Magnetostratigraphic calibration of early Eocene depositional sequences in the southern North Sea Basin

Abstract

Abstract We present the results of a comprehensive magnetostratigraphic study of early Eocene (Ypresian) sedimentary sequences in the London Basin, Belgium, and the Varengeville outlier of northern France. A re-investigation of part of the lower Eocene section at Whitecliff Bay (Isle of Wight), in the Hampshire Basin, has also been carried out. The palaeomagnetic results from each area are used to refine existing litho- and biostratigraphic correlations. The magnetostratigraphy of the sedimentary sequence in each area is linked to the geomagnetic polarity time-scale using biostratigraphic data from calcareous nannoplankton and dinoflagellates. The Ypresian deposits were laid down during the interval spanning geomagnetic Chrons C24BR to C22R. In the Hampshire Basin, deposition of Lutetian (middle Eocene) sediments extended into Chron C21R, but the apparent absence of a record of Chron C22N suggests an unconformity separating the lower and middle Eocene of between 0.6 and 2.0 Ma in duration, at the basin margin. In this paper, recently acquired Ypresian stratigraphic data are integrated with previously published data, and a high-resolution ‘even-stratigraphy’ is developed for the Ypresian deposits of the southern margin of the North Sea Basin. A total of ten depositional sequences (‘cycles’), probably reflecting eustatic sea-level changes, are calibrated against this framework. An attempt is made to match these sequences, which represent a combination of third and fourth order cycles in the Exxon Model, with published sea-level cycle charts for the Early Eocene.