Table Of ContentSR27 cover art_2 13-11-15_Layout 1 13/11/2015 10:36 Page 1
S
p
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c
i l
l A revised correlation of al
a 7 Re a 7
2 p 2
R Tertiary rocks in the British Isles o
ci UMBE and adjacent areas of NW Europe rt 27 i BER
N M
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C.King
p e
Edited by A.S.Gale and T.L.Barry B A
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i r
t e
S is v
This Special Report comprehensively describes the stratigraphy and h is
I e p
correlation of the Tertiary (Paleogene–Neogene) rocks of NW Europe and sl d A revised correlation
e
c
the adjacent Atlantic Ocean and is the summation of fifty years of research s o
a r
on Tertiary sediments by Chris King. His book is essential reading for all n re
d l of Tertiary rocks in the
geologists who deal with Tertiary rocks across NW Europe, including those a at S
d i
in the petroleum industry and geotechnical services as well as academic j o
a n
stratigraphers and palaeontologists. ce o British Isles and adjacent
n f
t T
Introductory sections on chronostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and other a e
methods of dating and correlation are followed by a regional summary of re rti areas of NW Europe
a a
s r
Tertiary sedimentary basins and their framework and an introduction to y
o
Tertiary igneous rocks. The third and largest segment comprises the regional f ro
N c
stratigraphic summaries. Regions covered are the North Sea Basin, onshore W k
s
areas of southern England and the eastern English Channel area, the North Eu in
Atlantic margins (including non-marine basins in the Irish Sea and ro th
p e
elsewhere) and the Paleogene igneous rocks of Scotland. e
Visit our online bookshop: http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/bookshop
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C.King
Edited by
A.S.Gale and
Thanks to BG Group and Shell Global Solutions for generous contributions towards
T.L.Barry
colour printing costs.
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T
h
e
G
Cover illustration: e
o
Alum Bay and Headon Hill, Isle of Wight, l
o
looking northwards from the Needles ridge. g
Above a basal unconformity cut in ic
a
Campanian chalk, the section provides
l
excellent exposures of Paleogene–Eocene S
o
sediments (Thanetian–Priabonian age) in
c
freshwater and marine facies. ie
t
Photograph: Dr Steve Sweetman y
The Geological Society
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SeriesEditorTiffanyBarry
TheSpecialReportSeriescoversa
varietyoftopicsdealingwithcorrelation
andstratigraphicalmethods,originatingfrom
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GEOLOGICALSOCIETYSPECIALREPORTNO.27
A Revised Correlation of Tertiary Rocks in the British Isles
and adjacent areas of NW Europe
C.KING
(deceased)
Editedby
A.S.GALE1&T.L.BARRY2
1SchoolofEarth&EnvironmentalSciences,UniversityofPortsmouth,BurnabyBuilding,BurnabyRoad,
PortsmouthPO13QL,UK
2DepartmentofGeology,UniversityofLeicester,UniversityRoad,LeicesterLE17RH,UK
Contents
Preface iii
Acknowledgements iv
1: Introduction 1
2: Chronostratigraphy 11
3: Biostratigraphy 19
4: Non-biostratigraphictechniquesofdatingandcorrelation 59
5: Sequencestratigraphy 65
6: Tertiarysediments:distributionandstructuralsetting 69
7: Tertiaryigneousrocks:generalfeatures,datingandcorrelation 77
8: TheNorthSeaBasinandadjacentareas:generalaspects 83
9: TheNorthSeaBasin:EarlyPaleocene(Danian) 93
10: TheNorthSeaBasin:MiddleandLatePaleocene(SelandianandThanetian) 107
11: TheNorthSeaBasin:Eocene 155
ii CONTENTS
12: TheNorthSeaBasin:EarlyOligocenetomid-Miocene 229
13: TheNorthSeaBasin:mid-MiocenetoEarlyPleistocene 269
14: EastAngliaandtheLondonBasin(PaleoceneandEocene) 329
15: TheHampshireBasinandadjacentareas 377
16: TheDieppeBasinandadjacentareas 441
17: Non-marineTertiarysedimentsofwesternBritainandIreland 459
18: TheWesternApproachesBasinandCelticSeamarinebasins 469
19: NorthAtlanticmargins.ThePorcupineBasinandadjacentareas 483
20: TheRockallBasinandadjacentareas 499
21: TheRockallHigh,HattonBasinandHattonHigh 511
22: TheFaroeIslandsandadjacentareas 525
23: EastGreenlandandadjacentoffshoreareas 535
24: TheFaroe–ShetlandBasinandadjacentareas 543
25: EarlyPaleogeneigneousrocksoftheBritishIslesandadjacentareas 561
Appendix 583
References 653
Index 707
Preface
TheprojectbeganasarevisionoftheGeologicalReportno.12‘CorrelationoftheTertiaryrocksintheBritishIsles’(Curryetal.
