Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:52:46.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Late Cenozoic shelf delta development and Mass Transport Deposits in the Dutch offshore area – results of 3D seismic interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2014

A. Benvenuti ,
H. Kombrink ,
J.H. ten Veen ,
D.K. Munsterman ,
F. Bardi  and
M. Benvenuti
A. Benvenuti*
Affiliation:
TNO – Geological Survey of the Netherlands, P.O. Box 80015, 3508 TA Utrecht, the Netherlands Earth Science Department, University of Florence, Via La Pira 4, 50121 Florence, Italy
H. Kombrink
Affiliation:
TNO – Geological Survey of the Netherlands, P.O. Box 80015, 3508 TA Utrecht, the Netherlands
J.H. ten Veen
Affiliation:
TNO – Geological Survey of the Netherlands, P.O. Box 80015, 3508 TA Utrecht, the Netherlands
D.K. Munsterman
Affiliation:
TNO – Geological Survey of the Netherlands, P.O. Box 80015, 3508 TA Utrecht, the Netherlands
F. Bardi
Affiliation:
DataCo Ltd, Den Haag, the Netherlands. England Head Office: DataCo Ltd, Townend, Shootersway Lane, Berkhamstead, Herts, United Kingdom, HP4 3NW
M. Benvenuti
Affiliation:
Earth Science Department, University of Florence, Via La Pira 4, 50121 Florence, Italy
*
Email: antonio.benvenuti@unige.ch.

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.

In this study, seismic stratigraphic criteria have been used to characterise the evolution of the Southern North Sea (SNS) shelf-delta system that progressively filled the Southern North Sea basin during Plio-Pleistocene times. Based on the prograding and down-stepping architecture of the shelf-delta sequence it is inferred that deposition occurred during a time of high sediment supply and overall sea-level lowering. During this time the delta slopes failed several times, creating at least 30 internally coherent Mass Transport Deposits (MTDs) mainly grouped in common areas, affecting the same clinoform set and partially sharing the basal shear surface (groups of MTDs). The most important features of the studied MTDs are 1) the dominance of brittle deformation; 2) the small amount of material removal from the headwall domain (lack of completely depleted areas above the basal shear surface); and 3) the lack of an emergent toe domain above the un-failed sediment located basinward, although proper confining geometries for the MTD are not detected. Therefore, the studied MTDs can neither be classified as frontally confined nor as frontally emergent but they are a new intermediate type of submarine landslides which has not been described before. These characteristics suggest that the mass movement ceased relatively soon after initiation of failure. Incisions on top of the MTDs suggest the presence of erosive flows. These flows were probably generated due to a concentration of the drainage in the negative morphology the failure event left behind in the upper sector of the slope. The stronger progradational character of the reflections on top of MTDs confirms a concentration of drainage after the erosional phase too.

The interplay between high sediment supply and constant or even decreasing accommodation space (caused by constant or decreasing sea-level) is supposed to be the main precondition for slope instability for most of the MTDs in this study area. Slope failures themselves can also be considered a preconditioning factor by the creation of local very high sedimentation rates (see groups of MTDs). Salt-induced seismicity and storm waves' effect superimposed on high frequency sea level fall are considered the most important triggering factors.

Keywords

Mass transport depositsEridanos deltasequence stratigraphyPlio-Pleistocene
Type
Research Article
Information
Netherlands Journal of Geosciences , Volume 91 , Issue 4 , December 2012 , pp. 591 - 608
Copyright
Copyright © Stichting Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 2012

