Journal of Petroleum Geology, Vol.1,
No.1, pp. 65-77, 1978
©Copyright 2000 Scientific Press,
Ltd.
STRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE
NORTHERN NORTH SEA
J. T. C. Hay*
* BNOC (Development) Ltd,
Aberdeen.
Abstract
The Northern North Sea basin is a
relatively narrow, grabenal or half grabenal, north-south
trending feature. The trapping structures are tilted fault
blocks. In the southern part of the basin these are mainly
westwards tilted blocks formed by down to the east throw faults
trending north-south, parallel to the basin margins. This could
fit with general plate tectonic theory, but in the northern part
of the area this faulting is complicated by a pronounced NE-SW
trend. This is parallel to the old Caledonian trend and it is
postulated that strike-slip faulting may have been re-activated
during the Mesozoic. This strike-slip movement on the NE-SW fault
trend gave a tendency for individual fault block rotation
resulting in a variety of block tilt directions in the northern
part of the basin.
