Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T16:07:39.411Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Redeposited chalk hydrocarbon reservoirs of the North Sea caused by the Chicxulub K-T bolide impact

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2016

M. Rider  and
D. Kroon
M. Rider
Affiliation:
School of GeoSciences, Grant Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JW, [email protected](corresponding author)
D. Kroon
Affiliation:
Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]

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.

A widespread, slumped, redeposited, uppermost Cretaceous chalk interval, up to 60m thick, immediately below the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary, recognised in oil company boreholes across the central North Sea and a major hydrocarbon reservoir, we re-interpret as the result of a single, catastrophic event caused by secondary effects related to the bolide impact at Chicxulub. A thin, dark clay bed immediately above the redeposited chalks, we suggest correlates to the outcropping, Iridium rich, Danish ‘Fish Clay’, rapidly deposited after the impact. Physical effects on sea-floor sediments, caused by the K-T bolide impact, have not previously been interpreted in the North Sea.

Keywords

K-T boundarybolide impactredeposited chalkslump
Type
Research Article
Information
Netherlands Journal of Geosciences , Volume 82 , Issue 4 , December 2003 , pp. 333 - 337
Copyright
Copyright © Stichting Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 2003

References

Alvarez, L.W., Alvarez, W., Asaro, F. & Michel, H.V., 1980. Extraterrestrial cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction. Science 208: 1095–1108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bralower, T.J., Paull, C.K. & Leckie, R.M., 1998. The Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary cocktail: Chicxulub impact triggers margin collapse and extensive sediment gravity flows. Geology 26: 331–334.Google Scholar
Brasher, J.E. & Vagle, K.R., 1996. Influence of lithofacies and diagenesis on Norwegian North Sea chalk reservoirs. Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists 80: 746–769.Google Scholar
Bramwell, N.P., Caillet, G., Meciani, N., Judge, N.C., Green, M. & Adam, P., 1999. Chalk exploration, the search for the subtle trap. In: Fleet, A.J. & Boldy, S.A.R. (Eds): Petroleum Geology of North West Europe. Proceedings of the fifth conference. Geological Society London (London): 911–938.Google Scholar
D’Heur, M., 1986. The Norwegian chalk fields. In: Spencer, A.M. (Ed.): Habitat of hydrocarbons on the Norwegian continental shelf. Graham & Trotman (London): 77–89.Google Scholar
Farmer, C.L. & Barkved, O.I., 1999. Influence of syn-depositional faulting on thickness in chalk reservoirs -Valhall and Hod fields. In: Fleet, A.J. & Boldy, S.A.R. (Eds): Petroleum Geology of North West Europe. Proceedings of the fifth conference. Geological Society (London): 949–957.Google Scholar
Hancock, J.M. & Scholle, P.A., 1975. Chalk of the North Sea. In: Woodland, A. (Ed.): Petroleum Geology of the Continental Shelf of North-West Europe. Applied Science Publishers (Barking): 413–425.Google Scholar
Johnson, H. & Lott, G.K.S., 1993. Cretaceous of the Central and Northern North Sea. In: Knox, R.W.O’B & Cordey, W.G. (Eds): Lithostratigraphic nomenclature of the UK North Sea. British Geological Survey (Nottingham): 169 pp.Google Scholar
Kennedy, W.J., 1987. Sedimentology of Late Cretaceous-Palaeocene chalk reservoirs, North Sea Central Graben. In: Brooks, J. & Glennie, K.W. (Eds): Petroleum Geology of North West Europe. Proceedings of the third conference. Graham & Trotman (London): 469–481.Google Scholar
Klaus, A., Norris, R.D., Kroon, D. & Smit, J., 2000. Impact-induced mass wasting at the K-T boundary: Blake Nose, western North Atlantic. Geology 28: 319–322.Google Scholar
Mackertich, D.S. & Goulding, D.R.G., 1999. Exploration and appraisal of the South Arne field, Danish North Sea. In: Fleet, A.J. & Boldy, S.A.R., (Eds): Petroleum Geology of North West Europe. Proceedings of the fifth conference. Geological Society London (London): 959–974.Google Scholar
MacLeod, K.G., Fullagar, P.D. & Huber, B.T., 2003. 87Sr/86Sr test of the degree of impact-induced slope failure in the Maastrichtian of the western North Atlantic. Geology 31: 311–314 Google Scholar
Mukhopadhyay, S., Farley, K.A. & Montanari, A., 2001. A short duration of the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Event: evidence from extraterrestrial Helium-3. Science 291: 1952–1955.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, R.D., Firth, J., Blusztajn, J.S. & Ravizza, G., 2000. Mass failure of the North Atlantic margin triggered by the Cretaceous-Paleogene bolide impact. Geology, 28: 1119–1122.Google Scholar
Norris, R.D. & Firth, J.V., 2002. Mass wasting of Atlantic continental margins following the Chicxulub impact event. In: Koeberl, C. & Macleod, K.G. (Eds): Catastrophic events and mass extinctions: impacts and beyond. Geological Society of America, Special Paper 356 (Boulder): 79–95.Google Scholar
Stewart, S.A. & Allen, P.J., 2002. A 20-km-diameter multi-ringed impact structure in the North Sea. Nature 418: 520–523.Google Scholar
Surlyk, F.A., 1997. Cool-water carbonate ramp with bryozoan mounds: late Cretaceous-Danian of the Danish basin. In: James, N.P. & Clarke, J.D.A. (Eds): Cool water carbonates. SEPM Special Publication, 56: 293–307.Google Scholar
Ziegler, P.A., 1990. Geological Atlas of Western and Central Europe. Shell International Petroleum Maatschappij B.V., Elsevier Science Publishers (Amsterdam): 130 pp.Google Scholar