Multiple episodes of regional exhumation and inversion identified in the UK Southern North Sea based on integration of palaeothermal and palaeoburial indicators P. F. Green, I. R. Duddy & P. Japsen 47 3D basin and petroleum system modelling of the NW German North Sea (Entenschnabel) J. Arfai & R. Lutz 67 New insights into the unexploited reservoir potential of the Mid North Sea High (UKCS quadrants 35-38 and 41-43): a newly described intra-Zechstein sulphate-carbonate platform complex

13There is growing recognition that pulses of compressive tectonic structuring punctuate the

We present results from a margin-wide analysis of the history of post-breakup Cenozoic compressional deformation and related exhumation along the passive southern margin of Australia based on a regional synthesis of seismic, stratigraphic and thermochronological data. The Cenozoic sedimentary record of the southern margin contains regional unconformities of intraLutetian and late Miocene-Pliocene age, which coincide with reconfigurations of the boundaries of the Indo-Australian Plate. Seismic data show that post-breakup compressional deformation and sedimentary basin inversion, characterised by reactivation of syn-rift faults and folding of post-rift sediments, is pervasive from the Gulf St Vincent to Gippsland basins, and occurred almost continually since the early-to-mid Eocene. Inversion structures are absent from the Bight Basin which we interpret to be the result of both the unsuitable orientation of faults for reactivation with respect to post-breakup stress fields, and the colder, stronger lithosphere that underlies that part of the margin. Compressional deformation along the southeastern margin has mainly been accommodated by reactivation of syn-rift faults resulting in folds with varying ages and amplitudes within the post-rift Cenozoic succession. Many hydrocarbon fields in the Otway and Gippsland basins are located within these folds, the largest of which are often associated with substantial localised exhumation. Our results emphasise the importance of constraining the timing of Cenozoic compression and exhumation in defining hydrocarbon prospectivity of the southern margin.