Morphology and pattern of Quaternary sedimentation in the North Sea Basin ...

The Quaternary North Sea Basin, which extends from northwest mainland Europe in the south (52°N) to the Norwegian Sea in the north (62°N), contains a thick (up to 1 km) sedimentary succession that records the changing nature of sediment supply from surrounding land areas during the last c.2.6 Ma. We...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ottesen, Dag, Batchelor, Christine, Dowdeswell, JA, Loseth, Helge
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.32424
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/285054
Description
Summary:The Quaternary North Sea Basin, which extends from northwest mainland Europe in the south (52°N) to the Norwegian Sea in the north (62°N), contains a thick (up to 1 km) sedimentary succession that records the changing nature of sediment supply from surrounding land areas during the last c.2.6 Ma. We use an extensive 2D and 3D seismic database to correlate major Quaternary seismo-stratigraphic surfaces and units across the North Sea and reconstruct the broad-scale infill pattern of the entire Quaternary North Sea Basin. The total volume of Quaternary sediments in the North Sea (350,000 km²) is c.140,000 km3, while the area inside the 500 m contour of the base-Quaternary surface has a volume of 109,000 km3. Two largely independent depocentres developed in the North Sea Basin during the early Quaternary: the southern and central sub-basin was infilled by shelf fluvio-deltaic and prodeltaic sediments delivered from the east and south-east, whilst the northern sub-basin was infilled mainly by prograding ...