The Extension of the Tornquist Zone in the Norwegian North Sea
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The extension of the Tornquist Zone in the Norwegian North Sea RICHARD MICHAEL PEGRUM Pegrum, R. M.: The extension of the Tornquist Zone in the Norwegian North Sea. Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift, Vol. 64, pp. 39-68. Oslo 1984. ISSN 0029-196X. The Tornquist Zone is a fundamental structural lineation representing the southwestern margin of the East European/Fennoscandian Precambrian basement platform. It is characterised by complex, often rejuvenated, dip-slip and strike-slip faulting and frequently by tectonic inversion. The zone extends across Poland, beneath the southern Baltic into Skåne and northem Denmark. Evidence obtained from offshore oil and gas exploration suggests that the Tornquist Zone extends beneath the southern Norwegian North Sea at least as far as the line of the Viking Graben, some 500 km beyond its commonly assumed termination at the line of the Oslo Graben. R. M. Pegrum, Exploration Advisor, Statoil, Postboks 300, N-4001 Stavanger, Norway. The term 'Tomquist Line' is now deeply en km. Superficially the Tornquist Zone is marked trenched in the literature as being synonymous by the tectonically inverted Polish Trough and with the southwestem border of the East Euro fundamentally by the contact between 'old' Pre pean Platform. However, as pointed out by Nor cambrian basement rocks of the East European ling (1981), if strict priority were to be applied in Platform and 'young' Precambrian basement the designation of geological features, 'Tom rocks lying to the southwest (Pozaryski 1977, quist' would be among the names to be invalidat Pozaryski & Brochwicz-Lewinski 1978). The ed. The term 'Zone' has been used in the present East European Platform is an ancient and com paper, as the edge of the Fennoscandian - East plex geological entity comprising ovoid Ar European Platform is marked by a linear belt of chaean (older than 2500 Ma) complexes of gran structural complexity varying in width from 20 ites, gneisses and metamorphic rocks, welded km to almost 150 km, for which 'line' is consid together by a network of early Proterozoic (older ered to be inappropriate (Fig. 1). Salient struc than 1600 Ma) tectonic beits (Watson 1976). Lo turallstratigraphic features associated with the cally the basement was strongly effected by the Tomquist Zone are reviewed, for convenience, Gothian orogenic phase (older than 1200 Ma). under four subheadings, namely the Polish, Bal The younger basement lying southwest of the tie, Danish and Norwegian Sectors. The persis Tornquist Zone was consolidated in the later tence of the Tornquist Zone through the first Proterozoic Dalslandian (Grenvillian, 1200-850 three areas is widely accepted. Its extension Ma) phase or in the early Baikalian (850-650 Ma) northwestwards across the Norwegian North Sea phase. In Poland the contact between the two is based in part upon new, and in part upon differing basement types is clearly marked by a recently published data. In the final section of zone of magnetic anomalies. The line of contact this paper the origin and development of the is apparently sinuous, being controlled by alter TornquistLine and its possible extension beyond nating NW and WNW trending segments (Fig. 2). the Viking Graben are briefly discussed. The basement rocks in Poland are buried beneath a variably thick sedimentary cover and are known only from deep boreholes (Sokolowski 1970). Boreholes drilled in northern Poland, north east of the Tornquist Zone, have established that The Polish Sector the Precambrian basement is overlain by a rela The Tornquist zone can be traced across Poland tively thin sequence of Lower Palaeozoic shales from the Baltic coast of Pomerania in the north and carbonates in a typical platform facies. The west to where it plunges beneath the Carpathian sediments are flatlying and undisturbed. Further foredeep in the southeast, a distance of some 800 to the west, within the Tornquist Zone (Pomorze 40 R. M. Pegrum NORSK GEOLOGISK TIDSSKRIFf l (1984) Fig. l. The structural framework of the Tornquist Zone in Europe. Diagonal cross symbol: Precambrian basement at or near ' surface. Vertical cross symbol: Precambrian basement beneath platform cover of Palaeozoic and/or Mesozoic. Close vertical line: Caledonian metamorphic orogen. Wide vertical line: Caledonian folded Lower Palaeozoic sediments. Dark stipple: Alpine-Carpathian orogen. Medium stipple: Carboniferous Variscan foreland sediments. Light stipple: Variscan massifs at surface. region), several wells have penetrated Silurian land. Immediately to the south, flat-lying Devon and Ordovician shales and siltstones of basinal ian and Carboniferous rocks have been encoun aspect. The sediments are not significantly meta tered. On