Geology of The North Sea - Cenozoic Era Intracratonic Basin Formation

Cenozoic Era Intracratonic Basin Formation

The Cenozoic era covers the period from 66 Ma and is still ongoing. It comprises the Quaternary, the Paleogene and Neogene periods. Geologically, the Cenozoic is the era when the continents moved into their current positions. The Alpine Orogeny, the spreading of the Mid Atlantic ridge, and the creation of the Atlantic Ocean basin occurred in the Cenozoic era. The Iceland hot spot and North Atlantic rifting helped to exhume the British Isles. In the early Palaeogene period (Caenozoic Era) between 63 and 52 Ma, the North Sea formed, and Britain was uplifted. Some of this uplift was along old lines of weakness from the Caledonian and Variscan Orogenies long before.

The post rift phase followed late Jurassic rift events during the late Mesozoic and Cenozoic thermal subsidence. As the rifting stopped, then regional subsidence occurred creating an intracratonic sedimentary basin. Subsidence occurred due to lithosphere cooling. Some of this uplift was along old lines of weakness from the Caledonian and Variscan Orogenies long before. Intraplate compression was caused when the Atlantic Ocean basin formed. the Mid-Atlantic spreading ridge has been busy separating east from west. Greenland separated from North America and the rifting altered direction during the Paleogene, which caused Northern Europe to separate from Greenland. During the Eocene period, the last land bridge across the Atlantic sank.

The Alpine Orogeny that took place about 50 Ma was responsible for the shaping of the London Basin syncline and the Weald anticline to the south. The eastern end of the London Basin merges with the basin of the North Sea, extending on land along the north Kent coast to Reculver and up the east coast of Essex and into Suffolk, where it is overlain by Pleistocene 'Crag' deposits which cover much of eastern Suffolk and Norfolk and are better considered as part of the North Sea basin.

In the Miocene and Pliocene epochs of the Neogene period, further uplift and erosion occurred, particularly in the Pennines. Plant and animal types developed into their modern forms, and by about 2 Ma the landscape would have been broadly recognisable today.