Interplay of Late Carboniferous Foreland Basin Formation and Early Carboniferous Stretching in NW Europe

摘要

Late Carboniferous subsidence in the Netherlands is likely to be caused by flexural foreland subsidence and a thermal sag component, following an Early Carboniferous rifting event. A modelling study shows that flexural subsidence is limited to the eastern part of the Netherlands. To get insight into the amount of subsidence that can be explained by an Early Carboniferous rifting event, we used an inverse technique to model subsidence curves obtained from well data. We show that Late Carboniferous subsidence in the Netherlands can not be adequately explained by Early Carboniferous rifting alone. We therefore propose a second rifting pulse during the Namurian, which results in a better fit with the subsidence curves from well data. For maturation studies, the various tectonic interpretations of foreland formations and rifting have contrasting effects on maturation history, which has importance for play concepts.