Reconstructing North Sea palaeolandscapes from 3D and high-density 2D seismic data: An overview

Abstract

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The Atlantic Margin and the North Sea: Introduction

“…Therefore, it should be no surprise that some of the biggest advances of the last decade have come through this engagement. Examples are the 3D-seismic-based reconstructions of the southern North Sea (Gaffney et al 2007(Gaffney et al , 2009Van Heteren et al 2014), the Area 240 finds and follow-up survey (Tizzard et al 2011(Tizzard et al , 2015, and most recently the Rotterdam Harbour Mesolithic investigations (Moree and Sier 2015). Even at a much smaller scale, the national summaries provide examples of material identified via commercial/pre-development investigation, such as the North Wall Quay fish traps (Westley and Woodman,Chap.…”

Practical approaches to management of the marine prehistoric environment

“…Gupta et al, 2004;Gaffney et al, 2007Gaffney et al, , 2011Dix & Sturt, 2011;van Heteren et al, 2014). These have rapidly increased our potential to interpret spatial context in buried and marine land surfaces.…”

“…see Green, 1990;Delgado, 1998;Ballard, 2008), but rather on the use of scientific wisdom to guide cultural heritage management. We thus describe key ingredients for a research-based approach to the management of submerged prehistoric sites and landscapes, drawing on current insights into the geology and archaeology of the southern North Sea (see Cohen et al, 2014;van Heteren et al, 2014;Roebroeks, 2014;Peeters & Momber, 2014). This paper is structured around an analysis of three key issues: (a) understanding the natural and anthropogenic contexts -do we know enough?…”

Introduction to North Sea submerged landscapes and prehistory

“…Palaeolandscape mapping, as discussed by van Heteren et al (2014), particularly adds to the spatial improvement of models. However, additional efforts are required to improve temporal control.…”

“…A major step forward was the work of Vince Gaffney, Simon Fitch and the late Ken Thomson (University of Birmingham) on legacy seismic data from the oil and gas industry, which made it possible to identify palaeolandscape structures under the seafloor. The paper by van Heteren et al (2014) demonstrates that the reconstruction of palaeolandscapes from 3D and high-density 2D seismic data is achievable, but also that many challenges still remain. On the one hand there are gaps in the data that need to be filled, both spatially and temporally.…”