Following a time of expansion of the oil industry, the period 1987-2012 and especially the second half of it reflects a diversification of exploration activities in the Netherlands. In addition to the ongoing discovery of classical hydrocarbon reservoirs, successful attempts have been made to explore deep geothermal energy. Shale gas and Coal Bed Methane received interest in the Netherlands too but so far no wells have been drilled in order to test the potential. Storage of gas and liquids has been introduced and salt mining more or less continued without many changes. In terms of drilling activity, the last 25 years show a decreasing trend and the discovered volumes are smaller. Testing of new play concepts was either successful (shallow gas) or not (Dinantian) and sometimes an unexpected discovery was made (Triassic Fat Sands). New techniques proved older fields to be exploitable again, e.g. redevelopment of the Schoonebeek Field. Therefore, despite a decline in number of wells drilled and reserves added, the diversification of use of the subsurface will guarantee ongoing exploration.

Clay is a common lithology in the Dutch shallow subsurface. It is used in earth constructions such as dikes, and as raw material for the fabrication of bricks, roof tiles etc. We present a new national assessment of Dutch clay resources, as part of a project that provides mineral-occurrence information for land-use planning purposes. The assessment is based on a 3D geological model, which consists of voxel cells with lithological composition as primary attribute, and has been obtained by interpolating data of more than 380,000 digital borehole descriptions. The occurrence of shell material and the extent to which clay is peaty were used as quality attributes, enabling us to tentatively distinguish between clay that is potentially suitable as ceramic material, and clay that is not.

As clay is extracted using dry (i.e. non-dredging) techniques, the model space has been dimensioned to fully encompass the unsaturated zone. A high-resolution model (with voxel cells of 250 · 250 · 0.2 m), based mainly on abundant, good-quality hand drillings, was constructed down to 3 m below the surface. This depth range suffices for clay-resource assessments in the lowlands, which have relatively high groundwater levels. Cells from a lower-resolution model (250 · 250 · 1 m, based on fewer data) were added to reach appropriate depths in upland areas.

We arrive at about 42.1 km3 of clay occurring in the model space (land areas only). Clay occurs mainly in the coastal domain and below the Rhine and Meuse river plains. Geological exploitability has been assessed within the unsaturated zone, taking overburden and intercalations with non-clay materials (especially peat) into account. The resulting exploitable stock is 12.3 to 18.0 (± 2.0) km3; an estimate in which the main source of uncertainty is presented by a lack of proper groundwater-table data. This amount equates to roughly 6000 annual consumption equivalents. Even when considering that the larger part of the clays is unsuitable for firing, and about one quarter is situated below built-up lands or nature preserves, clay is not a scarce resource in the Netherlands and supplies should present no problem in the near future.

The Broad Fourteens Basin is a NW-SE trending Mesozoic structural element that was affected by inversion movements during the Late Cretaceous (Subhercynian Phase) and Early Tertiary (Laramide Phase). Since the overlying Tertiary section of this area is relatively little studied, a multi-disciplinary investigation was initiated using both seismic and well data. The present study is the first phase of that project and deals exclusively with the stratigraphical framework and sedimentary development based on well logs from approximately forty wells.

The Tertiary sedimentary section in this area (maximum thickness up to approximately 800 m) consists of siliciclastic rocks that generally correlate well with the established lithostratigraphical framework of the Netherlands. However, the highly variable thickness of these lithological units, illustrated by isopach maps for all units, reflect the intricate pattern of sea level movements, differential vertical movements and the ensuing erosion, that took place in this tectonically active area.

Well P06-02, one of the most complete sections in the center of the area, was selected for detailed biostratigraphical analysis to support further stratigraphical subdivision and correlation. This yielded information on both the distribution pattern of various lithological units and the influence of large, partly global, events during basin development. It is concluded that application of detailed sequence stratigraphy in the study area is very problematic and only 2nd and some 3rd order cycles could be recognized.

Interdisciplinary, landscape-oriented studies from an archaeological viewpoint in the Low Countries mainly concentrate on cultural and economic research questions. Focal points are the physical setting of settlements and cemeteries, land use patterns and subsistence economy. As a result, the collected data are rather site-based and one-dimensional. As a counterweight, this study aims to look beyond the boundaries of settlements and cemeteries by offering a regional and diachronic perspective on the development of the landscape, vegetation and habitation of Twente (the Netherlands) since the Late Glacial. A detailed search for existing pollen data yielded 125 sites containing information from a wide variety of sampling contexts. A series of six evidence-based regional vegetation maps have been constructed by analysing relations between pollen data, soil data and topography. The maps serve as first-stage generalised models that predict regional trends, allow subsequent testing and place site-specific archaeological data in a wider context. The method developed is applicable to other regions. A comparison with contemporary habitation patterns, based on archaeological and historical data, reveals spatio-temporal trends in human influence on vegetation and in physical factors influencing site location. Five maps have been ‘translated’ into artist impressions.

