The North Sea Basin and adjacent areas: general aspects
Abstract
The North Sea Basin (or NW European Tertiary Basin) is by far the largest Tertiary basin in NW Europe. The main depocentres (apart from localized halokinetic subsidence features) are in the central and northern North Sea. The Tertiary North Sea Basin lies between the Variscan and Caledonian massifs of the Pennines, the Scottish Highlands, Fennoscandia and the Rhenish-Bohemian Massif. It is centred on a series of Mesozoic rifts running through the North Sea, which are the sites of the greatest water depths and the highest rates of sedimentation (Figs 9 & 19). Most of this area is characterized by marine sediments, probably with relatively narrow peripheral areas of marginal-marine and non-marine sediments: these have now largely been eroded by basin margin uplift, except around the southern and SE margins of the Basin.
Figures & Tables
Contents
A revised correlation of Tertiary rocks in the British Isles and adjacent areas of NW Europe

This Special Report comprehensively describes the stratigraphy and correlation of the Tertiary (Paleogene-Neogene) rocks of NW Europe and the adjacent Atlantic Ocean and is the summation of fifty years of research on Tertiary sediments by Chris King. His book is essential reading for all geologists who deal with Tertiary rocks across NW Europe, including those in the petroleum industry and geotechnical services as well as academic stratigraphers and palaeontologists.
Introductory sections on chronostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and other methods of dating and correlation are followed by a regional summary of Tertiary sedimentary basins and their framework and an introduction to Tertiary igneous rocks. The third and largest segment comprises the regional stratigraphic summaries. Regions covered are the North Sea Basin, on shore areas of southern England and the eastern English Channel area, the North Atlantic margins (including non-marine basins in the Irish Sea and elsewhere) and the Paleogene igneous rocks of Scotland.