The Late Carboniferous northern North Atlantic Ocean: implications for hydrocarbon exploration from Britain to the Arctic.

The onshore British Isles provides a complex record of rifting from the Silurian to the Palaeocene. The most important of these episodes was during the Carboniferous, when alkali-basalt volcanism marked the beginning of up to 4 km of basin subsidence within a 50 Ma timespan. Many major Carboniferous basins were sited on long N- S structures at intervals of about 45 km, and subsidence was controlled by the intersections of these structures with pre-existing weaknesses, as well as with east-west growth faults. This implies that east-west extensional stress dominated over N-S extensional stress. We predict that Carboniferous and younger sediments suitable as hydrocarbon source and reservoir rocks occur from the Porcupine Basin to Svalbard. The super-giant Clair Field demonstrates the potential for oilfields along this continental-margin trend. Zechstein evaporites will also be discovered within these basins. -from Authors