Shark bite marks on mosasaur bones abound in the fossil record. Here we review examples from Kansas (USA) and the Maastrichtian type area (SE Netherlands, NE Belgium), and discuss whether they represent scavenging and/or predation. Some bite marks are most likely the result of scavenging. On the other hand, evidence of healing and the presence of a shark tooth in an infected abscess confirm that sharks also actively hunted living mosasaurs.

Minerals are the building blocks of clastic sediments and play an important role with respect to the physico-chemical properties of the sediment and the lithostratigraphy of sediments. This paper aims to provide an overview of the mineralogy (including solid organic matter) of sediments as well as suspended matter as found in the Netherlands (and some parts of Belgium). The work is based on a review of the scientific literature published over more than 100 years. Cenozoic sediments are addressed together with suspended matter and recent sediments of the surface water systems because they form a geoscientific continuum from material subject to transport via recently settled to aged material. Most attention is paid to heavy minerals, clay minerals, feldspars, Ca carbonates, reactive Fe minerals (oxides, siderite, sulphides, glauconite) and solid organic matter because they represent the dominant minerals and their properties form a main issue in subsurface and water management. When possible and relevant, the amounts, provenance, relationship with grain size distribution, early diagenesis and palaeohydrological evolution are described. Tables with statistical data about the mineral contents and isotopic composition of carbonates and organic matter are presented as overviews. The review on the mineralogy of Dutch fluvial and marine environments is more extensive than that for the other sedimentary environments because the first two have been studied much more intensively than the others and they also form the larger part of the Dutch deposits. The focus is on the natural background mineralogy of Dutch sediments, but this is hard for recent sediments, largely because the massive hydraulic infrastructure present in the Netherlands has probably also affected the mineralogy and geochemistry of sediments deposited in recent centuries. Many findings are summarised, several of which lead to more general insights for the Dutch situation. Ca carbonates in sediments often have several provenances and thus must be considered as mixtures. Dolomite is commonly present in addition to calcite. The importance of biotite as weatherable mica is unclear. Weathering of heavy minerals plays some role but it is unclear in which way it affects the heavy mineral associations. Clays are usually dominated by illite, smectite and their interstratified variant, while kaolinite is usually below 20% and chlorite below 5%. Vermiculite is a minor constituent in fluvial clays and its illitisation presumably happens during early diagenesis in the marine environment. Opaque Fe hydroxides can be present in addition to Fe oxyhydroxide coatings and both will play a role in redox chemistry as reactive Fe minerals. Feldspars in marine sediments must be present but they have not been properly studied. The genesis of rattle stones and carbonate concretions has not been completely elucidated. The fraction of terrigeneous organic matter in estuarine and coastal marine sediments is substantial. The available data and information are spread irregularly over the country and the reviewed information discussed in this paper is derived from relatively small-scale studies dealing with a limited amount of analysed samples. Much information is available from the Scheldt estuaries in the southwestern part of the Netherlands partly due to the severe contamination of the Western Scheldt in recent decades.

Large conglomerate lenses occur in a fine-grained siliciclastic succession of the Singhbhum craton, eastern India. They overlie an Archaean orthogneiss, from which they are separated by a palaeosol. Neither the conglomerates nor the directly overlying rocks have been dated, but the conglomerate unit is assumed to have also an Archaean age. The conglomerate lenses occur within a succession of pelitic and mafic schists, and the depositional environment of this conglomerate/schist unit had not been clarified thus far. On the basis of a combination of the vertical and horizontal distribution of the conglomerates, their stratigraphic position and analysis of their sedimentological characteristics and the sedimentological context, it is concluded that the succession must have developed in a fluvial lowland environment where volcanic input contributed significantly to the sediment accumulation.

Unambiguously pristine and largely unpolluted sediments from the Late Weichselian and Holocene infillings of the Meuse residual channels in northern Limburg (the Netherlands) have been sampled to determine the natural compositional variation of the river’s suspended load.

