Abstract The Middle Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous in the eastern Dutch offshore provides excellent examples of sand-rich sediments that locally accumulated in the vicinity of rift basin margins affected by salt tectonics. These types of deposits are often geographically restricted and difficult to identify, but can be valuable targets for hydrocarbon exploration. The distribution, thickness and preservation potential of fluvio-lacustrine, shallow- and deep-marine sediments is discussed to provide new insights into the regional and local tectonostratigraphy of the Dutch Central Graben, the Terschelling Basin and their neighbouring platforms. New sedimentological, geochemical, biostratigraphic, stratigraphic and structural information have been analysed and integrated into a new tectonostratigraphic model for the Callovian Lower Graben Formation, Oxfordian Middle and Upper Graben formations, Early–Middle Volgian Terschelling Sandstone and Noordvaarder members, and the Late Volgian–Early Ryazanian Scruff Greensand Formation. It is demonstrated that salt withdrawal at the basin axis was the primary control on the generation of high accommodation during the Callovian–Early Kimmeridgian. Incised valleys developed on the platforms providing lateral sediment input. During the Late Kimmeridgian–Ryazanian salt migration shifted laterally towards the basin margins, providing accommodation adjacent to active salt bodies and deposition of overthickened sandy strata.

Abstract Deposition of the Callovian–Ryazanian Humber Group of the UK Central Graben occurred during rifting and long-term relative sea-level rise, which acted to suppress the formation of eustatically forced Exxon-type sequence boundaries. The superposition of highly variable halokinetically controlled subsidence means that classic, passive-margin derived sequence stratigraphic models are not appropriate to describe stratigraphic evolution in this rift setting. The sequence stratigraphy of the Humber Group has been re-evaluated using a transgressive–regressive sequence model, where maximum regressive surfaces are employed as sequence bounding surfaces. The Humber Group comprises two megasequences which reveal distinct phases of evolution of the basin. The latest Callovian–Kimmeridgian megasequence comprises a conformable sequence stack which lacks significant internal unconformities and records progressive marine flooding and overall backstepping onto the basin flanks during a phase of active rifting. The Volgian–Ryazanian megasequence is condensed and highly fragmentary due to punctuation by a number of unconformities which are consistently recognizable throughout the basin. The onset of this change in architectural style corresponds to the oldest unconformity at the base of the Volgian–Ryazanian succession, termed the Base Volgian–Ryazanian Unconformity, of latest Kimmeridgian to earliest Volgian age. The patterns of erosion of the Callovian–Kimmeridgian megasequence and the intra Volgian–Ryazanian unconformities record the effects of dramatic redistribution of underlying salt accompanied by probable uplift of the Forties–Montrose High and J Ridge, resulting in major modification of the basin morphology and the severing of possible earlier links with the Fisher Bank Basin. The kinematics of this event are equivocal, but it is possible that restricted Volgian–Ryazanian depocentres resulted from localized salt collapse rather than basement extension. Widespread erosion of Callovian–Kimmeridgian Humber Group sediments may have occurred in some areas where Volgian–Ryazanian Kimmeridge Clay deposits now overlie pre-Jurassic strata, and exploration models must incorporate the effects of Volgian reconfiguration in order to accurately predict reservoir distribution.