1978), which had become outdated and was out of print. Originally, the authorship of the revision (initiated by the Stratigraphy
CommissionoftheGeologicalSociety)includedDennisCurry,whodiedin2001andRobertKnox,whodiedin2013.Roberthad
beenveryhelpfulinthelatterstagesoftheproject,alongwithJohnGregory(GSLSpecialReportsserieseditoratthetime),reviewing
muchofthecopyproducedbyChrisKing.Theprojectgrewandgrew,asChrisrealizedthatthiswasagoldenopportunitytopublish
muchofhisextensiveanddetailedknowledgeoftheTertiaryofNWEurope,gleanedfrom50yearsoffieldwork,thousandsofsamples
andextensiveconsultancyworkontheNorthSea.
Themanuscriptwasacceptedin2014,buttragically,justbeforetheproofswereissued,Chrisdiedsuddenlyon5January2015.
AndyGale(ChairoftheStratigraphyCommsssion)andTiffanyBarry(presentGSLSpecialReportseditor)undertooktheeditorial
worknecessary,withhelponindividualchaptersfromBrianBell(Glasgow;NorthAtlanticIgneousProvince),DavidWard(NHM;
ParisBasin,UK)andAlanSmith(Cambridge),whosehelpisgreatlyappreciated.
TheStratigraphyCommission
DrChrisKing,1943–2015
Acknowledgements
ThankstoBGGroupandShellGlobalSolutionsforgenerouscontributionstowardscolourprintingcosts.
http://www.bg-group.com/ http://www.shell.com/
GEOLOGICALSOCIETYSPECIALREPORTNO.27
A Revised Correlation of Tertiary Rocks in the British Isles
and adjacent areas of NW Europe
C.KING
(deceased)
Editedby
A.S.GALE1&T.L.BARRY2
1SchoolofEarth&EnvironmentalSciences,UniversityofPortsmouth,BurnabyBuilding,BurnabyRoad,
PortsmouthPO13QL,UK
2DepartmentofGeology,UniversityofLeicester,UniversityRoad,LeicesterLE17RH,UK
Contents
Preface iii
Acknowledgements iv
1: Introduction 1
2: Chronostratigraphy 11
3: Biostratigraphy 19
4: Non-biostratigraphictechniquesofdatingandcorrelation 59
5: Sequencestratigraphy 65
6: Tertiarysediments:distributionandstructuralsetting 69
7: Tertiaryigneousrocks:generalfeatures,datingandcorrelation 77
8: TheNorthSeaBasinandadjacentareas:generalaspects 83
9: TheNorthSeaBasin:EarlyPaleocene(Danian) 93
10: TheNorthSeaBasin:MiddleandLatePaleocene(SelandianandThanetian) 107
11: TheNorthSeaBasin:Eocene 155
ii CONTENTS
12: TheNorthSeaBasin:EarlyOligocenetomid-Miocene 229
13: TheNorthSeaBasin:mid-MiocenetoEarlyPleistocene 269
14: EastAngliaandtheLondonBasin(PaleoceneandEocene) 329
15: TheHampshireBasinandadjacentareas 377
16: TheDieppeBasinandadjacentareas 441
17: Non-marineTertiarysedimentsofwesternBritainandIreland 459
18: TheWesternApproachesBasinandCelticSeamarinebasins 469
19: NorthAtlanticmargins.ThePorcupineBasinandadjacentareas 483
20: TheRockallBasinandadjacentareas 499
21: TheRockallHigh,HattonBasinandHattonHigh 511
22: TheFaroeIslandsandadjacentareas 525
23: EastGreenlandandadjacentoffshoreareas 535
24: TheFaroe–ShetlandBasinandadjacentareas 543
25: EarlyPaleogeneigneousrocksoftheBritishIslesandadjacentareas 561
Appendix 583
References 653
Index 707
Chapter 1
Introduction
InonshoreareasoftheBritishIsles,Paleogenerockscropout dating and correlation of Tertiary sediments in the British
mainly in two widely separated areas with greatly differing Isles and adjacent areas of NW Europe. A variety of other
developments. Predominantly shallow-marine and marginal- techniques, including seismic surveys, magnetostratigraphy
marinesedimentsarerepresentedintheHampshireandLondon and sequence stratigraphy, have also immensely improved
Basins in southern England; lava sheets and associated intru- correlation and stratigraphic interpretation. Increasingly
sive rocks in NW Scotland and northern Ireland. Marine sophisticatedtechniquesofradiometricdating,alliedtorefine-
Neogenesedimentsarerepresentedalmostentirelybyasmall ments in non-marine and marine biostratigraphy, continue to
Pliocene outcrop ontheNorthSeacoastinEastAnglia. Non- improvethereliabilityofthetimingofigneousactivity.These
marine Paleogene and Neogene sediments occur mainly in techniques are summarized below. All this is against the
small areas, except for the Lough Neagh Basin in northern backgroundofarefinedgeochronologicalframeworkprogres-
Ireland(Fig.1). sivelyincorporatingcyclostratigraphyandastrochronology.
