Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T16:44:18.943Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Constraints on the tectonic evolution of the Central European Basin System revealed by seismic reflection profiles from Northern Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2016

S. Mazur  and
M. Scheck-Wenderoth
S. Mazur*
Affiliation:
GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Telegrafenberg, D-14473 Potsdam, Germany
M. Scheck-Wenderoth
Affiliation:
GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Telegrafenberg, D-14473 Potsdam, Germany
*
*Corresponding author. Present address: S. Mazur, Institute of Geological Sciences, University of Wroclaw, Pl. M. Borna 9, 50-204 Wroclaw, Poland. Email:[email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

A selection of reflection-seismic lines from the southern part of the Central European Basin System and its southern margin were used to establish the spectrum of extensional and compressional deformation structures and to calibrate the timing of these events. The lines are arranged in a N-S and an E-W transect running across the Pompeckj Block and the Lower Saxony Basin in Northern Germany. The structural record provided by the seismic data points to an interplay between far-field horizontal stresses and vertical movements of the basin floor, the latter only weakly correlated with the development of seismic-scale tectonic structures. A detailed seismo-stratigraphic analysis indicates that Late Triassic-Jurassic extension has been the principal control on the structure of the E-W profile, whereas the N-S profile is dominated by compressional structures associated with Late Cretaceous inversion. Overprint effects of extension and inversion tectonics can be classified among a few distinct tectonic events accompanied by movements of the Upper Permian salt: firstly, an episode of subsidence and diapiric rise in the Keuper; secondly, a clear Jurassic-to-Early Cretaceous extension recorded by normal faulting and differential subsidence. The latter was interrupted by a major episode of Late Jurassic uplift. Thirdly, a Late Cretaceous-Early Paleogene basin inversion was associated with approximately N-S compression; and fourthly, recurring extension during the Cenozoic associated with diapiric rise and collapse. The Mesozoic extension is expressed in a number of normal faults that were most active during the Early Cretaceous localised subsidence within the Lower Saxony Basin. The deformation associated with the Late Cretaceous inversion was partly decoupled along the salt. The compressional deformation at the southern margin of the basin was thick-skinned in style, characterized by folding and faulting of the Mesozoic sedimentary fill and pre-Zechstein strata. Further north, towards the centre of the basin, folding and reverse faulting were mostly concentrated above the salt. The tectonic evolution of the investigated area suggests the presence of a zone of crustal weakness along the SW margin of the Central European Basin System which allowed strain localization in response to a favourable oriented stress field.

Keywords

basin inversiondeformation decouplingElbe Fault SystemPermo-Mesozoicsalt
Type
Research Article
Information
Netherlands Journal of Geosciences , Volume 84 , Issue 4 , December 2005 , pp. 389 - 401
Copyright
Copyright © Stichting Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 2005

