Late Cretaceous - Early Tertiary sedimentation and tectonic inversion in the southern Netherlands

Abstract

Analysis of the Upper Cretaceous stratigraphy of the Peel Block reveals the basin development of the block to have been influenced by both the inversion of the Roer Valley Graben and Central Netherlands Basin, and the overall Late Cretaceous transgression. Sediments of Santonian to Danian age were deposited on the block. These sediments are compared with the detailed lithostratigraphy of southern Limburg, where Late Cretaceous strata are exposed. Four successions can be recognised in southern Limburg. The two oldest successions, the Santonian Oploo Formation (new name, proposed in the present contribution) and the mainly Early Campanian Vaals Formation, are restricted to the central and northern parts of the block. These siliciclastic formations were deposited under the influence of inversion of the Roer Valley Graben and the Central Netherlands Basin, as well as under the influence of a rising sea level. Towards the north, sands of the Oploo Formation grade into marls and chalks of the Ommelanden Formation. The two youngest successions comprise the largely Late Campanian to Maastrichtian Gulpen and Maastricht Formations and the Danian Houthem Formation. These chalk formations were deposited under the influence of regional subsidence during a sea-level highstand. Subsequent to deposition of the Houthem Formation, a regional regression triggered a change from shallow-marine carbonate to paralic siliciclastic deposition.