Pre-Cretaceous structural development of the Danish Central Trough and its implications for the distribution of Jurassic sands

Abstract

The structural development of the Danish Central Trough has been studied to determine the age of graben development and to reconstruct the paleogeographic distribution of Jurassic sands. The Late Hercynian compression seems to have influenced the area. The presence of Rotliegende volcanics may be related to transitional movements along a right lateral, NW-SE strike-slip fault system. The Zechstein, Triassic and Early Jurassic times are regarded as stable tectonic periods during which the Central Trough area may have acted as an inter-basinal barrier. Graben development started along the Coffee Soil Fault in the Middle Jurassic; subdivision into the smaller half grabens took place in the Late Jurassic. Fluvio-deltaic, Middle Jurassic sands were deposited along the Coffee Soil Fault, indicating a transgression from the north. Oxfordian to early Kimmeridgian, lower delta plain to offshore marine sands were deposited in the area of the later Heno Plateau, Feda and Gertrud Grabens, indicating a progressive westward transgression from the eastern region of the trough.