Bulk geochemical and granulometric analyses demonstrate that about 70% of the variation can be ascribed to hydrodynamic mineral sorting. Clay- and fine silt-sized phyllosilicates are the most important deterministic features, hosting the bulk of AI2O3, TiO2, K2O, MgO and trace element variability (notably Ba, Cr, Ga, Rb and V). Quartz is abundant in the fine and coarse sand fractions. Na2O and the Zr-Nb-Nd-Y quartet relate to albitic feldspars and heavy minerals, respectively, in the coarse silt fraction. The granulometry should therefore be quantified if geochemical baseline data for a particular geological unit or region are drawn up and for the evaluation of potentially polluted sediments.

Although provenance has not changed, the composition of Meuse sediments cannot be considered constant over a time frame of 1000–10,000 years, due to climatic change. Weathering of phyllosilicates in both interstadial and interglacial soil environments and changing relative source-area contributions alter the detrital clay-mineral supply to raise the AI2O3 and lower the K2O and MgO contents in Holocene Meuse sediments. Early diagenetic siderite and vivianite formation in gyttjas causes relative accumulations of Fe2O3, MnO, P2O5, Co, Ni and notably Zn above the phyllosilicate background values. These accumulations are natural and show that sediments with elevated trace metal contents are not necessarily polluted. Very early atmospheric pollution in relation to ore mining and smelting activities in the Roman era, however, probably caused elevated Pb contents in Subatlantic humic clays and peat samples, long before the historic pollution of the Industrial Revolution started.

The A12O3, Fe2O3 and CaO contents are used to predict the trace-element values as a function of sample granulometry, siderite/vivianite and lime content, respectively. As such, they can provide a sound basis for environmental researchers to determine baseline values of heavy metals in bulk samples of fine-grained fluvial sediments.

We investigate the stratigraphy of Neogene and Quaternary intervals of the Schelphoek borehole (Schouwen, Zeeland, the Netherlands). The Breda Formation (Miocene-Zanclean) contains three sequences separated by hiatuses. The Oosterhout Formation (Zanclean-Piacenzian) contains at least two sequences. This formation is overlain by seven sequences of the Gelasian Maassluis Formation that almost certainly represent glacial cycles. The three lowermost sequences are provisionally assigned to the Praetiglian (MIS 96, MIS 98 and MIS 100). A large hiatus exists between the top of the Maassluis Formation and the base of the late Middle to Late Quaternary succession. Due to extensive in situ reworking of older strata (including fossils) at the base of several of the formations, their exact boundaries are difficult to establish. The Neogene succession in the Schelphoek borehole is compared to the stratigraphic successions in the Antwerp area to the south and the Dutch coastal area and continental platform to the north. Finally, the stratigraphic context of the Gelasian (‘Tiglian’) mammal fauna dredged from the bottom of a major tidal channel in the adjacent Oosterschelde is assessed by comparison with the Schelphoek borehole.

Information on the vegetation and landscape history of a region is often limited, and available data are hard to interprete. A concept is presented here on how a more comprehensive picture of the structure and development of landscapes and vegetations of the past can be gained by integrating the information of several disciplines. Archaeological field methods have been combined with methods used in landscape studies (geology, soil science, micromorphology) and vegetation studies (ecology, palynology and dendrochronology).

This concept has been applied and tested during an integrated study of a buried woodland at Zwolle-Stadshagen (Province of Overijssel, the Netherlands). Many large wood remnants were found in a peat layer preserved below a thick clay deposit. The wood remnants were dated by using dendrochronology to the period between ca. 150 BC and AD 580 (ca. 2200 - 1400 cal. BP). Two phases could be distinguished in the development of the peat. The woodland consisted of a closed stand with ash, alder and oak as main species, in the first phase mostly resembling an alder carr, and in the second one the near-extinct Filipendulo-Alnetum Passage et Hofmann 1968. No evidence of exploitation of the woodland by man nor of animal foraging was found.

The followed integrated procedure has led to a more substantiated reconstruction of the palaeo-environment with its wetland wood, but also of the influence of human activities on the palaeo-landscape and its woodlands, that could not have been obtained otherwise.

