Title
The Thor suture zone: From subduction to intraplate basin setting
Author
Smit, J.
van Wees, J.D.
Cloetingh, S.
Publication year
2016
Abstract
The crustal seismic velocity structure of northwestern Europe shows a low P-wave velocity zone (LVZ) in the lower crust along the Caledonian Thor suture zone (TSZ) that cannot be easily attributed to Avalonia or Baltica plates abutting the TSZ. The LVZ appears to correspond to a hitherto unrecognized crustal segment (accretionary complex) that separates Avalonia from Baltica, explaining well the absence of Avalonia further east. Consequently, the northern boundary of Avalonia is shifted ~150 km southward. Our interpretation, based on analysis of deep seismic profiles, places the LVZ in a consistent crustal domain interpretation. A comparison with present-day examples of the Kuril and Cascadia subduction zones suggests that the LVZ separating Avalonia from Baltica is composed of remnants of the Caledonian accretionary complex. If so, the present-day geometry probably originates from pre-Variscan extension and eduction during Devonian-Carboniferous backarc extension. The reinterpretation of deep crustal zonation provides a crustal framework in which the northern limit of Avalonia corresponds to the southern limit of the deep North German Basin and the northern limit of prolific gas reservoirs and late Mesozoic inversion structures. © 2016 Geological Society of America.
Subject
Geo
PG - Petroleum Geosciences SGE - Sustainable Geo Energy
ELSS - Earth, Life and Social Sciences
Geological Survey Netherlands
Geosciences
2015 Energy
Metamorphic rocks
Seismology
Wave propagation
Accretionary complex
Back-arc extensions
Cascadia subduction zone
Gas reservoir
Inversion structures
P-wave velocity
Seismic profiles
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http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a8a7bc23-75ed-4802-8e4c-5ddb0f13950e
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1130/g37958.1
TNO identifier
572624
Publisher
Geological Society of America
ISSN
0091-7613
Source
Geology, 44 (9), 707-710
Document type
article