Chapter 8. Controls on North Sea Jurassic–lowermost Cretaceous sequence development

Abstract

Of 40 recognized Jurassic–earliest Cretaceous sequence boundaries or surfaces, 21 are considered to have had a primary tectonic control on their generation, particularly during the Bathonian–Berriasian interval of synrift-dominated tectonism. These boundaries include the intra-J22 sequence boundary, the base J36, the base J54, the base J55, the intra-J56 transgressive surface, the base J62, the base J63, the base J64, the base J71, the base J73 and the top J76 (‘Base Cretaceous’). In the study area, these events all occurred within a marine setting and none can be unequivocally matched to times of subaerial exposure or coastal onlap. Ten Jurassic sequence surfaces appear to have had a primary eustatic control on their generation, some of which are also associated with the deposition of major marine source-rock facies, including the base J18 and the base J74.