Cretaceous tectonostratigraphy of the Faroe-Shetland region

• Main Authors: Stoker, M.S., McInroy, D.B., Johnson, H., Ritchie, J.D.
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: British Geological Survey 2010
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/530661/; https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/530661/1/CR10144N.pdf

This report presents a set of observations from the rock record and seismic data that detail aspects of the Cretaceous succession in the Faroe–Shetland region, and which have provided the basis for a regional tectonostratigraphic framework. Timeslice reconstructions showing basin history and lithofacies, combined with seismic stratigraphic information that includes the record of contemporary tectonic events, provide chronological indicators of change in the Faroe– Shetland region. These changes are considered in relation to both local and regional tectonic events; the latter includes key events related to the developing North Atlantic spreading centre, in an attempt to better understand the driving mechanisms and controls on the development of the proto-NE Atlantic margin. The first part of the report (Chapter 1) introduces the project and the context of the study. In particular, the common assumption that, along the NW European margin, Late Jurassic rifting extended into the Early Cretaceous as a single event; a premise that commonly overlooks one of the most fundamental events in the evolution of the NE Atlantic margin – the rotation of the principal extension vector from E–W to NW–SE. Another common misconception is that the Late Cretaceous interval represents a phase of thermal sag and general tectonic quiescence in the Faroe–Shetland region. Such assumptions have generally been the result of speculative application of the North Sea Cretaceous setting to the Atlantic margin; this study aims to rigorously test these assumptions by providing a clear set of regional observational data that provide a direct record of events for the Cretaceous succession in the Faroe–Shetland region. Due to the availability of data, our focus is on the eastern half of the Faroe–Shetland region. This is followed in Chapter 2 by a summary of the regional geological framework, both of the proto-NE Atlantic margin and the Faroe–Shetland region. The latter incorporates published information combined with observations from this study, ...