Provenance of late Palaeozoic terrestrial sediments on the northern flank of the Mid North Sea High: detrital zircon geochronology and rutile geochemical constraints

Abstract

Zircon U-Pb and rutile trace element data are used to investigate the provenance of late Devonian to early Permian terrestrial sandstones in the Embla and Flora oil fields on the north flank of the Mid North Sea High, central North Sea. Two Old Red Sandstone samples (ORS 1) are dominated by 1.2-0.9 Ga Grenvillian zircons and low-to medium-grade rutile, with sparse Cambro-Ordovician Caledonian zircons (2-4%) and high-grade rutiles (0-5%). The samples are interpreted as recycled metasediments from the Scottish Caledonides. Two other Old Red Sandstone samples (ORS 2) contain a high proportion of Caledonian, mainly Silurian zircons (15-19%) and high-grade rutiles (15-18%); we propose that these components are traceable to the Krummedal sequence on East Greenland (and related sediments). We interpret the data to reflect a temporal evolution of the regional drainage system from northwestern to northeastern sources, with high-grade detritus reaching the Mid North Sea High in the Famennian-early Carboniferous. A late Carboniferous and an early Permian sandstone yielded zircon and rutile signatures compatible with recycling of Palaeozoic sediments north of southernmost Scotland, probably reflecting inversion tectonics. Recycling of Mesoproterozoic to Palaeozoic sediments is thus a prominent feature of the studied late Palaeozoic sandstones.Supplementary material: Electron microprobe data from rutile trace element analyses, additional rutile temperature plots and zircon LA-ICPMS U-Pb data are available at http://www.geolsoc. org.uk/SUP18617

Interrogating the provenance of large river systems: multi-proxy in situ analyses in the Millstone Grit, Yorkshire

“…Baxter et al 2002). Rutiles preserving similar temperatures were identified by Lundmark et al (2014) in Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks from the North Sea, but temperatures below 600ºC are rare in the study area and are found chiefly in 11LYK01, which contains garnets similar to those supplied by the Dalradian. By contrast, the Southern Uplands reached only the prehnite-pumpellyite facies (<350ºC), although many of its Ordovician successions are thought to derive from a Barrovian metamorphic terrane (Oliver & Leggett 1980).…”

Altered basement rocks on the Utsira High and its surroundings, Norwegian North Sea

“…In Late Carboniferous time, the North Sea region was affected by the emerging fold and thrust belt of the Variscan Orogeny, causing uplift and erosion and also representing a southern source of sediment influx (Besly, 1998;Lund mark et al, 2014). North of the Central Graben, sediments of Carboniferous age have been reported from the Embla and Flora oil fields (Martin et al, 2002;Lundmark et al, 2014) and in well 9/4-5 (www.npd.no). However, Brekke et al (2001) speculated about the possibility of preserved Carboniferous sediments in pre-Permain half grabens on the Utsira High.…”

Sediment provenance studies in hydrocarbon exploration and production: an introduction

“…The studies range from geographically diverse case studies that link source to sink (e.g. Bue & Andresen 2013;Lundmark et al 2013;Morton et al 2013) to discussions on how provenance controls diagenesis within reservoirs Caracciolo et al 2013;Kettanah et al 2013).…”

“…The studies have a wide geographical diversity, from regions of frontier hydrocarbon exploration in the Arctic (Bue & Andresen 2013), North Africa (Meinhold et al 2013) and SE Asia (Naing et al 2013) to more established producing basins, such as the Norwegian Sea ) and the North Sea (Lundmark et al 2013).…”

“…The modern sands could reasonably be correlated with tectonic domains. Lundmark et al (2013) use a combination of U -Pb dating of zircon and rutile trace element data to investigate the provenance of late Devonianearly Permian sandstones of the Mid North Sea High. The data allow two sand types to be distinguished: one recycled from the Grampian High and Southern Uplands High -Mid North Sea High; and the other, derived from an Eastern Greenland source.…”