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Improved seismic imaging of the deep structures in the Faroe-Shetland Basin has revealed a complex Mesozoic rift system with shifting block polarity along the West Shetland Platform. Newly acquired seismic data has led to the focus of hydrocarbon exploration on structurally defined Mesozoic traps and has re-opened exploration in the deeper stratigraphic sections beyond the stratigraphic, Paleocene deep-water play. In the study area, rift geometry changes from symmetrical (south) to asymmetrical (north), the latter creating a large-scale seawarddipping flexure. The polarity shift may link up with deep-seated basement structures (rift-oblique lineaments) segmenting the rift zone. The initial rifting along the West Shetland Platform strongly influenced the depositional setting and lateral distribution of the Lower Cretaceous sediments. During rift initiation in the Early Cretaceous faulting took place along numerous small faults, which eventually linked up, creating a set of basin master faults in the main rift phase. Sand derived from rivers and longshore currents on the West Shetland Platform was transported down the axis of relay ramps and filled the juvenile rift basins. These sediments formed thick onlapping wedges, reflecting the continuous creation of accommodation space and the overall transgressive nature of the syn-rift and early post-rift succession. In this period, rift basins were elongated, which to some extent hindered cross-rift transport of coarse material except at relay ramps and rift-oblique lineaments. As fault movements ceased, the rift topography was levelled out and allowed gravity-driven systems to reach further into the basin, overstepping former cross-rift barriers. Lower Cretaceous syn-rift sediments are well exposed at several localities along the margins of the northern North Atlantic including onshore NE Greenland. The close analogy to the synrift structural setting imaged in the west of Shetland seismic succession may provide valuable information on structurally controlled depositional systems, reservoir architecture and properties.

New techniques using Computer Controlled Scanning Electron Microscopy (CCSEM) and Laser Ablation -Inductively Coupled Plasma -Mass Spectroscopy (LA-ICP-MS) have recently been developed at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) to determine source, compositional variation and sedimentary pathways of sandstones. These new time-and cost-efficient methods are highly applicable in petroleum and mineral exploration. This paper illustrates how the provenance and variability of Miocene titanium-rich sands in western and central Jylland have been investigated, but the methods are presently also used offshore the Faroe Islands and in East and West Greenland.CCSEM and LA-ICP-MS utilise simple sample preparation methods, are relatively rapid and less expensive than conventional methods and yield more information. Heavy mineral (titanium) exploration techniquesExploration for economic concentrations of valuable heavy minerals, particularly Ti-bearing minerals, necessitates knowledge of their compositional variation and the sand transport processes into the sedimentary basin where they are found (Morton & Hallsworth 1999;Morton et al. 2004). Conventional provenance studies employ methods such as Sensitive High Resolution Ion MicroProbe (SHRIMP) and Electron MicroProbe Analysis (EMPA) that require time-consuming and often tedious sample preparation, are thus expensive, and are therefore not suitable as a standard exploration technique. As part of a provenance study of ilmenite-rich sands occurring in the Miocene of western Denmark carried out at GEUS, it was the aim to develop a more cost-efficient standard analytical tool that could integrate bulk rock chemostratigraphic data, mineral compositional data and age information. This study describes the use of CCSEM and LA-ICP-MS as alternative techniques, capable of providing detailed information relevant to sand provenance more rapidly and less expensively than conventional methods. General geological settingThe coastline of the proto-North Sea had a NW-SE trend across central Jylland during the Miocene (Fig. 1). The coastal regions were sourced by large rivers draining the western part of the Scandinavian shield during the early Miocene. A distinct change to a more westerly transport direction occur-

The sedimentation and basin evolution of the Kangerlussuaq Basin, southern East Greenland has gained renewed interest with the licensing rounds offshore the Faroe Islands in 2000 and 2005, as it forms an important analogy to the Faroese geological setting. The Faroes frontier area is in part covered by basalts and is a high-risk area with poorly known plays and sedimentary basins. It is therefore essential to obtain as much information as possible on the evolution of sedimentary basins on the rifted volcanic margins closest to the Faroese Islands margin. Plate reconstructions of the North Atlantic region indicate the former close proximity of East Greenland to the Faroe Islands region (Fig. 1), and the Kangerlussuaq Basin thus constitutes the most important field analogue with respect to stratigraphy, major unconformities and basin evolution. The study of the sedimentary succession in the Kangerlussuaq Basin, and the provenance of the sandstones in particular, will provide constraints on exploration models and may help to predict the distribution of potential reservoir sandstones in the Faroese offshore basins, and eventually lead to development of play types that are new to this frontier region.This paper presents the main conclusions from two research projects: Stratigraphy of the pre-basaltic sedimentary succession of the Kangerlussuaq Basin -Volcanic basin of the North Atlantic and An innovative sedimentary provenance analysis, jointly undertaken by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) and CASP (formerly Cambridge Arctic Shelf Programme). Both projects were initiated in October 2002 and concluded in September 2005. They form part of Future Exploration Issues Programme of the Faroese Continental Shelf (SINDRI programme), established by the Faroese Ministry of Petroleum and financed by the partners of the Sindri Group (see Acknowledgements).

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