References

Bijlsma, S., 1981. Fluvial sedimentation from the Fennoscandian area into the Northwest European Basin during the Late Cenozoic. Geologie en Mijnbouw 60: 337–345.Google Scholar
Bull, S., Cartwright, J. & Huuse, M., 2009. A review of kinematic indicators from mass-transport complexes using 3D seismic data. Marine and Petroleum Geology 26: 1132–1152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron, T.D.J., Bulat, J. & Mesdag, C.S., 1993. High resolution seismic profile through a Late Cenozoic delta complex in the southern North Sea. Marine and Petroleum Geology 10: 591–600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canals, M., Lastras, G., Urgeles, R., Casamor, J.L., Mienert, J., Cattaneo, A., De Batist, M., Haflidason, H., Imbo, Y., Laberg, J.S., Locat, J., Long, D., Longva, O., Masson, D.G., Sultan, N., Trincardi, F. & Bryn, P., 2004. Slope failure dynamics and impacts from seafloor and shallow sub-seafloor geophysical data: case studies from the COSTA project. Marine Geology 213: 9–72.Google Scholar
Cartwright, J.A., 1994. Episodic basin-wide fluid expulsion from geopressured shale sequences in the North Sea basin. Geology 10: 591–599.Google Scholar
Catuneanu, O., 2006. Principles of Sequence Stratigraphy. Elsevier (Amsterdam), 375 pp.Google Scholar
Catuneanu, O., Abreu, V., Bhattacharya, J.P., Blum, M.D., Dalrymple, R.W., Eriksson, P.G., Fielding, C.R., Fisher, W.L., Galloway, W.E., Gibling, M.R., Giles, K.A., Holbrook, J.M., Jordan, R., Kendall, C.G.S.C., Macurda, B., Martinsen, O.J., Miall, A.D., Neal, J.E., Nummedal, D., Pomar, L., Posamentier, H.W., Pratt, B.R., Sarg, J.F., Shanley, K.W., Steel, R.J., Strasser, A., Tucker, M.E. & Winker, C., 2009. Towards the standardization of sequence stratigraphy. Earth Science Reviews 92: 1–33.Google Scholar
De Jager, J., 2003. Inverted basins in the Netherlands, similarities and differences. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 82: 355–366.Google Scholar
De Lugt, I.R., 2007. Stratigraphical and structural setting of the Palaeogene siliciclastic sediments in the Dutch part of the North Sea Basin. PhD thesis, Utrecht University (Utrecht), 112 pp.Google Scholar
De Schepper, S. & Head, M.J., 2009. Pliocene and Pleistocene dinoflagellate cyst and acritarch zonation of DSDP hole 610a, Eastern North Atlantic. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 33: 179–218.Google Scholar
De Verteuil, L. & Norris, G., 1996. Miocene dinoflagellate stratigraphy and systematics of Maryland and Virginia. Micropaleontology 42: 1–172.Google Scholar
Eidvin, T., Riis, F. & Ruundberg, Y., 1999. Upper Cainozoic stratigraphy in the central North Sea (Ekofisk and Sleipner fields). Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift 79: 97–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ethridge, F.G., Germanoski, D., Schumm, S.A. & Wood, L.J., 2005. The morphologic and stratigraphic effects of base-level change: a review of experimental studies. In: Blum, M.D., Mariott, S.B. & Leclair, S.F. (eds): Fluvial Sedimentology VII. International Association of Sedimentologists, Special Publication 35: 213–241.Google Scholar
Frey-Martinez, J., Cartwright, J. & James, D., 2006. Frontally confined versus frontally emergent submarine landslides: A 3D seismic characterisation. Marine and Petroleum Geology 23: 585–604.Google Scholar
Hampton, M.A., Lee, H.J. & Locat, J., 1996. Submarine landslides. Reviews of Geophysics 34: 33–59.Google Scholar
Helland-Hansen, W. & Martinsen, O.J., 2008. Shoreline trajectories and sequences; description of variable depositional-dip scenarios. Journal of Sedimentary Research 66: 670–688.Google Scholar
Hunt, D. & Tucker, M.E., 1992. Stranded parasequences and the forced regressive wedge systems tract: deposition during base-level fall. Sedimentary Geology 81: 1–9.Google Scholar
Huuse, M., 2002. Late Cenozoic palaeogeography of the eastern North Sea Basin: climatic vs tectonic forcing of basin margin uplift and deltaic progradation. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Denmark 49: 145–170.Google Scholar