While climatic models of valley downcutting discuss the origin of terrace staircases in valleys of middle Europe within the frame of alternating cold and temperate periods of the Quaternary, other models, starting from a base level fall imposed by an initial tectonic signal, describe the response of the drainage network mainly as the propagation of an erosion wave from the place of base level fall (the margin of the uplifted region) toward the headwaters, the two types of model being rarely confronted. In the Ardennes (West Europe), cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al ages have recently been calculated for the abandonment of the Younger Main Terrace (YMT) level, a prominent feature at mid-height of the valleysides marking the starting point of the mid-Pleistocene phase of deep river incision in the massif. These ages show that the terrace has been abandoned diachronically as the result of a migrating erosion wave that started at 0.73 Ma in the Meuse catchment just north of the massif, soon entered the latter, and is still visible in the current long profiles of the Ardennian Ourthe tributaries as knickpoints disturbing their upper reaches. At first glance, these new findings are incompatible with the common belief that the terraces of the Ardennian rivers were generated by a climatically triggered stepwise general incision of the river profiles. However, several details of the terrace staircases (larger than average vertical spacing between the YMT and the next younger terrace, varying number of post-YMT terraces in trunk stream, tributaries and subtributaries) show that a combination of the climatic and tectonic models of river incision is able to satisfactorily account for all available data. The cosmogenic ages of the YMT also point out a particular behaviour of the migrating knickpoints, which apparently propagated on average more slowly in the main rivers than in the tributaries, in contradiction with the relation that makes knickpoint celerity depend directly on drainage area. We tentatively suggest a process accounting for such anomalies in migration rates.

Two isolated mosasaur teeth, one from the upper Campanian of Piotrawin, the other from the upper Maastrichtian at Nasilów (Wisla River valley, central Poland), recently described as Plioplatecarpinae sp. A and Plioplatecarpinae sp. B, respectively, are reassigned to the tylosaurine genus Hainosaurus Dollo, 1885. The present record thus adds to the list of Hainosaurus species known to date from elsewhere in Europe (Sweden, Belgium and England).

The Plio-Pleistocene succession in the Lower Rhine Embayment was subjected to a thorough revision of existing stratigraphic concepts. The deposits were studied at key sites in the type area near Venlo and in the large open-cast mine Hambach in the southern part of the Lower Rhine Embayment by means of sedimentological, petrographical, as well as palaeo- and rockmagnetic methods.

The work has yielded improved insights of the drainage pattern and the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene depositional history of the region. As a result, a new comprehensive lithostratigraphical framework has been established.

Study of the succession at Hambach showed the occurrence of deposits of the Rhine, Meuse and a local river in the Lower Pleistocene part of the succession. Paleo- and rockmagnetic studies of the deposits marking the transition from Pliocene to Pleistocene indicate that the Gauss-Matuyama magnetic reversal occurs several meters above the top of the Reuver Clay at Hambach.

The study of the Lower Pleistocene succession in the type area has confirmed the recently new established lithostratigraphic framework of the Netherlands. As a consequence, the previous Dutch lithostratigraphic system which forms the basis of the chronostratigraphic subdivision of the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene of NW Europe has been proven to be inappropriate and should be abandoned. This chronostratigraphic framework is based on the interpretation of palynological data and was first established in the Netherlands during the 1960s. The new lithostratigraphic concept has revealed numerous contradictions with the chronostratigraphic framework. Based on these results it is proposed to abandon the chronostratigraphic subdivision of the Early Pleistocene in northwestern Europe.

The Cenozoic fill of the Lower Rhine Basin is investigated with data from industry wells and open-cast mines on lignite coal. The geophysical logs of digitised well data are used to calculate lithofacies logs with a newly developed technique. The lithofacies logs allow the interpretation of shallow marine and continental environments in a sequence stratigraphie approach. In addition, base level analysis with both the lithofacies logs and the geophysical logs provide a stratigraphical frame for environment interpretation, modelling, and simulation.

3D basin modelling is used to investigate the history of maturation and hydrocarbon generation on the main platforms in the northwestern part of the offshore area of the Netherlands. The study area covers the Cleaverbank and Elbow Spit Platforms. Recently compiled maps and data are used to build the input geological model. An updated and refined palaeo water depth curve and newly refined sediment water interface temperatures (SWIT) are used in the simulation. Basal heat flow is calculated using tectonic models. Two main source rock intervals are defined in the model, Westphalian coal seams and pre-Westphalian shales, which include Namurian and Dinantian successions. The modelling shows that the pre-Westphalian source rocks entered the hydrocarbon generation window in the Late Carboniferous. In the southern and central parts of the study area, the Namurian started producing gas in the Permian. In the north, the Dinantian source rocks appear to be immature. Lower Westphalian sediments started generating gas during the Upper Triassic. Gas generation from Westphalian coal seams increased during the Paleogene and continues in present-day. This late generation of gas from Westphalian coal seams is a likely source for gas accumulations in the area.

Westphalian coals might have produced early nitrogen prior to or during the main gas generation occurrence in the Paleogene. Namurian shales may be a source of late nitrogen after reaching maximum gas generating phase in the Triassic. Temperatures reached during the Mid Jurassic were sufficiently high to allow the release of non-organic nitrogen from Namurian shales.

