Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin 1, 948 pp. GEOLOGIC AL SURVEY OF DENMARK AND GREENLAND BULLETIN 1 • 2003 The Jurassic of Denmark and Greenland Edited by Jon R. Ineson and Finn Surlyk GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF DENMARK AND GREENLAND MINISTRY OF THE ENVIRONMENT Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin 1 Keywords Northwest Europe, Denmark, Greenland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Jurassic, chronostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, lithostratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy, structural history, basin evolution, sedimentology, palynostratigraphy, geochemistry, coal petrography/palynology Cover Palaeogeography of the Mesozoic rift system in the North Atlantic region in the Middle Jurassic (c. 160–180 Ma), viewed towards the north. Reconstruction by Stefan Sølberg, based on the palaeogeographic maps of Ziegler (1990) and Doré (1992). For references, see Surlyk (2003, this volume). Chief editor of this series: Peter R. Dawes Scientific editors: Jon R. Ineson and Finn Surlyk Copy editors: Jon R. Ineson and Birgit Eriksen Editorial secretary: Birgit Eriksen Critical readers: see list on page 6 Illustrations (GEUS): Stefan Sølberg, Gurli E. Hansen Bengaard, Jette Halskov, Eva Melskens, Helle Zetterwall Photographic work (GEUS): Jacob Lautrup, Benny M. Schark, Peter K. Warna-Moors Lay-out and graphic production: Carsten E. Thuesen Printers: Schultz Grafisk, Albertslund, Denmark Manuscripts submission/acceptance dates: see individual articles Printed: 28th October 2003 ISBN 87-7871-116-9 Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin The series Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin replaces Geology of Denmark Survey Bulletin and Geology of Greenland Survey Bulletin. Citation of the name of this series It is recommended that the name of this series is cited in full, viz. Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin. If abbreviation of this volume is necessary the following form is suggested: Geol. Surv. Den. Green. Bull. 1, 948 pp. Available from Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) Øster Voldgade 10, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark Phone: +45 38 14 20 00, fax: +45 38 14 20 50, e-mail: geus@geus.dk or Geografforlaget ApS Fruerhøjvej 43, DK-5464 Brenderup, Denmark Phone: +45 63 44 16 83, fax: +45 63 44 16 97, e-mail: go@geografforlaget.dk  Danmarks og Grønlands Geologiske Undersøgelse (GEUS), 2003 5 6 7 9 23 61 75 115 147 217 233 247 265 301 349 367 403 Contents Dedication Referees Preface The Jurassic of Denmark and Greenland: key elements in the reconstruction of the North Atlantic Jurassic rift system F. Surlyk and J.R. Ineson Stratigraphy The Lower Jurassic of Europe: its subdivision and correlation K.N. Page The Middle Jurassic of western and northern Europe: its subdivisions, geochronology and correlations J.H. Callomon The Upper Jurassic of Europe: its subdivision and correlation A. Zeiss The Jurassic dinoflagellate cyst zonation of Subboreal Northwest Europe N.E. Poulsen and J.B. Riding Denmark, southern Sweden and the Netherlands Jurassic lithostratigraphy and stratigraphic development onshore and offshore Denmark O. Michelsen, L.H. Nielsen, P.N. Johannessen, J. Andsbjerg and F. Surlyk The Jurassic of the Netherlands G.F.W. Herngreen, W.F.P. Kouwe and Th.E. Wong Danish Central Graben Upper Jurassic – Lower Cretaceous of the Danish Central Graben: structural framework and nomenclature P. Japsen, P. Britze and C. Andersen Middle Jurassic – Early Cretaceous rifting of the Danish Central Graben J.J. Møller and E.S. Rasmussen Sequence stratigraphy of the Jurassic of the Danish Central Graben J. Andsbjerg and K. Dybkjær Sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy of the Bryne and Lulu Formations, Middle Jurassic, northern Danish Central Graben J. Andsbjerg The use of spectral natural gamma-ray analysis in reservoir evaluation of siliciclastic sediments: a case study from the Middle Jurassic of the Harald Field, Danish Central Graben I.L. Fabricius, L. Dahlerup Fazladic, A. Steinholm and U. Korsbech Sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy of paralic and shallow marine Upper Jurassic sandstones in the northern Danish Central Graben P.N. Johannessen Volgian–Ryazanian ‘hot shales’ of the Bo Member (Farsund Formation) in the Danish Central Graben, North Sea: stratigraphy, facies and geochemistry J.R. Ineson, J.A. Bojesen-Koefoed, K. Dybkjær and L.H. Nielsen 3 439 459 527 543 555 585 611 631 659 723 777 813 865 893 931 Danish Basin and Fennoscandian Border Zone Triassic and Jurassic transtension along part of the Sorgenfrei–Tornquist Zone in the Danish Kattegat T.E. Mogensen and J.A. Korstgård Late Triassic – Jurassic development of the Danish Basin and the Fennoscandian Border Zone, southern Scandinavia L.H. Nielsen The Jurassic of Skåne, southern Sweden A. Ahlberg, U. Sivhed and M. Erlström An offshore transgressive–regressive mudstone-dominated succession from the Sinemurian of Skåne, Sweden N. Frandsen and F. Surlyk Lower Jurassic (Pliensbachian) ammonites from Bornholm, Baltic Sea, Denmark D.T. Donovan and F. Surlyk The Lower–Middle Jurassic of the Anholt borehole: implications for the geological evolution of the eastern margin of the Danish Basin O.B. Nielsen, M.