TertiaryigneousrocksoftheNAIP(NorthAtlanticIgneous Muchoftheoffshoresubsurfaceresearchhasbeendrivenby
Province) have a long history of intensive study; yet, for the petroleum industry, but onshore Tertiary sediments and
many years, Tertiary sediments had a rather subordinate role igneous rocks have also been intensively restudied, including
in British stratigraphy (andin stratigraphy textbooks),studied increasingly detailed biostratigraphic and sedimentological
largely by a small group of geologists, but which included investigations. The Paleogene succession of the Isle of Wight
several outstanding stratigraphers and palaeontologists. They (Hampshire Basin) has become a world reference for Eocene
outcrop in a relatively limited area of the British Isles, and sequence stratigraphic analysis (e.g. Neal 1996). As a result,
weredifficulttodateandcorrelateowingtotheapparentlack the Tertiary stratigraphy of the British Isles and adjacent
of ‘zone fossils’ such as the ammonites or graptolites of pre- areas, particularly the North Sea Basin and its environs, is
vious eras. Their main economic value being the exploita- nowprobablythebestdocumentedintheworld.
tion of sand and clay for bricks, other building materials and Thisdramaticsurgeinresearch,bothappliedandacademic,
ceramics, they could not easily compete with Carboniferous hasledtoanexponentialincreaseinthevolumeofpublications;
coalfields or Jurassic iron ores for government or academic continual updating has been necessary during preparation of
researchfunding. this Special Report. Much of the earlier work during this
This low-key picture has been totally transformed over period was summarized in a synthesis of the lithostratigraphy
thelast50years.Only20yearsago,Ager(1992,p.10)stated and biostratigraphy of the Tertiary of NW Europe by IGCP
that, ‘we cannot boast of much of a Neogene record in Project 126 (Vinken 1988) which, ‘represents a remarkable
Britain’.Thisviewwas,however,alreadylongoutdated.Sys- achievement in the field of multidisciplinary and internatio-
tematicoffshoreseabedandsubsurfacegeologicalexploration nal collaboration’ (Knox 1996a, p. 1). An extensive series of
and mapping began in the 1950s. It expanded dramatically articlesonvariousaspectsofPaleoceneandEarlyEocenestra-
with the discovery of offshore gas and, later, oil: first in the tigraphy, with particular reference to Paleocene–Eocene
North Sea in the 1960s, and more recently in other offshore boundary events, was published by the Geological Society in
areas. Some of the earliest results of offshore studies were 1996 (Knox et al. 1996). The state of knowledge of the early
incorporated into the first edition of this publication (Curry Paleogeneinthisareaatthattime,withreferencetoitsglobal
etal.1978),butonlylimitedoffshoredatahadbeenpublished contextintermsofbioticandenvironmentalevents,wassum-
by that time. Offshore exploration has since shown that the marizedbyKnox(1996a).
