The Carboniferous of Western Europe; the development of a petroleum system

Abstract

A consistent stratigraphic study of the western European Carboniferous Basin has allowed the generation of eight palaeogeographic timeslices. These illustrate a model of large scale eastern (dextral) tectonic escape on the northern side of a convergent margin and integrate the diverse tectonic and sedimentary settings observed within the basin as a whole. This model can be compared to the present day eastern Mediterranean, where a similar range of diverse tectonic settings are observed. Reservoir and source distribution is discussed for each time-slice along with the present distribution of Carboniferous oil and gas fields. Due to the diversity observed no unique play type can be distilled from the data to explain the distribution of hydrocarbons within the studied area.

The Western Irish Namurian Basin reassessed

“…1). They record the history of in®ll of the Western Irish Namurian Basin (WINB), one of a series of interlinked basins that stretched from the southern North Sea to Nova Scotia during the Late Carboniferous (Maynard et al, 1997;Calder, 1998). Owing to the extensive coastal sections in County Clare, the WINB is one of the best known of these Late Carboniferous basins (Rider, 1978;Gill, 1979;Martinsen, 1989;Martinsen & Bakken, 1990;Collinson et al, 1991) and the region has recently become one of the principal testing grounds in Europe for the concepts of sequence stratigraphy (Davies & Elliot, 1996;Hampson et al, 1997).…”

The Carboniferous evolution of Nova Scotia

“…A thick succession of Dinantian and Silesian strata in the Porcupine Basin west of Ireland at the westernmost remnant of the European plate contains marine strata of Westphalian A age and a record of marine transgressions through the Stephanian (Tate & Dobson 1989). This evidence of a Mid-Euramerican Sea is supported by recurring marine transgressions from the southwest across the British Isles until the Westphalian C (Ramsbottom 1977), and by westerly derived marine influence across the Western European Carboniferous Basin, from Poland and Germany to the British Isles (Maynard et al 1997).…”

“…Palaeoflow after Archer and Greb (1995) for the Appalcahian Basin, Gibling et al (1992) for the Maritimes Basin, and Leeder (1988bLeeder ( , 1992 for western Europe. Western European Carboniferous Basin outline after Maynard et aL (1997).…”

“…River drainage through the Maritimes Basin during the Silesian period of transcurrent movement followed the northeast structural grain of intervening basins and massifs to a common destination with the system draining southwestward across the Pennine Basin (Leeder 1988b)-inferred to have been the Mid-Euramerican Sea. Palaeoflow from the Maritimes Basin earlier had been inferred to have fed into the Rheo-Hercynian Ocean (Gibling et al 1992); however, the Rheic purportedly had closed by that time (Leeder 1988a;Maynard et al 1997). A thick succession of Dinantian and Silesian strata in the Porcupine Basin west of Ireland at the westernmost remnant of the European plate contains marine strata of Westphalian A age and a record of marine transgressions through the Stephanian (Tate & Dobson 1989).…”

“…Few floral extinctions or appearances occur across this boundary, which is defined by the basal Westphalian Gastrioceras subcrenatum goniatite band in Europe (Ramsbottom et al 1978). Index miospores used to recognize the base of the Westphalian elsewhere in Euramerica (Clayton et aL 1977;Maynard et al 1997) (Wagner 1989), and Endosporites produced by the diminutive lycopsid Chaloneria (Polysporia). The subarboreous lycopsids, and densospores and their parent plant in particular, are rare in the fossil record of Nova Scotia and may have been environmentally excluded, as discussed earlier.…”