Huuse, M., Cartwright, J., Gras, R. & Hurst, A., 2005. Km-scale sandstone intrusions in the Eocene of the Outer Moray Firth (UK North Sea): migration paths, reservoirs, and potential drilling hazards. In: Doré, A.G. & Vining, B. (eds): Petroleum Geology: North-West Europe and Global Perspectives – Proceedings of the 6th Petroleum Geology Conference. The Geological Society (London): 1577–1594.Google Scholar
Huuse, M. & Clausen, O.R., 2001. Morphology and origin of major Cenozoic boundaries: eastern Danish North Sea. Basin Research 13: 17–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huuse, M., Lykke-Andersen, H. & Michelsen, O., 2001. Cenozoic evolution of the eastern Danish North Sea. Marine Geology 177: 243–269.Google Scholar
Huvenne, V.A.I., Croker, P.F. & Henrief, J.-P., 2002. A refreshing 3D view of an ancient sediment collapse and slope failure. Terra Nova 14: 33–44.Google Scholar
Japsen, P. & Bidstrup, T., 1999. Quantification of late Cenozoic erosion in Denmark based on sonic data and basin modelling. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Denmark 46: 79–99.Google Scholar
Köthe, A., 2007. Cenozoic biostratigraphy from the German North Sea sector (G-11-1 borehole, dinoflagellate cysts, calcareous nannoplankton). Zeitschrift der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geowissenschaften 158: 287–327.Google Scholar
Köthe, A., Gaedicke, C. & Lutz, R., 2008. Erratum: The age of the Mid-Miocene Unconformity (MMU) in the G-11-1 borehole, German North Sea sector. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geowissenschaften 159: 687–689.Google Scholar
Kuhlmann, G., 2004. High resolution stratigraphy and paleoenvironmental changes in the southern North Sea during the Neogene. PhD thesis Utrecht University (Utrecht), 205 pp.Google Scholar
Kuhlmann, G., Langereis, C.G., Munsterman, D., Van Leeuwen, R.J., Verreussel, R., Meulenkamp, J.E. & Wong, T.E., 2006. Chronostratigraphy of Late Neogene sediments in the southern North Sea Basin and paleoenvironmental interpretations. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 239: 426–455.Google Scholar
Kuhlmann, G. & Wong, T.E., 2008. Pliocene paleoenvironment evolution as interpreted from 3D-seismic data in the southern North Sea, Dutch offshore sector. Marine and Petroleum Geology 25: 173–189.Google Scholar
Laursen, G.V., Konradi, P.B. & Bidstrup, T., 1997. Foraminiferal and seismic interpretations of the paleoenvironment of a profile in the Southern North Sea. Bulletin de la Societe Geologique de France 168: 187–196.Google Scholar
Lee, H.J., 2009. Timing of occurrence of large submarine landslides on the Atlantic Ocean margin. Marine Geology 264: 53–64.Google Scholar
Leith, W. & Simpson, D.W., 1986. Seismic domains within the Gissar-Kokshar seismic zone, Soviet central Asia. Journal of Geophysical Research 91: 689–699.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leynaud, D., Mienert, J. & Vanneste, M., 2009. Submarine mass movements on glaciated and non-glaciated European continental margins: A review of triggering mechanisms and preconditions to failure. Marine and Petroleum Geology 26: 618–632.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Locat, J. & Lee, H.J., 2002. Submarine landslides: advances and challenges. Canadian Geotechnical Journal 39: 193–212.Google Scholar
Lucente, C.C. & Pini, G.A., 2003. Anatomy and emplacement mechanism of a large submarine slide within a Miocene foredeep in the northern Apennines, Italy: a field perspective. American Journal of Science 303: 565–602.Google Scholar
Martinsen, O.J., 1994. Mass movements. In: Maltman, A. (ed.): The Geological Deformation of Sediments. Chapman & Hall (London): 127–165.Google Scholar
Masson, D.G., Harbitz, C.B., Wynn, R.B., Pedersen, G. & Løvholt, F., 2005. Submarine landslides: processes, triggers and hazard prediction. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 364: 2009–2039.Google Scholar
