The structural and sedimentological evolution of early synrift successions: the Middle Jurassic Tarbert Formation, North Sea

This study addresses the complex relationship between an evolving fault population and patterns of synrift sedimentation during the earliest stages of extension. We have used 3D seismic and well data to examine the early synrift Tarbert Formation from the Middle–Late Jurassic northern North Sea rift basin. The Tarbert Formation is of variable thickness across the study area, and thickness variations define a number of 1‐ to 5‐km‐wide depocentres bounded by normal faults. Seismic reflections diverge towards the bounding faults indicating that the faults were active contemporaneous with the deposition of the formation. Many of these faults became inactive during later Heather Formation times. The preservation of the Tarbert Formation in both footwall and hangingwall locations demonstrates that, during the earliest synrift, the rate of deposition balanced the rate of tectonic subsidence. Local space generated by hangingwall subsidence was superimposed upon accommodation generated due to a regional rise in relative sea‐level. In basal Tarbert Formation times, transgression across the prerift coastal plain produced lagoons and bays, which became increasingly marine. During continued transgression, barrier islands moved landward across the drowned bays. In the southern part of our study area, shallow marine sediments are erosionally truncated by fluvial deposition. These fluvial systems were constrained by fault growth monoclines, and flowed parallel to the main faults. We illustrate that stratal architecture and facies distribution of early sedimentation is strongly influenced by the active short‐lived faults. Local depocentres adjacent to fault displacement maxima focused channel stacking and allowed the aggradation of thick shoreface successions. These depocentres formed early in the rift phase are not necessarily related to Late Jurassic – Early Cretaceous depocentres developed along the major linked normal fault systems.