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Introduction to Mesozoic Basins on the North West Seaboard |
Department of Geology, Birkbeck College, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK
The Upper Triassic to Middle Jurassic stratigraphy of the Atlantic margin basins west of the British Isles (including Celtic Sea, Porcupine, Slyne, Erris, Hebrides, and west of Shetland) is summarized in terms of six major genetic sequences, defined as packages of conformable strata separated by surfaces of abrupt major facies change. They indicate common tectonic histories and are interpreted as representing episodes of evolution comprising extensional phases with laterally variable sequences (1A Late Triassic to Early Sinemurian; 2A latest Toarcian to Late Bajocian), thermal and loading sag phases (1B mid-Sinemurian to earliest Toarcian; 2B Late Bajocian to Bathonian) and stabilization phases with sequences of reduced thicknesses and hiatuses (1C Toarcian; 2C Late Bathonian to Callovian).
The basins west of Shetlands, north of the Wyville-Thomson Ridge, have a different history, especially in the Early Jurassic. Similarly, basins south of an extension of the Clare Lineament (south of Celtic Sea and Porcupine Basins) differ in having limited Middle Jurassic subsidence. These transverse elements divide the Atlantic basin system into local subsystems, each of which has a different tectonic history.
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