Gravity-driven thin-skinned extension above Zechstein Group evaporites in the western central North Sea: an application of computer-aided section restoration techniques

Normal faulting and halokinesis have been important controls on the deposition and subsequent deformation of Mesozoic and Tertiary strata in the North Sea. In addition to the previously documented mechanisms of salt withdrawal, dissolution and differential sedimentary loading, it is recognized that gravity-driven thin-skinned extension above inclined salt layers has played an important part in North Sea basin development. Commercial section restoration software has been used to facilitate depth conversion, restoration and decompaction of seismic sections selected from an interpreted regional database in the western central North Sea, allowing validation of the interpretations, and a graphical and highly quantitative description of salt-assisted extension. Results of this work show that Zechstein Group evaporites were deposited in shallow sag basins during the Permian. Triassic sedimentary pods were generated by localized deposition in synclinal basins and grabens above the evaporites. Bedded salt became folded, while mobile salt flowed to fill anticline cores. Since the early Jurassic, regional tectonic tilting related to post-rift subsidence and increasing sedimentary overburden have caused allochthonous Mesozoic and Tertiary strata to extend by gravity spreading above the mobile salt layer, which detaches the allochthon from the underlying autochthonous Late Palaeozoic rocks. Concave-up listric normal faults sole out in the salt layer, propagate into the overlying cover sewuence, and have been active at different geological times causing stratal thickening and folding within the allochthon. Antithetic and synthetic normal faults have developed, producing complex upward branching fault systems. In map view, the listric faults form curvilinear en echelon arrays, the faults linked by relay ramps. Fault blocks are typically 3–7 km wide, 2–3 km thick and 7–10 km long. Salt movement during the Jurassic-Tertiary has been driven by active extension of the cover, causing salt to fill potential voids created by fault block rotation. Thus salt highs occur beneath sites of extension. The listric faults generally dip in the same direction as the sub-salt surface, although there are also some major counter-regional faults. During extension, regional dips have increased up to about 5, which is sufficient for gravity-driven extension above a salt layer. A total extension of about 6% has occurred. The gravity-driven thin-skinned extension documented in the western central North Sea is a phenomenon which can be recognized elsewhere in the North Sea basin, and can be readily compared with similar phenomena already documented in offshore Angola, Brazil, Nova Scotia and the Gulf of Mexico