The development of basins of Mesozoic and Tertiary age, both onshore and offshore of the British Isles, is largely a consequence of episodic rifting that led to the progressive northward opening of the North Atlantic. In these basins, extension was controlled by the structure of underlying Paleozoic terrains and succeeded by passive thermal subsidence.

In this context, however, the British Isles represent an anomaly both in terms of their present elevation and in the widespread exposure of Pre-Cambrian to Tertiary rocks. The outcrop geology of the onshore and offshore basins is an obvious demonstration of uplift although the timing and origin, and magnitude of the uplift have remained uncertain. Evidence from onshore and offshore of the British Isles is used to document the influence of compressional inversion of Tertiary age in shaping the present day geology.

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