This paper describes the ongoing experimental and analytical activities that are being carried out to develop fatality and consequence models for the estimation of ‘Inside Local Personal Risk’ (ILPR) of buildings within the Groningen field. ILPR is defined as the annual probability of fatality for a hypothetical person who is continuously present without protection inside a building. In order to be able to estimate this risk metric, a robust estimate of the probability of collapse of structural and non-structural elements within a building is needed, as these have been found to be the greatest drivers of fatality risk.

To estimate the collapse potential of buildings in Groningen, structural numerical models of a number of representative case studies have been developed and calibrated through in situ and laboratory testing on materials, connections, structural components and even full-scale buildings. These numerical models are then subjected to increased levels of ground shaking to estimate the probability of collapse, and the associated consequences are estimated from the observed collapse mechanisms.

Radiocarbon calibration based on dendro-chronology and U-series dated corals yield a calibration curve (INTCAL98) well into the Late Glacial, back to ca. 15,600 calendar years ago. Beyond this limit, various calibration curves are produced, mainly based on laminated sediments and various carbonates dated by U-series isotopes. Such calibration curves now cover the complete 14C dating range of about 45,000 years, but are not consistent with each other. Each calibration method (other than dendro-chronology) has its own assumptions and pitfalls. Thus far, the calibration curve obtained from Lake Suigetsu laminated sediments is the only terrestrial (atmospheric) one.

Stable oxygen and carbon isotope studies were performed on unionid shells from Rhine and Meuse rivers. Results show that the characteristic isotopic signature of each river is well documented in the shells with average δ18O values of ∼9.00‰ for the Rhine specimens and of 6.5‰ for the Meuse unionid. The average δ18O values of the shell material corresponds to the average δ18O of the to rivers and thus identifies Rhine or Meuse sedimentary sequences. All δ18O records show distinct seasonality, which may be used to reconstruct past riverconditions

Recognition of decompression syndrome-related pathology (in the form of avascular necrosis) reveals diving behaviour in mosasaurs. Macroscopic and radiologic examination was performed to identify linear bone death characteristic of avascular necrosis in vertebrae from the major North American and European collections. This survey of mosasaurs extends throughout most of their geographic and stratigraphic range and includes examples across their diversity.

Avascular necrosis was invariably present in Platecarpus coryphaeus and P. ictericus, Tylosaurus proriger, Mosasaurus lemonnieri and M. conodon, Plioplatecarpus houzeaui and Pl. primaevus, Prognathodon giganteus, Hainosaurus bernardi and an as yet unnamed Antarctic mosasaur. The frequency of occurrence in a given genus was independent of geography, present equally in European and North American and in the Niobara and Selma chalks. It was invariably absent from Clidastes propython and C. liodontus, Ectenosaurus, Halisaurus and Kolposaurus.

The bone pathology, avascular necrosis, has a characteristic distribution in seven genera and thirteen species of mosasaurs and is absent in five genera and seven species. It segregated according to diving habits, uniformly present in supposed deep divers and uniformly absent in the shallow-habitat group.

The lithostratigraphy, age and human occupation of the Late Glacial and Holocene aeolian succession of a Late Palaeolithic Ahrensburg site in the excavation Geldrop-A2 (municipality of Heeze-Leende) have been investigated. The exposure revealed a stacked sequence of aeolian sand units and intercalated soils (Older Coversand II, Younger Coversand I (YCI), Usselo Soil, Younger Coversand II (YCII), Holocene podzol, drift sand). Fourteen optically stimulated luminescence dates on quartz and three radiocarbon dates provide the age control of the aeolian deposition (coversands, drift sand), landscape stability (soils) and human occupation. The upper part of the YCI unit was dated to the early Late Glacial. The well-developed Usselo Soil was formed during a phase of landscape stability during the late Allerød interstadial and onset of the Younger Dryas stadial. During the Younger Dryas, low aeolian dunes were formed locally (YCII), as a response to landscape instability due to cooling and vegetation decline. In the fine-grained lower part of the YCII unit an initial soil testifies to a decadal to centennial period of landscape stability. An Ahrensburg site in the upper part of this initial soil was dated at 10,915±35 BP (c. 12,854–12,789 cal BP). The lithostratigraphic position, radiocarbon dates of the underlying Usselo Soil and a possibly old-wood effect of up to 200 years suggest that Ahrensburg occupation of the dune environment occurred during the early Younger Dryas, shortly after c. 10,750 BP (12,750 cal BP). Landscape stability and podzol soil formation dominated the early and middle Holocene periods. Drift-sand deposition, probably related to human land use and vegetation decline, occurred in a 200-year period from the 16th to the 18th centuries.