This lack of mudstones and siltstones means that they also typically make excellent reservoir intervals. The Oxfordian to Volgian intra-Draupne Formation sandstones in the Johan Sverdrup Field, southern Utsira High, represent such a system. This study presents a new, basinwide sequence stratigraphic model that unravels the detailed depositional history of the succession and places its formation within a regional Late Jurassic tectonostratigraphic framework. The succession is comprised of four parasequences deposited following a regional Kimmeridgian marine flooding event. Sediments were mainly supplied through Haugaland sourced fan deltas and longshore currents reworking the Avaldsnes High. The first parasequence shows a distinctive suite of facies consisting of fine-grained and mud-rich bioturbated sandstones deposited in a protected back-barrier lagoon. Subsequent parasequences lack fine grained sediments and are dominated by bidirectional cross stratified, coarse-to-very coarse sandstones and gravels deposited in a tidal strait. A progressive reduction of fault related subsidence in the Middle Volgian along with Late Volgian-Ryazanian sea level rise and inversion of pre-existing structures, promoted backstepping of the feeder systems, sediment starvation and the progressive deposition of the black and green-red shales of the Draupne and Asgard formations. This study accounts for features previously unidentified in the basin and which have implications for understanding the deposition of coarse-grained shallow marine successions around the Utsira High and other transgressed basement highs.

Most of modern shorelines are in net erosion. Among these, rocky shorelines are commonly punctuated, with alternating high relief cliffs an incised embayments which host “pocket beaches”. While multiple cases of ancient rocky shorelines associated with low relief ravinement surfaces have been documented in the geological record, deposits formed in pocket beaches and joint-cut hollows are more rarely described. This poses the question “are high relief rocky coastlines and their associated deposits not preserved or have they been previously overlooked? Here we document exhumed examples of ancient granitic rocky shoreline systems of diverse morphologies from the Early Miocene of northern Austria, and compare them with modern systems in Corsica, Spain and Norway. The excellent preservation of the ancient examples offers a unique opportunity to characterize these sedimentary systems, provide diagnostic criteria for their recognition and discuss the main controls on their occurrence and preservation in the rock record. From their stratigraphic and sedimentological analysis, and its comparison with modern examples, we interpret that these rocky shorelines form and get preserved during rapid rates of combined tectonic and eustatic sea-level rise, and under storm-affected, low wave energy conditions along lithological, structural and weathered "weakness" zones. These results provide a mechanism for predicting their potential occurrence and distribution during transgression of rocky coasts, with implications for exploration around structural highs and coastal management.