Abstract The southern North Sea is a shallow epicontinental sea that was glaciated several times during the Quaternary. The area is known for its remarkable record of tunnel valleys, the age and origin of which are debated. The recent availability of continuous three-dimensional seismic data between the coasts of Britain and the Netherlands provides the opportunity to establish a new seismic interpretation workflow adapted to the intracratonic glaciogenic successions. By analysing the geomorphology of the buried basal glaciogenic unconformity, four distinct major ice fronts are identified and correlated onshore. The ice fronts provide robust relative timelines, and the analysis of tunnel-valley orientations and their merging points indicates that the number of glacial phases has been underestimated. By comparing the erosion capacities of sand and chalk substrates, it is suggested that mechanical abrasion processes are also involved during tunnel-valley genesis. The methods and observations used in this study are applicable to the ancient glaciogenic record in general and constitute a basis for the sedimentological analysis of tunnel valleys.

Abstract The Late Palaeozoic glaciation was the longest of the Phanerozoic era. It is recorded in numerous Gondwanan basins, with some, such as the Chaco Basin, having a high petroleum potential. In this basin, the quality of the available seismic, well and outcrop data permits us to characterize the Late Palaeozoic glacial record. Palaeovalleys that are c . 500 m deep and c . 7 km wide have been analysed here. Focusing on the glaciogenic Carboniferous deposits, seismic data with well ties and outcrop analogues provide new sedimentological insights. The palaeovalley infill is imaged as a chaotic seismic facies overlain by an aggrading–prograding prism, interpreted as tillites covered by a fluvio-deltaic system. Tillites form both under the ice and during rapid ice recession, whereas fluvio-deltaic systems can only originate from a stable ice margin and last until the ice sheets withdraw inland. These two depositional modes are repeated several times, generating a progressive burial of the Carboniferous palaeovalleys. This succession of erosions and fills records major glacial stages, including a series of glacial and interglacial phases from the Late Devonian to the Early Permian. Depicting the Late Palaeozoic glacial history of the Chaco Basin seems crucial for the localization of potential good reservoirs.