Lyell Collection
Geological Society, London, Special Publications
Lyell Centre  |   Lyell Collection  |   Subscriptions   |   Geological Society  |   Email alerts  |   Online bookshop  |   Help

Keywords:
Author:
Advanced search>>
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Chapman, T. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation
Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 1989; v. 44; p. 177-200;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.1989.044.01.11
© 1989 Geological Society of London

Inversion on the European Continental Shelf

The Permian to Cretaceous structural evolution of the Western Approaches Basin (Melville sub-basin), UK

T. J. Chapman

GECO Exploration Services, Merlin House, Boundary Road, Working, Surrey, GU21 5BX, UK

The tectonic-sedimentary evolution of the western part of the Western Approaches Basin (Melville sub-basin) was initiated during early Permian times when synrift clastic sedimentation and volcanism commenced within an ENE trending half-graben. This sequence thickened to the south and onlapped a high to the north. During the Permian an early NNW-SSE basin extension was accommodated on an array of ENE-WSW trending normal faults linked by NNW-SSE orientated transfer faults. This was followed by a period of ENE-WSW extension along the basin axis when the normal and transfer faults of the previous faulting episode swapped roles. This was possibly related to early rifting in the Bay of Biscay. Both sets of faults appear to be controlled to some extent by Variscan thrusts and strike-slip faults within the basement. During the Upper Triassic the ridge in the north subsided allowing a thick sequence of salt to be deposited where there had previously been a topographic high. During Jurassic times sedimentation extended across the Permian-Triassic half-graben into the French sector. This was followed by an episode of rifting and wrench deformation (and inversion?) during which the Permian to Jurassic basin was domed and uplifted. The Cretaceous to Tertiary sedimentation which followed probably resulted from postrift thermal subsidence related to cooling of the continental platform adjacent to the opening Atlantic Ocean. Steep normal and/or strike—slip faults data from the earliest part of this postrifting stage.





This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Geological Society, London, Special PublicationsHome page
D. Praeg
Diachronous Variscan late-orogenic collapse as a response to multiple detachments: a view from the internides in France to the foreland in the Irish Sea
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 2004; 223: 89 - 138.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Geological Society, London, Special PublicationsHome page
N. A. McMahon and J. Turner
The documentation of a latest Jurassic-earliest Cretaceous uplift throughout southern England and adjacent offshore areas
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 1998; 133: 215 - 240.
[Abstract] [PDF]