References

Baldschuhn, R., Binot, F., Fleig, S. &Kockel, F. (eds), 2001. Geotektonischer Atlas von Nordwest-Deutschland und dem deutschen Nordsee-Sektor Strukturen, Struckurenwicklung, Paläogeographie. Geologisches Jahrbuch A 153: 1–88, 3 CD ROM.Google Scholar
Badley, M.E., Price, J.D., Rambech Dahl, C. & Agdestein, T., 1988. The structural evolution of the northern Viking Graben and its bearing upon extensional modes of basin formation. Journal of the Geological Society, London 145: 455–472.Google Scholar
Best, G. & Kockel, F., 1983. Geological history of the southern Horn Graben. Geologie en Mijnbouw 62: 25–33.Google Scholar
Betz, D., Führer, F. & Plein, E., 1987. Evolution of the Lower Saxony Basin. Tectonophysics 137: 127–170.Google Scholar
Clausen, O.R. & Korstgard, J.A., 1983. Faults and faulting in the Horn Graben Area, Danish North Sea. First Break 11(4): 127–143.Google Scholar
De Lugt, I.R., van Wees, J.D. & Wong, Th.E., 2003. The tectonic evolution of the southern Dutch North Sea during the Paleogene: basin inversion in distinct pulses. Tectonophysics 373: 141–159.Google Scholar
Doré, A.G., lundin, E.R., Jensen, L.N., Birkeland, ø., Eliassen, P.E. & Fichier, C. 1999. Principal tectonic events in the evolution of the northwest European Atlantic margin. In: Fleet, A.J. & Boldy, S.A.R. (Eds): Petroleum Geology of Northwest Europe: Proceedings of the 5th Conference. Geological Society of London (London): 41–61.Google Scholar
Geluk, M.C., Plomp, A. & Van Doom, Th.H.M., 1996. Development of the Permo-Triassic succession in the basin fringe area, southern Netherlands. In: Rondeel, H.E., Batjes, D.A.J. & Nieuwhuijs, W.H. (Eds): Geology of gas and oil under the Netherlands, Kluwer, Dordrecht: 57–78.Google Scholar
Geluk, M.C. & Röhling, H.-G., 1997. High-resolution sequence stratigraphy of the Lower Triassic ‘Buntsandstein’ in the Netherlands and northwestern Germany. Geologie en Mijnbouw 76: 227–246.Google Scholar
Hansen, D.L. & Nielsen, S.B., 2003. Why rifts invert in compression? Tectonophysics 373: 5–24.Google Scholar
Hansen, M.B., Deghani, A., Gajewski, D., Hübscher, C, Lykke-Andersen, H., Nørmark, E. & Reicherter, K., 2003. Neotectonics in the western Baltic Sea (NeoBaltic). Terra Nostra 2003/07. In: Littke, R., Bayer, U. & Gajewski, D. (Eds): Dynamics of Sedimentary Systems under varying Stress Conditions by Example of the Central European Basin System, Selbstverag der Alfred-Wegener-Stiftung, Berlin: 21–24.Google Scholar
Hecht, C.A., Lempp, C. & Scheck, M., 2003. Geomechanical model for the postVariscan evolution of the Permocarboniferous-Mesozoic basins in Northeast Germany. Tectonophysics 373: 125–139.Google Scholar
Jaritz, W., 1987. The origin and development of salt structures in northwest Germany. In: Lerche, I. & O’Brien, J.J. (Eds): Dynamical geology of salt and related structures. Orlando, Academic Press: 480–493.Google Scholar
Kamkowski, P.H., 1999. Origin and evolution of the Polish Rotliegend Basin. Polish Geological Institute Special Papers 3: 1–93.Google Scholar
Kockel, F., 2002. Rifting processes in NW-Germany and the German North Sea Sector. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences / Geologie en Mijnbouw 81(2): 149–158.Google Scholar
Kockel, F., 2003. Inversion structures in Central Europe - Expressions and reasons, an open discussion. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences / Geologie en Mijnbouw 82(4): 367–382.Google Scholar
Kossow, D. & Krawczyk, C.M., 2002. Structure and quantification of processes controlling the evolution of the inverted NE-German Basin. Marine and Petroleum Geology 19: 601–618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nalpas, T., Douaran, S.L., Brun, J.-P., Unternehr, P. & Sichert, J.-P., 1995. Inversion of the Broad Fourteens Basin (Netherlands offshore), a small-scale model investigation. Sedimentary Geology 95: 237–250.Google Scholar
Maystrenko, Y., Bayer, U. & Scheck-Wenderoth, M., 2005. The Glückstadt Graben, a sedimentary record between the North and Baltic Sea in north Central Europe. Tectonophysics 397 (1-2): 113–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Otto, V., 2003. Inversion-related features along the southeastern margin of the North German Basin (Elbe Fault System). Tectonophysics 373: 107–123.Google Scholar
Rattey, R.P. & Hayward, A.P., 1993. Sequence stratigraphy of a failed rift system: the Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous basin evolution of the Central and Northern North Sea. In: Parker, J.R. (ed.): Petroleum Geology of Northwest Europe: Proceedings of the 4th Conference. Geological Society of London (London): 215–250.Google Scholar
Röhling, H.-G., 1991. A lithostratigraphic subdivision of the Early Triassic in the Northwest German Lowlands and the German sector of the North Sea, based on Gamma Ray and sonic Logs. Geologisches Jahrbuch 119: 3–23.Google Scholar
Scheck, M. & Bayer, U., 1999. Evolution of the Northeast German Basin - inferences from a 3D structural model and subsidence analysis. Tectonophysics 313: 145–169.Google Scholar
Scheck, M., Bayer, U., Otto, V., Lamarche, J., Banka, D. & Pharaoh, T., 2002. The Elbe Fault System in North Central Europe - a basement controlled zone of crustal weakness. Tectonophysics 360: 281–299.Google Scholar
Scheck, M., Bayer, U. & Lewerenz, B., 2003a. Salt redistribution during extension and inversion inferred from 3D backstripping. Tectonophysics 373: 55–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheck, M., Bayer, U. & Lewerenz, B., 2003b. Salt movements in the Northeast German Basin and its relation to major post-Permian tectonic phases - results from 3D structural modelling, backstripping and reflection seismic data. Tectonophysics 361: 277–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheck-Wenderoth, M. & Lamarche, J. 2005. Crustal memory and basin evolution in the Central European Basin System - new insights from a 3D structural model. Tectonophysics 397 (1-2): 143–165.Google Scholar
Schwab, G., 1985. Paläomobilität der Norddeutsch-Polnischen Senke. Berlin, Akadmie der Wissenschaften der DDR, Dissertation B: 196.Google Scholar
Stephenson, R.A., Narkiewicz, M. Dadlez, R., Van Wees, J.-D. & Andriesses, P., 2003. Tectonic subsidence modelling of the Polish Basin in the light of new data on structural structure and magnitude of inversion. Sedimentary Geology 156: 59–70.Google Scholar
Sundsbe, G.O. & Megson, J.B., 1993. Structural styles in the Danish Central Graben. In: Parker, J.R. (ed.): Petroleum Geology of Northwest Europe: Proceedings of the 4th Conference. Geological Society of London (London): 1255–1268.Google Scholar
Underhill, J.R. & Partington, M.A., 1993. Jurassic thermal doming and deflation in the North Sea: implications of the sequence stratigraphie evidence. In:Parker, J.R. (Ed.): Petroleum Geology of Northwest Europe: Proceedings of the 4th Conference. Geological Society of London (London): 337–346.Google Scholar
Van Wees, J.-D. & Beekman, F., 2000. Lithosphère rheology during intraplate basin extension and inversion - Inferences from automated modelling of four basins in western Europe. Tectonophysics 320: 219–242.Google Scholar
Walter, R., 1992. Geologie von Mitteleuropa. Schweizerbart (Nagele und Obermiller), Stuttgart: 1–561.Google Scholar
Ziegler, P.A., 1990. Geological Atlas of Western and Central Europe 2nd Edition. Shell Internationale Petroleum Mij. BV and Geological Society of London (London): 1–239.Google Scholar
Ziegler, P.A., Cloetingh, S. & Van Wees, J.-D., 1995. Dynamics of intra-plate compressional deformation: the Alpine foreland and other examples. Tectonophysics 252: 7–59.Google Scholar