Saucer-Shaped Sandstone Intrusions: Facts, Inferences and Unknowns (original) (raw)

Agu Fall Meeting Abstracts, 2007

Abstract

ABSTRACT Saucer-shaped and conical sandstone intrusions occur in abundance within Paleogene claystones of the North Sea Basin and within Paleogene-Neogene claystones of the Faroe-Shetland and More Basins along the NW European Atlantic Margin. The dimensions of individual saucers range from 50-300m height, 0.5-2 km width, and 0.5-4 km length, with sandstone volumes up to some 0.5 cubic kilometres. Clusters of saucers may contain composite intruded volumes up to several cubic kilometres and may form significant reservoir bodies for hydrocarbon accumulations. Conical sandstone intrusions have similar dimensions, though their width, length and volumes are limited by their downward tapering geometry with a central pointy apex, lacking a horizontal segment in the centre. Whilst their occurrence, dimensions and significance within their known host basins are no longer in doubt, virtually all the parameters relating to their genesis are poorly constrained and either inferred or declared unknown in the existing literature. These include: source of the intruded sand, timing of intrusion (both duration and age), depth of emplacement, triggering mechanism(s), relation with underlying structures and/or structures within and the rheology of the host claystones, etc. It is also largely unknown whether intrusions occurred largely synchronously or during a multitude of events within their host basins. Without a rigorous analysis of which parameters are known and which are inferred or essentially unknown, any analysis of the origin of sandstone intrusions remains speculation and may be highly misleading. This paper presents examples and highlights the facts, inferences and unknowns for each of the case studies drawn from the northern North Sea and the Faroe-Shetland Basin and summarises the implications of these uncertainties for the analysis of the origin of the intrusions.

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