Controls on and Consequences of Rift Transection

The East Shetland Basin of the Northern North Sea is the perfect natural laboratory in which to study the effects of multiple phase rift transection and interaction since it has undergone at least two major (Permo-Triassic and Upper Jurassic) rifting events. The superimposition of, and interaction between, the two rift phases strongly relates to the strike and dip (polarity) of normal faults accompanied with the linkage and cross cutting of faults through geological time. The talk will demonstrate the spectrum of structural geometries that result and their impact upon prospectivity. The results allow the definition of four main structural domains, each of which is related to the interaction of the two rift rifting events