Basin evolution in the Rockall region, North Atlantic

The continental shelf west of Ireland contains a number of large and relatively unexplored sedimentary basins. Most of these lie in deep waters and underlie bathymetric troughs (Fig. I). The Rockall Trough and the Hatton Basin (the Hatton-Rockall Basin of previous workers, e.g. Naylor and Shannon 1982) have an elongate orientation oblique to the Porcupine Basin and parallel to the narrow Slyne-Erris-Donegal basin complex (Fig. I). The Rockall Trough lies along strike from the Faeroe-Shetland basins which contain a number of recent significant oil discoveries, and its southern margin coincides with the eastern part of the Charlie Gibbs Fracture Zone. The Hatton Basin is separated from the Rockall Trough by the Rockall Bank while the Hatton Bank separates it from the Hatton Continental Margin, adjacent to the continental/ oceanic boundary (Fig. 1).