Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T06:51:24.241Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Crustal structure of the London–Brabant Massif, southern North Sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Richard Rijkers ,
Ed Duin ,
Michiel Dusar  and
Vital Langenaeker
Richard Rijkers
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of The Netherlands, P.O. Box 157, 2000 AD Haarlem, The Netherlands
Ed Duin
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of The Netherlands, P.O. Box 157, 2000 AD Haarlem, The Netherlands
Michiel Dusar
Affiliation:
Belgian Geological Survey, Jennerstraat 13, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium
Vital Langenaeker
Affiliation:
Geologica, Tervuurse Steenweg 200, B-3080 Bertem, Belgium
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In 1991 a deep seismic line, MPNI-9101, was acquired in the southern North Sea. The line runs from the Mesozoic Broad Fourteens Basin in the north, across the West Netherlands Basin, onto the London–Brabant Massif in the south. The London–Brabant Massif is a WNW–ESE trending stable structure located beneath southeastern England, the southern North Sea and Belgium. The London–Brabant Massif represents the most easterly part of the Anglo-Brabant Massif. At the northern margin of the London-Brabant Massif, Devonian and Carboniferous siliciclastic and carbonate rocks onlap the massif. Farther south, shallow parts of the seismic line in the vicinity of the axial zone of the London–Brabant Massif are almost completely devoid of primary reflections. This zone is composed of strongly folded Lower Palaeozoic sedimentary units which have been mapped in the onshore part of Belgium. Numerous seismic reflection multiples from the base of the Cretaceous are observed on this part of the section. The southern limit of the zone is very abrupt and may correspond to a fault belt delimiting an area of magmatic rocks known in the onshore part of Belgium. Unusually the deeper parts of the seismic line show a strongly reflective lower crust beneath the London-Brabant, a phenomenon which has not been observed on other deep seismic sections across the massif. Two-way travel times to the base of the lower crustal reflective zone (corresponding to the Moho), increase from 10 seconds beneath the West Netherlands Basin in the north to 12 seconds beneath the London–Brabant Massif, suggesting a thickening of the crust.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 130 , Issue 5 , September 1993 , pp. 569 - 574
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

André, L. 1991. The concealed crystalline basement in Belgium and the ‘Brabantia’ microplate concept: constraints from the Caledonian magmatic and sedimentary rocks. Annales de la Société Géologique de Belgique 114, 117–39.Google Scholar
Andre, L. & Deutsch, S. 1985. Very low-grade meta-morphic Sr isotopie resettings of magmatic rocks and minerais: existence for a late Givetian strike-slip division of the Brabant Massif (Belgium). Journal of the Geological Society, London 142, 911–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
André, L., Hertogen, J. & Deutsch, S. 1986. Ordovician–Silurian magmatic provinces in Belgium and the Caledonian orogeny in Middle Europe. Geology 14, 879–82.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bless, M. J. M., Bouckaert, J. & Paproth, E. 1983. Recent exploration in Pre-Permian rocks around the Brabant Massif in Belgium, The Netherlands and the Federal Republic of Germany. Geologie en Mijnbouw 1, 51–62.Google Scholar
Blundell, D. J., Hobbs, R. W., Klemperer, S. L., Scott-Robinson, R., Long, R. E., West, T. E. & Duin, E. 1991. Crustal structure of the central and southern North Sea from BIRPS deep seismic reflection profiling. Journal of the Geological Society, London 148, 455–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouckaert, J., Fock, W. & Vandenberghe, N. 1988. First results of the Belgian geotraverse 1986 (Belcorp). Annales de la Société Géologique de Belgique 111, 279–90.Google Scholar
Chacksfield, B. C., De Vos, W., Lee, M. K., D'Hooge, L., Dusar, M., Poitevin, C., Royles, C. P. & Verniers, J. 1993. A new look at Belgian aeromagnetic and gravity data through image-based display techniques. Geological Magazine 130, 583–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collette, B. J., Lagaay, R. A., Ritsema, A. R. & Schouten, J. A. 1970. Seismic investigations in the North Sea. Geophysical Journal, Royal Astronomical Society 19, 183–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vos, W., Verniers, J., Herbosch, A. & Vanguestaine, M. 1993. A new geological map of the Brabant Massif, Belgium. Geological Magazine 130, 605–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erdtmann, B. B. 1991. The post-Cadomian Early Paleozoic tectonostratigraphy of Germany. In Proceedings of the International Meeting on the Caledonides of the Midlands and the Brabant Massif Brussels, 20–23 September 1989 (eds André, L., Herbosch, A., Vangestaine, M. and Verniers, J.), pp. 19–43. Annales de la Société Géologique de Belgique 114.Google Scholar
Intera & Bgs. 1992. Southern North Sea Carboniferous Project 1991–1992. Non-exclusive report.Google Scholar
Legrand, R. 1968. Le Massif du Brabant. Service Géologique de Belgique, Mémoires 9, 148 pp.Google Scholar
R., Meissner & Wever, Th. 1986. Nature and development of the crust according to deep reflection data from the German Variscides. In Reflection seismology: a global perspective (eds Barazangi, M., and Brown, L. D.), pp. 31–42. American Geophysical Union Geodynamics Series no. 13.Google Scholar
Pharaoh, T. C., Merriman, R. C., Evans, J. A., Brewer, T. S., Webb, P. C. & Smith, N. P. J. 1991. Early Palaeozoic arc-related volcanism in the concealed Caledonides of southern Britain. In Proceedings of the International Meeting on the Caledonides of the Midlands and the Brabant Massif, Brussels, 20–23 September 1989 (eds André, L., Herbosch, A., Vanguestaine, M. and Verniers, J.), pp. 63–91. Annales de la Société Géologique de Belgique no. 114.Google Scholar
Rijkers, R. H. B., Duin, E. J. T. & Scott-Robinson, R. A. (in press). Crustal structure of the London-Brabant Massif and a Mesozoic basin area, southern North Sea. In Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium “Seismic Reflection Probing of the Continents and their Margins” (eds Clowes, R. and Green, A.). Tectono-physics Special Issue.Google Scholar
Vandenberghe, N. 1984. The subsurface geology of the Meer area in north Belgium, and its significance for the occurrence of hydrocarbons. Journal of Petroleum Geology 7(1), 55–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Den Haute, P. & Vercautere, C. 1990. Apatite fission track evidence for a Mesozoic uplift of the Brabant Massif: preliminary results. Annales de la Société Géologique de Belgique 112, 443–52.Google Scholar
Van Wijhe, D. H. 1987. Structural evolution of inverted basins in the Dutch offshore. Tectonophysics 137, 171–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verniers, J. & Van Grootel, G. 1991. Review of the Silurian in the Brabant Massif, Belgium. In Proceedings of the International Meeting on the Caledonides of the Midlands and the Brabant Massif, Brussels, 20–23 September 1989 (eds André, L., Herboscyh, A., Vangestaine, M. and Verniers, J.), pp. 163–94. Annales de la Société Géologique de Belgique 114.Google Scholar
Walter, R. 1980. Lower Paleozoic Paleogeography of the Brabant Massif and its southern adjoining areas. Mededelingen Rijks Geologische Dienst 32–2, 14–25.Google Scholar