Evolution of the Lower Saxony Basin

Abstract

The Lower Saxony Basin is a 300 km long and 65 km wide Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous trough which parallels the northern margin of the Rhenish Massif. This basin became inverted during the Senonian and Paleocene. The Lower Saxony Basin is the most important oil province of Germany. Past production amounts to 200 × 106 t of oil (1.5 × 109 bbl).The Lower Saxony Basin is superimposed on the Late Carboniferous Variscan foredeep basin and the frontal structures of the Variscan fold belt. During the Permian to Middle Jurassic the area formed part of the Northwest European Basin. Differential subsidence of the Lower Saxony Basin was initiated during the Late Jurassic and persisted till Albian time. This involved reactivation of Permo-Carboniferous fracture systems by divergent wrenching. A major Aptian, deep-seated laccolith is evident in the western part of the Lower Saxony Basin. During the Senonian and Paleocene sinistral convergent wrenching induced uplift of the basin floor and folding of its sedimentary fill. The margins of the inverted Lower Saxony Basin are thrust over the adjacent stable platform areas.The differential subsidence of the Lower Saxony Basin can be related to a period of major crustal extension in the North Sea Rift. Basin inversion coincides with important orogenic events in the Alpine system and is thought to have been induced by intra-plate compressional stresses.