Rockall Continental Margin Report. Final geological report (5 volumes)

The Rockall Continental Margin Project was a 3-year research programme, undertaken between April 1992 and March 1995, designed to investigate the geology and resource potential of part of the frontier area west of Scotland. The programme was funded by a consortium comprising the British Geological S...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Stoker, M.S., Hitchen, K.
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: British Geological Survey 1995
Subjects:
Online Access:http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/510737/
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/510737/1/WB95011VOL1.pdf
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/510737/2/WB95011VOL2.pdf
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/510737/3/WB95011VOL3.pdf
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/510737/4/WB95011VOL4.pdf
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/510737/5/WB95011VOL5.pdf
Description
Summary:The Rockall Continental Margin Project was a 3-year research programme, undertaken between April 1992 and March 1995, designed to investigate the geology and resource potential of part of the frontier area west of Scotland. The programme was funded by a consortium comprising the British Geological Survey (BGS) and 8 exploration companies - BP, British Gas, Conoco, EE Caledonia, Elf, Enterprise, Esso and Mobil. The study has focused on the central and northern Rockall Trough, although several long transect lines were run across the Rockall Plateau and into the Iceland Basin to provide a margin-wide assessment of the geological framework. Over the duration of the project, multichannel seismic, gravity, magnetic and bathymetry data, together with boreholes and shallow-sample information were acquired by the consortium. These data form the basis of this 5-volume report. A descriptiono f the geology and prospectivityo f the surveyed area comprises volume 1, whilst the data on which the geological interpretation is based, including biostratigraphy, petrology and geochemistry of the boreholes and shallow samples, are presented in volumes 2 to 5. The widespread distribution of Upper Cretaceous to lower Palaeogene volcanic rocks continues to hinder our understandionfg t he geological frameworkof the Rockall Continental Margin. Whilst it has been proved that Lower Proterozoic gneisses form continental basement on Rockall Bank, and are therefore part of the Islay structural terrane, the pre-Cretaceous supracrustal infill of the Rockall Trough and Hatton-Rockall Basin remains conjectural. Reworked palynomorphs of Carboniferous, Jurassic and Early Cretaceous age have been identified in lower Palaeogene sediments recovered on the western margin of the Rockall Trough, but their provenance is uncertain. The present morphological expressiono f the Rockall Continental Margin largely reflects late Mesozoic-Cenozoic extensional tectonism associated with North Atlantic sea-floor spreading. In mid-Cretaceous time, the Rockall Trough ...