-S. Seidenkrantz, N. Abrahamsen, B.J. Schmidt, E.B. Koppelhus, H. Ravn-Sørensen, U. Korsbech and K.G. Nielsen Burial depth and post-Early Cretaceous uplift of Lower–Middle Jurassic strata in the Fennoscandian Border Zone based on organic maturity H.I. Petersen, L.H. Nielsen, T. Bidstrup and E. Thomsen Early and Middle Jurassic mires of Bornholm and the Fennoscandian Border Zone: a comparison of depositional environments and vegetation H.I. Petersen, L.H. Nielsen, E.B. Koppelhus and H.S. Sørensen East Greenland The Jurassic of East Greenland: a sedimentary record of thermal subsidence, onset and culmination of rifting F. Surlyk Palynostratigraphy and palaeoenvironments of the Rævekløft, Gule Horn and Ostreaelv Formations (Lower–Middle Jurassic), Neill Klinter Group, Jameson Land, East Greenland E.B. Koppelhus and G. Dam Palynostratigraphy and palaeoenvironment of the Middle Jurassic Sortehat Formation (Neill Klinter Group), Jameson Land, East Greenland E.B. Koppelhus and C.F. Hansen Shallow marine syn-rift sedimentation: Middle Jurassic Pelion Formation, Jameson Land, East Greenland M. Engkilde and F. Surlyk The Jurassic of Kuhn Ø, North-East Greenland P.C. Alsgaard, V.L. Felt, H. Vosgerau and F. Surlyk Stratigraphy and sedimentology of a basement-onlapping shallow marine sandstone succession, the Charcot Bugt Formation, Middle–Upper Jurassic, East Greenland M. Larsen, S. Piasecki and F. Surlyk Shelf-edge delta and slope deposition in the Upper Callovian – Middle Oxfordian Olympen Formation, East Greenland M. Larsen and F. Surlyk 4 5 This book is dedicated to the memory of Ole Winther Christensen (1951–1998), Director of the Geological Survey of Denmark (DGU) from 1990 to 1995 and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) from 1995 to 1998. From its conception in the early 1990s, the ‘Jurassic book’ has benefited from the progressive integration of Danish geological institutions. This began in 1995 with the amalgamation of DGU with the Geological Survey of Greenland (GGU) to form GEUS and culminated in 2002 with the open- ing of the Geocenter Copenhagen, a conglomeration of GEUS, the Danish Lithosphere Centre (DLC), the Geological Museum and the Geological and Geographical Institutes of the University of Copenhagen. Ole Winther Christensen played a key role in both these positive developments in Danish geology. Sadly, he was not to experience the full realisation of the Geocenter Copenhagen concept due to his untimely death in 1998. Dedication 6 J. Alexander, University of East Anglia, UK J. Andsbjerg, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Denmark D.J. Batten, University of Wales, UK D.G. Benson, Texas, USA J.H. Callomon, University College London, UK J. Cartwright, Cardiff University, UK B.M. Cox, British Geological Survey, UK R.J. Davey, Simon Petroleum Technology Ltd, UK R.J. Davies, Mobil North Sea Ltd, UK G. Dietl, Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Germany D.T. Donovan, University College London, UK T. Dreyer, Norsk Hydro Research Centre, Norway K. Dybkjær, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Denmark C.J. Fielding, University of Queensland, Australia M.J. Fisher, Helensburgh, UK J. Gjelberg, Norsk Hydro Research Centre, Norway M.B. Gowers, DONG Norge AS, Norway F. Gramann, Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Bodenforschung, Germany D. Guy-Ohlsen, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Sweden A. Hallam, Birmingham University, UK S.D. Harker, Totalfinaelf Exploration, UK G.F.W. Herngreen, TNO-NITG, The Netherlands S.P. Hesselbo, University of Oxford, UK S. Holloway, British Geological Survey, UK A. Hurst, University of Aberdeen, UK L.N. Jensen, Statoil Norge AS, Norway J.A. Korstgård, University of Aarhus, Denmark D.A. Leckie, Geological Survey of Canada, Canada H.B. Lindgreen, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Denmark C. Mangold, Université Claude Bernard Lyon I, France J.E.A. Marshall, University of Southampton, UK L.H. Nielsen, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Denmark A. Nøttvedt, Norsk Hydro Canada, Canada