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The influence of structural inheritance and multiphase extension on rift development, the northern North Sea

Phillips, Thomas B.; Fazlikhani, Hamed; Gawthorpe, Rob L.; Fossen, Haakon; Jackson, Christopher A.‐L.; Bell, Rebecca E.; Faleide, Jan I.; Rotevatn, Atle

The influence of structural inheritance and multiphase extension on rift development, the northern North Sea Thumbnail


Authors

Thomas B. Phillips

Hamed Fazlikhani

Rob L. Gawthorpe

Haakon Fossen

Christopher A.‐L. Jackson

Rebecca E. Bell

Jan I. Faleide

Atle Rotevatn



Abstract

The northern North Sea rift evolved through multiple rift phases within a highly heterogeneous crystalline basement. The geometry and evolution of syn‐rift depocentres during this multiphase evolution, and the mechanisms and extent to which they were influenced by pre‐existing structural heterogeneities remain elusive, particularly at the regional scale. Using an extensive database of borehole‐constrained 2D seismic reflection data, we examine how the physiography of the northern North Sea rift evolved throughout late Permian‐Early Triassic (RP1) and Late Jurassic‐Early Cretaceous (RP2) rift phases, and assess the influence of basement structures related to the Caledonian orogeny and subsequent Devonian extension. During RP1, the location of major depocentres, the Stord and East Shetland basins, was controlled by favorably oriented Devonian shear zones. RP2 shows a diminished influence from structural heterogeneities, activity localises along the Viking‐Sogn graben system and the East Shetland Basin, with negligible activity in the Stord Basin and Horda Platform. The Utsira High and the Devonian Lomre Shear Zone form the eastern barrier to rift activity during RP2. Towards the end of RP2, rift activity migrated northwards as extension related to opening of the proto‐North Atlantic becomes the dominant regional stress as rift activity in the northern North Sea decreases. Through documenting the evolving syn‐rift depocentres of the northern North Sea rift, we show how structural heterogeneities and prior rift phases influence regional rift physiography and kinematics, controlling the segmentation of depocentres, as well as the locations, styles and magnitude of fault activity and reactivation during subsequent events.

Citation

Phillips, T. B., Fazlikhani, H., Gawthorpe, R. L., Fossen, H., Jackson, C. A., Bell, R. E., …Rotevatn, A. (2019). The influence of structural inheritance and multiphase extension on rift development, the northern North Sea. Tectonics, 38(12), 4099-4126. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019tc005756

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 25, 2019
Online Publication Date Dec 2, 2019
Publication Date Dec 31, 2019
Deposit Date Nov 11, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Tectonics
Electronic ISSN 1944-9194
Publisher European Geosciences Union
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 38
Issue 12
Pages 4099-4126
DOI https://doi.org/10.1029/2019tc005756

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Published Journal Article (Advance online version) (94.7 Mb)
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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version © 2019. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.





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