Recent advances in understanding the southern North Sea Basin: a summary
1997; Geological Society of London; Volume: 123; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1144/gsl.sp.1997.123.01.03
ISSN2041-4927
Autores Tópico(s)Methane Hydrates and Related Phenomena
ResumoAbstract After a short-lived but very successful phase of exploration in the UK North Sea, the need for extreme confidentiality ceased to exist for those fields that had already been discovered, including the gas fields of the southern North Sea; this led to a widespread dissemination of data from 1974 onwards, to the great benefit of the industry as a whole. Early difficulties in producing gas from reservoirs whose permeability had been reduced by the growth of diagenetic illite led to studies in depth- and facies-related diagenesis, which continues today in different parts of the Southern Permian Basin. A change from analogue to digital recording of seismic data coincided with improvements in computer technology, and transformed seismic from a tool with limited depth penetration, which required the skill of a dedicated specialist to interpret, to one that today is used universally by all exploration and production geologists; these advances led, in turn, to much improved stratigraphic and structural resolution. Recent studies, especially in the former East Germany, have led to a better definition of the Permian. In Central Germany, Lower Rotliegend volcanics are overlain by sedimentary sequences of the Müritz sub-group (Upper Rotliegend 1), which are coeval coveal part of the combined Altmark and Saalian Unconformity. In northern Germany, this major hiatus is overlain by the Havel and Elbe subgroups (Upper Rotliegend 2) which, together with the succeeding Zechstein sequences, were all deposited within the youngest stages of the Permian, covering a probable time span of no more than 16 Ma. Deposition of up to 4000 m or so of Late Permian strata in such a short time indicates structurally controlled subsidence in addition to any of a thermal nature.
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