S. Olaussen, Norsk Agip AS, Norway T. Olsen, Statoil Norge AS, Norway K.N. Page, University of Plymouth, UK N. Parkinson, Western Atlas Logging Services, UK G.K. Pedersen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark R.M. Pegrum, Statoil Norge AS, Norway S. Piasecki, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Denmark K.T. Pickering, University College London, UK D. Pirrie, University of Exeter, UK A.G. Plint, University of Western Ontario, Canada J.B. Riding, British Geological Survey, UK A. Ryseth, Norsk Hydro Research Centre, Norway B.W. Sellwood, Reading University, UK R.J. Steel, University of Wyoming, USA G.M. Sykes, Helix RDS Ltd, UK N.H. Trewin, University of Aberdeen, UK R.V. Tyson, University of Newcastle, UK G. Warrington, British Geological Survey, UK O.V. Vejbæk, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Denmark A.G. Whitham, CASP, UK A. Wierzbowski, Warsaw University, Poland P.B. Wignall, Leeds University, UK Referees The editors are indebted to the following referees, whose conscientious and incisive reviews have been invalu- able in the production of this book – your efforts are greatly appreciated. The Jurassic sedimentary successions of Denmark and East Greenland accumulated on opposite sides of a complex rifted seaway between present-day Greenland and Northwest Europe. The Mesozoic–Cenozoic sedi- mentary basins created along this seaway are of major importance both scientifically, as they preserve a record of the early evolution of the North Atlantic region, and economically as one of the rift arms contains the North Sea petroleum province. The Jurassic System, in par- ticular, has been the focus of intensive study in Northwest Europe and Greenland. Not only has this system, since the days of William Smith, been at the forefront of strati- graphic research but it also forms a critical component of the North Sea hydrocarbon province, yielding both the most important source rocks and a wide range of sandstone reservoirs. Although the stratigraphic development of the Jurassic in Denmark and East Greenland can be compared at a number of levels, the nature of the occurrences in the two regions is very different. The Jurassic of East Greenland is one of the world’s best-exposed ancient rift basins and is widely regarded as a classic ‘field lab- oratory’. The Jurassic strata are exposed in spectacular cliff sections that provide unique opportunities for detailed research into process sedimentology, genetic stratigraphy and 3D sedimentary architecture. The Danish Jurassic strata, in contrast, have limited outcrop but are well known from the subsurface, both on land and beneath the waters of the North Sea. The papers col- lected in this volume reflect this contrast – the strati- graphic evolution of East Greenland has been deciphered primarily on the basis of detailed outcrop geological stud- ies whereas the corresponding stratigraphic analyses of the Danish Basin and the Danish sector of the Central Graben are largely dependent on ‘remote’ subsurface data. Jurassic stratigraphic research in Denmark over the last two decades has benefited immensely from the interaction between these two contrasting yet comple- mentary approaches. The origins of this book go back to the early 1990s when the idea was mooted for a book on the ‘Jurassic of Denmark and adjacent areas’, initially with a view to publication of the main results of Ph.D. studies that were underway at the Geological Survey of Denmark (DGU) at that time. In 1995, with the amalgamation of DGU with the Geological Survey of Greenland (GGU) to form the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), the conceptual framework of the book expanded to include the Jurassic of East Greenland, a research area that was under sharp focus both at GGU and at the University of Copenhagen. As the editing of the book entered the final phase, the Geological Survey relocated to the new Geocenter Copenhagen – a cen- tralised amalgam of the Survey (including the Danish Lithosphere Centre) and the Geological and Geo- graphical Institutes and the Geological Museum of the University of Copenhagen. From conception to publi- cation, therefore, the book charts the changing struc- ture of some of the central geological research bodies in Denmark, and its completion coincided with the inception of a new integrated natural science research centre. The central aim of the book is to present the results of an intense period of research activity in Denmark on the Jurassic System over the last fifteen years – and, where relevant, to present these results at a compre- hensive level that is almost impossible in modern scientific journals. Although covering a range of subjects, the com- mon thread