Abstract
The southern North Sea presents spectacular examples of basin inversion, which have been documented by numerous projects of the oil industry. Some basic inversion patterns identified through wells and seismic data were used to prepare a laboratory modeling investigation. Models are built with sand and silicone putty, respectively, which represent the frictional behavior of Mesozoic cover and Paleozoic basement and the viscous behavior of the decollement layer, mainly Permian salt, between them. They are scaled to fit natural configurations observed in the Broad Fourteens basin. All experiments are done in two steps: (1) graben formation with synkinematic sedimentation and (2) compression oblique to the graben. The experiments show that structures generated by or reactivated during inversion are strongly dependent on the strength of the decollement layer at the base of the sedimentary cover, which is itself dependent on the silicone viscosity, the layer thickness, and the displacement velocity applied at model boundaries; and the strength of the sedimentary cover, which is solely dependent on its thickness. This work is in progress. Preliminary results will be compared with examples from the Broad Fourteens basin on the basis of both seismic data and structural maps.
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