A late Danian change in deformation style in the south-eastern part of the Campine Basin
Abstract
The combined use of newly interpreted well data and reprocessed 2D seismic data provides new insights in the Early to Middle Paleocene tectonic evolution of the south-eastern part of the Campine Basin.
A late Danian fundamental change in the intra-plate stress-field of Europe changed the deformation style in several southern North Sea basins, including the Campine Basin and neighboring Roer Valley Graben. In the south-eastern part of the Campine Basin, this stress change ended an early to middle Danian tectonic quiet phase with calcarenite deposition and started a late Danian to middle Selandian phase of differential subsidence and restricted deposition of continental to shallow marine siliciclastics. Onlap patterns and associated thickness variations in the siliciclastics indicate that the south-eastern part of the Campine Basin experienced flexural subsidence in the direction of the downthrown Roer Valley Graben. Simultaneously, in the footwall to the Roer Valley Graben border fault system, the Bree Uplift was deformed by subtle (re)activation of faults, possibly in strike-slip mode. After the middle Selandian, former dynamics diminished throughout the region.