Late Cretaceous and Danian limestone

Abstract

At the termination of the Early Cretaceous period, the sea transgressed large earlier land areas. The transgression, the reduced relief of the continents, the generally diminished tectonic activity, the climatic change, and the enormous production of calcareous nannoplankton in the oceans profoundly changed the gross facies pattern in the North Sea region. The elastic sedimentation was replaced during Late Cretaceous time by offshore relatively deep water carbonate sedimentation. This resulted in the deposition of a chalk sequence reaching a thickness of 1-2 km in the Danish Subbasin and the North Sea area.