Abstract

The Bristol Channel basin was developed as an early Mesozoic half-graben, with the Bristol Channel fault zone (BCFZ) representing the principal down-to-the-south basin controlling structure. The basin was inverted during the Tertiary. This paper illustrates the application of structural analysis to the northern and southern margins of the Bristol Channel basin, where on shore medium- to small-scale structures provide analogues for the BCFZ. Throughout the outcrop four distinct structural mechanisms and associated fracture systems can be recognised. i) The oldest are normal faults, in many cases resulting from the reactivation of underlying WNW-ESE to NE-SW Late Palaeozoic Variscan thrusts. These are linked by N-S transfer faults and associated with WNW-ESE to ENE-WSW extensional veins. Evidence for synsedimentary development of both normal faults and extensional veins has been found in the Triassic and Lower Liassic sequences. Palaeostress analysis suggests an approximately NE-SW oriented σ₃. ii) During inversion the normal faults acted as buttresses, forming WNW-ESE and younger NW-SE trending folds. Associated thrusts and oblique- to strike-slip faults reactivated the earlier transfer faults. The orientation of σ₁ was NE-SW during this deformation. iii) A regionally consistent system of NE-SW striking extensional veins formed at the close of the strike-slip inversion event. iv) Following primary inversion, lateral escape structures formed against the buttresses, with the development of oblique- and strike-slip faults in a variable and locally controlled stress field. Fracture porosity determined at sites throughout the outcrop show highest levels, up to 20%, formed in association with normal faults during the rifting event, but also significant amounts developed during the inversion event. Veins associated with strike-slip faulting of the latter give average porosities of 6.5%, whilst the later inversion-related extensional veins give average porosities of 0.8%. All these porosities show a high degree of directional permeability. It is argued that the oil generation window was reached during burial in the later stages of the rifting event, and that rapid polyphase fluid discharge from over-pressured fracture-bounded compartments allowed hydrocarbon migration into normal fault-related fracture porosity to form traps. The development of fracture porosity during inversion produced a long-lasting directed permeability and allowed many of the traps to drain. Only those traps associated with normal faults not directly affected by the inversion will have survived. A strategy to discover such a play requires a well targeted and detailed structural study.