Journal of the Geological Society, London, Vol. 154, 1997, pp. 209–223, 10 figs, 2 tables. Printed in Great Britain The Woolhope and Usk Basins: Silurian rift basins revealed by subsurface mapping of the southern Welsh Borderland A. J. BUTLER1, N. H. WOODCOCK1 & D. M. STEWART2 1Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK (e-mail:
[email protected]) 2Sovereign Exploration Limited, 60 Grays Inn Road, London WC1X 8AQ, UK Abstract: Subsurface mapping of the southern Welsh Borderland has utilized over 600 km of seismic data and three exploration boreholes to investigate the subsurface of this classic geological area. The survey reveals two Silurian basins, each about 400 km2 in area, in the western part of the Midland Platform. The Woolhope Basin underlies the Silurian inlier of the Woolhope Anticline. The basin fill is bounded to the northwest by faults of the Neath Disturbance, and was also influenced by WNW-striking extensional growth faults. The fill thins eastward towards the Malvern Line. Lower Silurian sequences thin southward before thickening again, particularly across WNW-striking faults. The resulting Usk Basin, underlying the Usk Inlier, has ill-defined margins, but some additional N–S fault control. The Fownhope-1 and Usk-1 wells indicate that rapid subsidence occurred in both basins during Rhuddanian and Aeronian (Early to Mid-Llandovery) time. Modelling of this subsidence, assuming the finite duration lithospheric extension model, yields stretching factors of between 1.3 and 1.6. The later part of the fill to both basins is marine, but red conglomerates, sandstones and mudstones in their Early Llandovery intervals suggest continental fluvial environments in the initial stages of basin development.