Regional controls on Lower Tertiary sandstone distribution in the North Sea and NE Atlantic margin basins

Abstract

Widely distributed deep-water fan sandstones of early Tertiary age form the reservoir for one of the most successful and prolific plays in the North Sea and NE Atlantic margin. Stratigraphic interpretation of a large well database provides the basis for mapping sand distribution and depositional environments in these two hydrocarbon provinces. Sand thickness maps for five Paleocene-Lower Eocene plays illustrate the intimate relationship between pre-existing structural features and sand distribution and facies in the North Sea. Large-scale depositional environment mapping gives an insight into the similarities and differences between basin evolution and sand distribution in North Sea and NE Atlantic margin basins. Both provinces were affected by the same succession of pre-break-up and syn-break-up tectonic and magmatic events that led to early Eocene continental separation and the formation of the NE Atlantic. The impact of these events was muted within the North Sea, which was protected from Paleocene rifting on the NE Atlantic margin by the Scotland-Shetland hinterland and from Paleocene-early Eocene volcanism by its more distant location. However, it was the combination of tectonic and thermal uplift of this clastic source area that contributed the large volumes of sand that accumulated in both these provinces.

Giant submarine landslide triggered by Paleocene mantle plume activity in the North Atlantic

“…Paleocene sand-rich intervals within the Maureen, Lista, and Sele Formations of the central North Sea Basin have been related to episodic hinterland uplift caused by plume activity in the North Atlantic (White and Lovell, 1997;Mudge and Jones, 2004). The oldest of these intervals, the 'Maureen Reworked Unit' (MRU), overlies the Intra-Danian unconformity at 62.7 Ma (Mudge, 2015). The MRU is concurrent with some of the earliest volcanism in the North Atlantic, such as the British-Irish Paleogene Igneous Province at 63.2 ± 0.6 Ma (Wilkinson et al, 2016).…”

Elastic impedance based facies classification using support vector machine and deep learning

“…(a) Regional map showing study area and the deposition of Dornoch, Cromarty and basin wide Paleocene Forties sandstones. The depositional extents are modified from Mudge (). The field data used in this study is centred on the Avalon discovery in Block 21/6b.…”

Sedimentological evolution of Sele Formation deep-marine depositional systems of the Central North Sea

“…1) (fig. 10 in Mudge 2014). The FSM comprises fine-to coarse-grained, moderately to poorly sorted sandstones, interbedded with dark grey siltstones and mudstones (Knox & Cordey 1992).…”