Mesozoic and Cenozoic basin configurations in the North Sea - From Depositional Systems to Sedimentary Successions on the Norwegian Continental Margin - page 446

Tornquist Zone, acting as source areas for the
Late Jurassic J-1 and J-2 sequences located in
the northern Horda Platform area, Stord Basin-
Åsta Graben and Egersund Basin and for the
Lower Cretaceous K-2.1 sub-sequence.
5 Sediment infill patterns and source areas were
similar during the late syn-rift and early
post-rift phases, implying that the basin con-
figuration which developed during late syn-
rift phase prevailed throughout the early
post-rift phase.
6 Southern Norway continued as a sediment
source area throughout the early post-rift
phase in Early Cretaceous. Denudation pre-
vailed and a regional unconformity was
formed in extensive areas in the North
Sea basin and probably in parts of southern
Norway to mid-Cretaceous time with subse-
quent deposition of the Chalk Group in the
late post-rift phase (basin configuration 2).
7 During basin configuration 2, vast areas of
southern Norway were part of a depositional
area covered by a shallow sea.
8 Shallow sea conditions prevailed to Late
Palaeocene, when topography on the East
Shetland Platform and in north-western parts
of southern Norway caused increased erosion
and sediment supply into the North Sea Basin.
This created a different basin configuration, as
compared to basin configuration 2, as uplift of
these areas exposed new source areas and this
occurred simultaneously with rapid subsid-
ence in the basin, particularly in the Viking
Graben area.
9 This basin configuration continued until crea-
tion of a source area in the north-east and
development of diachronous accommodation
space in the eastern North Sea area, initiated
in the Early Oligocene.
10 This uplift probably started in the western
part of southern Norway, with later uplift of
more extensive areas in Late Oligocene and
Miocene.
11 Although climatic changes probably occurred
during basin configuration 4, these cannot
explain the observed basin configuration and
sediment infill style alone; climatic change
towards increased precipitation and run-off
acted as an external factor simultaneously
with uplift of the hinterland. Potentially, the
climatic change was influenced by the uplift
itself.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We want to thank Fugro Multi Client Services and
TGS Nopec for the seismic data, which increased
the quality of the seismic interpretation. Also,
thank you to Brit Inger Thyberg for inspiring dis-
cussions during this work and Olav Antonio Blaich
for technical help with the maps. The authors also
want to thank Mike Young, Erik S. Rasmussen and
Allard Martinius for valuable comments on the
manuscript. Also, we want to thank Adrian Read
for proofreading the manuscript.

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