High resolution seismic profile through a Late Cenozoic delta complex in the southern North Sea

• Published in: Marine and petroleum geology Vol. 10; no. 6; pp. 591,IN7,593 - 592,IN18,599
• Main Authors: Cameron, T.D.J., Bulat, J., Mesdag, C.S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.12.1993; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Applied geophysics; delta complex; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Internal geophysics; Late Cenozoic; Marine; Marine geology; seismic facies; seismic sequence boundary; southern North Sea; Atlantic Ocean; North Atlantic; North Sea; ANE, North Sea; Late Cenozoic; delta complex; seismic sequence boundary; seismic facies; southern North Sea; Neogene; geomorphology; vertical seismic profiles; Quaternary; Tertiary; data processing; Sylt; epicontinental basin; paleoenvironment; fluvial environment; high-resolution methods; lithofacies; middle Pleistocene; multichannel methods; subsidence; data acquisition; Miocene; sea level; deltaic environment; Sedimentology; Basin(geol); High resolution; Seismic reflection methods; Marine geology; Stratigraphy
• ISSN: 0264-8172; 1873-4073
• DOI: 10.1016/0264-8172(93)90061-V

A digitally recorded and processed multichannel seismic profile between Cromer (England) and Sylt (Germany) has provided the first continuous section through the Miocene to Middle Pleistocene delta complex of the southern North Sea Basin. The profile depicts the progressive westward expansion of deltaic sedimentation that eventually filled in this gently subsiding epicontinental basin. Significant basinward shifts in seismic facies occur above all but one of 14 seismic sequence boundaries that punctuate the deposition of up to 830 m of deltaic sediments on the profile. These sequence boundaries and the morphology of prodelta, delta front, delta top and fluvio-deltaic seismic facies record the interaction between subsidence, cyclic fluctuation in sediment supply to, and cyclic change of relative sea level within the basin. Two submarine slides were developed within delta front facies in the Pliocene section and the profile has intersected a swarm of Elsterian (Middle Pleistocene) glacial palaeovalleys that have been incised into the upper part of the delta complex.