f Tectonic Framework of the British/Irish Continental Shelf from New Gravity and Aeromagnetic Compilations

The British Geological Survey, in collaboration with other data holders, has recently completed major new compilations of regional gravity and aeromagnetic data covering most of Britain, Ireland and the surrounding continental shelf. The gravity compilation includes over 300,000 line-km of marine data and over 150,000 land gravity observations. The magnetic compilation incorporates 400,000 line-km of aeromagnetic data which have been reprocessed to a consistent reference field. Colour shaded-relief maps at a scale of 1:1,500,000 have been produced for publication in 1995. These, together with other filtered image maps, provide a new insight into the tectonic framework of the British Isles and Ireland, and in particular into the relationship between the development of the major hydrocarbon-hearing sedimentary basins and the underlying tectonic fabric.