the basis of the borehole evidence morphosed but are tectonically disturbed, dip several authors, following Buch et al. (1974) and ping at angles of 5° to 80°. Even further west, Glushko et al. (1975), have postulated a continu drilling on the northern peninsula of Riigen Is ous zone of Caledonian deformation, fringing the land, lying off the Baltic coast of the GDR, has East European Platform, extending from the proved the existence of steeply dipping (20°-70°) Baltic to the southwestern Ukraine, a distance of sequences of basinal Ordovician sediments, with some 900 km. Additional deep drilling in Poland thicknesses in excess of 3000 m, beneath flat has shown, however, that the Riigen-Pomorze lying Permo-Triassic rocks. The Ordovician sedi Lower Palaeozoic basin is separated from a ments are well compacted, quartz veined, some southern Lower Palaeozoic basin, in the vicinity times brecciated and have abundant slickensides. of the Holy Cross Mountains, by areas in which Metamorphism is, however, only incipient and the Permian is underlain by more or less flat the shales have a sparse but well preserved grap lying Silurian sediments (Pozaryski & Brochwicz tolite fauna. Late Ordovician and Silurian sedi Lewinski 1978). Furthermore the southern ba ments are apparently absent beneath Riigen is- sin, containing sediments ranging in age from NORSK GEOLOGISK TIDSSKRIIT l (1984) The Tornquist zone in the North Sea 41 ++++-t++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++ . Gothian Basement + [J(2000-1200 Ma) Folded Cambro-Silurian Trough Early Baikalian Basement (850-650 Ma) VARISCAN Folded Variscan Troughs INTERNIDES Southwest boundary of ;:::::::::===:. Gothian basement based o km 100 --=-- on magnetic data CARPATHIANS Fig. 2. The structural framework of the Tornquist Zone in Poland (after Pozaryski & Brochwicz-Lewinski 1978). Cambrian to Carboniferous, was folded primar beneath the Carpathian orogen and does not ily during the Variscan orogenic phase. Broch impinge upon the East European Platform (1 & wicz-Lewinski et al. (1981) suggest that the con 2). The Variscan foredeep of northwestern Eu tact between the thick, folded Lower Palaeozoic rope does not extend across Poland in front of sequences of the Riigen-Pomorze region and the the Sudetan Massif, but dies out towards the thin platform sequences is a tectonic one, the east. Northwards Carboniferous sediments are juxtaposition resulting from major strike-slip limited by the Ringkobing - Fyn - Rugen high. faulting along the Tornquist Zone in the early Folded Carboniferous sediments extend across Devonian. the Tornquist Zone into the Podlasie Graben Devonian sediments of Emsian and younger and in the vicinity of the Holy Cross Mountains. age are found on either side of the Tornquist They may have originally linked eastward$ with Zone in north Poland in similar facies, and also the Pripat - Dnieper - Donbass Graben system extend far to the east across the East European of southwestern U.S.S.R. Platform. Carboniferous sediments have a limit From the Late Permian to the end of the ed distribution northeast of the Tornquist Zone Mesozoic the Tornquist Zone was primarily one but they may have suffered widespread erosion of active subsidence, leading to the development following elevation of the Platform during and of the Polish Trough (Pozaryski 1977, Pozaryski after the Variscan orogenic phase. The present & Brochwicz-Lewinski 1978). The zone of subsi expression of the Tornquist Zone owes much to dence was segmented by cross-trending faults its reactivation and modification during Variscan which probably were established during the Var orogenesis and fault deformation which extended iscan phase. A northern (Pomeranian), central into the early Permian. The importance of late (Kujawy) and southern (Holy Cross) sector can Variscan movement in triggering subsidence be distinguished. along the edge of the East European Platform Subsidence was greatest in the Kujawy sector has been discussed in several publications (Nor with original depositional thicknesses exceeding ting & Skoglund 1977, Noldeke & Schwab 1977, 10 km. Pozaryski & Brochwicz-Lewinski (1978) Schwab et al. 1979, Pozaryski 1977, Ziegler distinguish two major phases of subsidence, a 1981). 'Graben stage' lasting from the late-Permian to The Variscan orogen is exposed at the surface the early-Cretaceous and a 'Downwarp Stage' in the Sudetic Mountains of southern Poland, but which persisted until the end of the Cretaceous, swings southward in the subsurface to plunge when it was terminated by Laramide inversion. 42 R. M. Pegrum NORSK GEOLOGISK TIDSSKRIFT l (1984) EAST EUROPEAN PLATFORM = Southwestern margin of East European Platfonn. __,._ Approximate boundary of Mesozoic marginal depression. 7J77 Zone of positive inversion. Marginal inversion troughs. Pre - Mesozoic