The upper Cainozoic of the Norwegian continental shelf correlated with the deep sea record of the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic

• Published in: Marine and petroleum geology 2000-05, Vol.17 (5), p.579-600
• Main Authors: Eidvin, Tor, Jansen, Eystein, Rundberg, Yngve, Brekke, Harald, Grogan, Paul
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Invertebrate paleontology; Marine; Paleontology; Stratigraphy
• ISSN: 0264-8172; 1873-4073
• DOI: 10.1016/S0264-8172(00)00008-8

A stratigraphic framework has been developed for the Cainozoic succession of the Norwegian continental shelf and margin. This framework is consistent for the entire margin from the central North Sea to the Barents Sea and also facilitates a correlation with the deep sea record of the Norwegian Sea and North Atlantic. A local system, mainly utilising planktonic and benthic foraminiferal assemblages and Bolboforma species, is developed. It can be potentially used for regional stratigraphic syntheses. Using this framework, a more precise and detailed identification and age assignments of Cainozoic, and in particular Neogene, strata can be performed. Several revisions of previous age assignments and a more detailed dating of the various sediment packages are presented. The most complete Neogene succession is recorded in the central North Sea. Further north the succession is interrupted by an increasing number of hiati of increasing duration. After a period of erosion in the late Middle to early Late Miocene there is a marked increase in the influx of terrigenous sediment in the Late Miocene. A period of transgression in the Early Pliocene resulted in strongly reduced rates of deposition, and sediments of this age are preserved mainly in the central North Sea. A period of regression in earliest Late Pliocene probably resulted in erosion of most of the Norwegian continental shelf with the exception of the deeper areas of the Central and Viking Grabens. This period was immediately followed in the later part of Late Pliocene, by rapid deposition of glacially derived sediment prograding along the entire shelf. In general, Pleistocene development is a continuation of the Late Pliocene evolution, but is marked by more extensive erosion of the inner shelf. This is inferred from the flat truncation of underlying prograding strata and the extensive build up of debris flow sediments within glacial fan depocentres. The entire Neogene development is closely related to the climatic evolution of high latitude regions surrounding the North Atlantic and the Norwegian-Greenland Sea.