Abstract
Lower Miocene strata from boreholes and, in particular, at outcrops in the Lillebælt and Limfjorden areas of Jylland provide a natural laboratory for studying the drowning of a major delta system during a period of global warming. Detailed studies of sedimentary structures, fossil algae, spores and pollen give information about depositional environments, local temperatures and precipitation. By comparing with the global climatic record from the same period, a detailed reconstruction of the flooding of a low-relief delta system can be made, with emphasis on the global warming after the glacial event Mi1a. The local temperature increase following the Mi1a event is estimated to be c. 5°C.
Highlights
Lower Miocene strata from boreholes and, in particular, at outcrops in the Lillebælt and Limfjorden areas of Jylland provide a natural laboratory for studying the drowning of a major delta system during a period of global warming
During the Early Miocene, a delta system prograded into the eastern part of the North Sea (Fig. 1), with a sediment source in present-day Norway and central Sweden
For more than 100 million years, the eastern North Sea was a relatively deep basin, but due to tectonism associated with the Alpine Orogeny and the opening of the North Atlantic both the hinterland and the marginal areas of the basin were uplifted during the latest Oligocene – Early Miocene (e.g. Knox et al 2010)
Summary
Lower Miocene strata from boreholes and, in particular, at outcrops in the Lillebælt and Limfjorden areas of Jylland provide a natural laboratory for studying the drowning of a major delta system during a period of global warming. During the Early Miocene, a delta system prograded into the eastern part of the North Sea (Fig. 1), with a sediment source in present-day Norway and central Sweden. Intense wave action on the main delta system shed sand towards the east, resulting in the formation of spit and barrier systems in eastern Jylland (Fig. 1B); lagoons and tidal flats developed north of these systems.
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