BritishIslesarealmostsurroundedbybasinsandtroughswith The Tertiary of most UK offshore areas has been reviewed
thick packages of predominantly marine Tertiary sediments. in a series of BGS Offshore Regional Reports (e.g. Hamblin
Someofthesecontainmajoroilandgasaccumulations.Thick etal.1992),withoneofthelatest(Ritchieetal.2011)ajoint
sheetsofPaleogenelavashavebeenfoundtocoverwideareas British–FaroeseproductionincludingtheFaroeIslands.More
north and west of the British Isles. Mapping by the British regional aspects of the Tertiary stratigraphy and geological
Geological Survey (BGS) now covers most offshore, as well historyofbothonshoreandmostoffshoreareasoftheBritish
as onshore, areas of the UK. The area of Tertiary sediments Isles and surrounding areas have been summarized most
in the North Sea alone (at outcrop and in the subsurface) is recently by STRATAGEM Partners (2002), Trewin (2002),
almost equivalent to the total land area of the British Isles, Evans et al. (2003), Cooper (2004), King (2006), Holland
and they cover much wider areas on the continental shelf to &Sanders(2009)andNaylor&Shannon(2011).The‘coffee-
the west and NW of the British Isles. The thickest and most table size’ Millenium Atlas (Evans et al. 2003) and Southern
continuous Tertiary succession in NW Europe is preserved in Permian Basin Atlas (Knox et al. 2010a) provide com-
thecentreoftheNorthSeaBasin(Fig.1). prehensive and well-illustrated ‘state-of-the-art’ summaries,
During the last 40years, there has also been a progressive by a variety of contributors, covering the Tertiary of the
improvement in Tertiary biostratigraphic techniques, based NorthSeaBasinandadjacentareasofnorthernEurope.Publi-
largely on microfossil groups such as nannofossils, forami- cations covering more restricted areas are cited below
niferids and dinoflagellates. These have greatly enhanced the asappropriate.
From:King,C.2016.ArevisedcorrelationofTertiaryrocksintheBritishIslesandadjacentareasofNWEurope.
EditedbyGale,A.S.&Barry,T.L.GeologicalSociety,London,SpecialReports,27,1–9.#2016TheGeologicalSocietyofLondon.
Forpermissions:http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/permissions.Publishingdisclaimer:http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/pub_ethics
2 C.KING
Fig. 1. Generalized distribution and structural context of Tertiary sediments, Paleogene lavas, and major volcanic and intrusive centres in NW
Europe.ThemapincludesTertiaryrockscroppingoutorunderlyingPleistoceneandHolocenesediments.EarlyPleistocenemarinesedimentsare
includedwiththeTertiaryinsomeareas.
Scope of this publication as far as possible by major regionally recognizable surfaces.
Details of the biostratigraphic datums (bio-events) used as
Introductory sections on chronostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, the basis for the biostratigraphic framework (and others not
andothermethodsofdatingandcorrelation employed inNW used here, but previously cited in this area) are given in the
Europe (Chapters 1–5) are followed by a regional summary Appendix.
of Tertiary sedimentary basins and their framework, and an The stratigraphic summaries are based on published and
introductiontoTertiaryigneousrocks(Chapters6and7).The unpublisheddata,re-evaluated(asfaraspossible)inthecontext
third and largest segment comprises the regional stratigraphic of a unified biostratigraphic/lithostratigraphic framework.
summaries. These are grouped into three sections: the North Care has been taken to separate (as far as possible) data from
Sea Basin (excluding southern England) (Chapters 8–13); interpretation, so that relevant data acquired in the future can
onshore areas of southern England and the eastern English be integrated by the user. Description of the stratigraphy
Channel area (Chapters 14–16); the North Atlantic margins has been organized (as far as possible) under the headings of
(including non-marine basins in the Irish Sea and elsewhere) lithostratigraphic or seismostratigraphic units. The IGME
(Chapters17–24,includingEastGreenland);andthePaleogene (International Geological Map of Europe) (http://www.bgr.
igneousrocksofScotland(Chapter25). de/app/igme5000/igme_frames.php) provides details of the
The Tertiary (and earliest Quaternary) stratigraphy of the distribution and regional context of Tertiary sediments and
North Sea Basin and adjacent areas is summarized (except igneousrocksinNWEurope.
for southern England) in chronostratigraphic segments, corre- A full overview of Tertiary chronology, biostratigraphy,
sponding approximately to Early Paleocene, Middle and Late magnetostratigraphy, stable isotope stratigraphy and climatic
Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene–Middle Miocene and Middle history is not included here; these and other relevant
Miocene–earliest Pleistocene. Their boundaries are delimited aspects are fully covered in Gradstein et al. (2012). Aspects
