Abstract
Uniform lithospheric stretching cannot explain three important aspects of North Sea basin evolution: namely (1) the rapid growth of Middle Jurassic uplands from which were liberated major fluvial-deltaic clastic wedges now forming the main hydrocarbon reservoirs; (2) the occurrence of basin centre upwarp and basaltic volcanism; and (3), widespread and significant (∼1 km) subsidence outside the area of demonstrable crustal thinning. I present here the suggestion that a combination of nonuniform stretching and lithospheric flexuring accounts for these ‘fine-tuning’ effects of the uniform stretching model with magnitudes close to those demanded by independent geological evidence.
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Leeder, M. Lithospheric stretching and North Sea Jurassic clastic sourcelands. Nature 305, 510–514 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1038/305510a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/305510a0
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