McGregor, B.A., Rothwell, R.G., Kenyon, N.H. & Twichell, D.C., 1993. Salt tectonics and slope failure in an area of salt domes in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. In: Schwab, W.C., Lee, H.J. & Twichell, D.C. (eds): Submarine landslides: selected studies in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. Geological Survey Bulletin: 92–96.Google Scholar
Micallef, A., Masson, D.G., Berndt, C. & Stow, D.A.V., 2007. Submarine spreading: dynamics and development. In: Lykousis, V., Sakellariou, D. & Locat, J. (eds): Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research: 119–128.Google Scholar
Michelsen, O., Thomsen, E., Danielsen, M., Heilmann-Clausen, C., Jordt, H. & Laursen, G.V., 1998. Cenozoic sequence stratigraphy in the eastern North Sea. In: De Graciansky, P.-C., Hardenbol, J., Jacquin, T. & Vail, P.R. (eds): Mesozoic and Cenozoic Sequence Stratigraphy of European Basins. Society for Sedimentary Geology, Special Publications: 91–118.Google Scholar
Miller, K.G., Kominz, M.A., Browning, J.V., Wright, J.D., Mountain, G.S., Katz, M.E., Sugarman, P.J., Cramer, B.S., Christie-Blick, N. & Pekar, S.F., 2005. The Phanerozoic Record of Global Sea-Level. Science 310: 1293–1298.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mulder, T. & Cochonat, H.P., 1996. Classification of offshore mass movements. Journal of Sedimentary Research 66: 43–57.Google Scholar
Munsterman, D.K. & Brinkhuis, H., 2004. A Southern North Sea Miocene dinoflagellate cyst zonation. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 83: 267–285.Google Scholar
Overeem, I., Weltje, G.J., Bishop-Kay, C. & Kroonenberg, S.B., 2001. The Late Cenozoic Eridanos delta system in the Southern North Sea Basin: a climate signal in sediment supply? Basin Research 13: 293–312.Google Scholar
Owen, M., Day, S. & Maslin, M., 2007. Late Pleistocene submarine mass movements: occurrence and causes. Quaternary Science Reviews 26: 958–978.Google Scholar
Popenoe, P., Schmuck, E.A. & Dillon, W.P., 1993. The Cape Fear Landslide: Slope failure associated with salt diapirism and gas hydrate decomposition. In: Schwab, W.C., Lee, H.J. & Twichell, D.C. (eds): Submarine landslides: selected studies in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. Geological Survey Bulletin: 40–53.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, E.S., 2004. The interplay between true eustatic sea-level changes, tectonics and climatic changes: what is the dominating factor in sequence formation of the Upper Oligocene – Miocene succession in the eastern North Sea Basin, Denmark. Global and Planetary Change 41: 15–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rasmussen, E.S., 2009. Neogene inversion of the Central Graben and Ringkobing-Fyn High, Denmark. Tectonophysics 465: 84–97.Google Scholar
Sørensen, J.C., Gregersen, U., Breiner, M. & Michelsen, O., 1997. High-frequency sequence stratigraphy of Upper Cenozoic deposits in the central and southeastern North Sea areas. Marine and Petroleum Geology 14: 99–123.Google Scholar
Storvoll, V., Bjørlykke, K. & Mondol, N.H., 2005. Velocity-depth trends in Mesozoic and Cenozoic sediment from the Norwegian shelf. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 89: 359–381.Google Scholar
Ten Veen, J.H., Mikes, D., Postma, G. & Steel, R.J., 2008. Shelf-edge delta architecture resulting from in- and out phase changes in supply and sea-level in ice-house periods. 26th Regional Meeting of International Association of Sedimentologists Abstract (IAS).Google Scholar
Ten Veen, J.H., Van Gessel, S.F. & Den Dulk, M., 2012. Thin- and thick-skinned salt tectonics in the Netherlands; a quantitative approach. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 91–4: 447–464, this issue.Google Scholar
Van Wees, J.D. & Cloetingh, S.A.P.L., 1996. 3D flexure and intraplate compression in the North Sea basin. Tectonophysics 266: 343–359.Google Scholar
Ziegler, P.A., 1990. Geological Atlas of Western and Central Europe (2nd edition). Shell Internationale Petroleum Maatschappij B.V.; Geological Society Publishing House (Bath), 239 pp.Google Scholar