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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 2002; v. 197; p. 307-329;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.2002.197.01.12
© 2002 Geological Society of London

Intrusive Complexes

On the emplacement of sill complexes: evidence from the Faroe-Shetland Basin

Brian Bell1 & Helen Butcher2

1 Division of Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, Gregory Building, Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK bbell{at}earthsci.gla.ac.uk
2 Statoil (UK) Ltd., Statoil House, 11a Regent Street, London SW1Y 4ST, UK

The North Faroe-Shetland Basin (NFSB) Sill Complex is of late Paleocene/earliest Eocene age and was emplaced within Cretaceous and Paleocene sedimentary rocks, in places to depths as shallow as a few hundred metres below the contemporaneous basin floor. Intersections of the Complex occur in exploration wells drilled by the oil industry and indicate tholeiitic basaltic compositions. High quality 3D seismic data, obtained during hydrocarbon exploration along the NE Atlantic Margin, provide a unique view of an uneroded suite of these sheet-like intrusions in UK Quadrants 218 and 219 and indicate the multi-centred nature of the NFSB Sill Complex, with upward-fingering terminations from broad bowlshaped foci of intrusion. Where the intrusion depth is very shallow, depending upon the host lithology, sill emplacement has lead to the development of structures on the contemporaneous basin floor interpreted as submarine hyaloclastite-dominated vents, up to c. 2 km across and with heights of up to c. 100 m. Where intrusion depth is greater, ‘seismic chimney’ structures are interpreted as the fluidescape feeders of sedimentary-hydrothermal mounds. Subsequent differential compaction of sedimentary sections, with and without shallow-emplaced sills, has given rise to distinctive ‘eye’ structures, as seen in seismic sections.





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K. Thomson and N. Schofield
Lithological and structural controls on the emplacement and morphology of sills in sedimentary basins
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 2008; 302: 31 - 44.
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