Abstract

In the Norwegian-Greenland Sea region, strata of Tertiary age are known from Northeast and East Greenland, Svalbard, Iceland and the Faeroe Islands, the margins along the East Greenland and Norwegian coasts and the deep sea basins. Moreover, Tertiary deposits are found on the northwest European continent and southeast England and from the North Sea. This paper gives a summary of the present knowledge about the Tertiary deposits in these areas. Greatest emphasis has been placed on the strata in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea region, whereas the deposits in northwest Europe have only been treated briefly.

Due to the varying type of sediments represented in the region (continental, near coastal, shelf, deep-sea) as well as to lack of a region-wide biostratigraphy, intra-regional correlation has been difficult. Even within the closely studied onshore deposits in northwest Europe, detailed correlations from subbasin to subbasin have been incomplete.

Current research, mainly based on microfossil stratigraphy from exploration wells in Northwest Europe, has partly overcome these difficulties, and a comprehensive litho/biostratigraphical correlation scheme (presented herein) for the northwest European Tertiary deposits has been published as part of IGCP project 124.

Finally, the author attempts to identify the stratigraphical marker horizons defined in the northwest European area of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea region. Based on this correlation, paleogeographical reconstructions have been compiled for the whole Norwegian-Greenland Sea/Northwest European region.