Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous inversion of the northern East Shetland Basin, northern North Sea

Abstract

Current research into the structural evolution of the East Shetland Basin, northern North Sea, indicates that a significant phase of structural inversion occurred during the Latest Jurassic-Early Cretaceous.Structural effects of this tectonic phase include the pronounced uplift of pre-and syn-rift sequences along the western margin of the basin and the partial inversion of Mesozoic half-graben along intra-basinal NE-SW controlling faults. In addition, the localized occurrence of flower geometries and pop-ups along NE-SW trending faults suggests a component of strike-slip during the reactivation of these pre-existing structures.Work presented stresses the importance in the role of pre-existing lineaments and the effects of superimposing subsequent non-coaxial extensional events upon them. Lineaments may be prominent reactivated basement shear zones or fault systems from earlier extensional phases.Inversion will be analysed in detail with respect to two areas within the northern East Shetland Basin, the Tern sub-basin and the northern Penguin ridge. A regional tectonic model of northern North Sea rift evolution is presented and its implications to observed Latest Jurassic-Early Cretaceous structure discussed.

Influence of fault reactivation during multiphase rifting: The Oseberg area, northern North Sea rift

“…However, debates exist on the significance of the reactivation of first-phase faults and its influence on the fault growth during the second rift phase (Lee and Hwang, 1993;Thomas and Coward, 1995;. Some authors utilizing high-quality 3D seismic reflection data in the East Shetland Basin in the northern North Sea argued that Triassic faults were largely crosscut and offset by oppositely dipping middle-late Jurassic faults, forming two generations of fault blocks tilted in opposite direction (Faerseth et al, 1997;Faerseth and Ravnas, 1998;.…”

The role of inherited extensional fault segmentation and linkage in contractional orogenesis: a reconstruction of Lower Cretaceous inverted rift basins in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia

“…The phenomenon of basin inversion has been documented worldwide. For example, mild to moderate inversion in intraplate basins has been observed in numerous North Atlantic basins (Cartwright, 1989;Chapman, 1989;Hayward & Graham, 1989;Roberts et al, 1993;Sinclair, 1995;Thomas & Coward, 1995) or in the North German Basin (Kossow et al, 2000;Kossow & Krawczyk, 2002;Gemmer et al, 2003). In addition, strongly shortened half grabens have been documented in the Alps (Gillcrist et al, 1987), with prominent examples found in the Central Andes (Kley & Monaldi, 2002) and Atlas mountains (Beauchamp et al, 1999;Teixell et al, 2003).…”

Inversion of transfer faults: The Jebha–Chrafate fault (Rif, Morocco)

“…Although inversion tectonics have been mainly studied in extensional and compressional fault systems using models (Bally, 1984;Williams et al, 1989) and field examples (Gillcrist et al, 1987;Kelly et al, 1999), research into oblique-slip structures (e.g. Casas-Sainz, 1993;Sinclair, 1995;Thomas and Coward, 1995;Quintana et al, 2004) is more scarce. The inversion and reactivation of transfer faults have been studied in sedimentary basins mainly on the basis of geophysical data (e.g.…”