A Lower Carboniferous coal-bearing succession was penetrated by two shallow cores drilled on the Finnmark Platform off the north toast of Norway, which recovered a total of 210 metres of core. The cored succession consists of a series of erosive, fining upwards fluvial channel sandstones, interbedded with siltstones and carbonaceous shales or coals. These sediments are part of a northeast-dipping seismic package located along the downthrown margin of a small fault-bounded basin which was subject to regular marine incursions. Biostratigraphic data indicate a Lower Carboniferous (Visean) age for the cored succession.