that runs through the book is the detailed documentation of the history of the Jurassic rift system as recorded in the sedimentary basins of Greenland and Denmark. Particular areas of focus include: (1) the sed- imentary and stratigraphic signatures of syn-rift succes- sions, whether revealed by detailed outcrop study or on the basis of integrated reflection seismic, petrophysical and core data; and (2) testing and application of sequence stratigraphic models and concepts at a variety of scales and in different structural settings. Although focussing on broad geoscientific topics of general relevance, the book also provides data of spe- cific value to the hydrocarbon industry. The Danish Basin and, in particular, the Danish Central Graben are prospective basins with exploration histories stretching back nearly fifty years. A number of Jurassic fields are under development and production in the Danish Central Graben, and exploration interest remains high. The structural, sedimentological and stratigraphic papers in this volume thus represent a direct source of essential data for the hydrocarbon industry. The onshore East Greenland basins, in contrast, are not prospective per 7 Preface se, yet the detailed sedimentological and stratigraphic analyses included here will be of particular interest to petroleum geologists both as direct stratigraphic ana- logues of the succession on the conjugate margin (mid- Norway shelf) and as reservoir analogues or case studies applicable particularly to the North Sea region but also valid elsewhere. Introductory chronostratigraphic reviews of the Lower, Middle and Upper Jurassic were planned from the out- set, and contributions were solicited from three inter- national authorities in this field, together with a paper on the Jurassic of southern Sweden. Furthermore, a review of the Jurassic of the Netherlands was invited from the Geological Survey of the Netherlands (RGD) for comparative purposes, building on previous close stratigraphic co-operation between DGU and RGD in the late 1980s. The aim has been to produce a book that is as bal- anced and consistent as possible, in terms of content, terminology and appearance. Given the range of sub- jects covered, however, a certain degree of hetero- geneity is inevitable and full consistency in terminology cannot be achieved. The Gradstein et al. (1994) time- scale is used in most cases but the Haq et al. (1988) and Harland et al. (1990) time-scales are employed by some authors; in all cases, the origin of the time-scale used is clearly indicated. Several forms of chrono- stratigraphic terminology are in common use, all being inherently logical and fully acceptable; particularly prevalent are the ‘Standard Zone’ nomenclature (Callomon & Donovan 1974) and the ‘chronozone’ ter- minology, as laid down in the International Stratigraphic Guide (Salvador 1994). Editorial flexibility has been exercised here, although consistency within individual articles was required. To enhance uniformity, a com- mon graphical style has been imposed wherever pos- sible; detailed sedimentary logs are somewhat variable, however, being dictated by different individual styles and demands. In an enterprise of this type, undertaken over a num- ber of years, there are clearly many people both in Denmark and abroad who have helped us towards publication. The research projects that formed the ini- tial stimulus behind the book were supported both by state funding – the Danish Energy Agency (Energy Research Program, EFP), the Danish Natural Science Research Council (SNF), the Danish Research Academy and the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) – and by the private sector, including Amerada Hess, Amoco, British Petroleum, the Carlsberg Foundation, Conoco, Mærsk Olie og Gas, Norsk Hydro, Saga Petroleum and Statoil. The long-term support of Danish geological research by these funding bodies and companies is gratefully acknowledged. We are also indebted to a long list of international referees; their contribution is acknowledged elsewhere but their importance in upholding the international standard of the papers bears repetition. During the scientific and technical editing phase, we have leaned heavily on three key person- nel: Hanne B. Sørensen, who converted editorial hiero- glyphics into ordered manuscripts; Birgit Eriksen, who meticulously checked final manuscripts and proof copies; and Stefan Sølberg whose skilled graphical imprint is engraved on almost every illustration in the book. On editorial matters, we have also benefited greatly from close co-operation with Peter R. Dawes and Esben W. Glendal in the editorial office at GEUS. In the latter stages we have been increasingly reliant on the pro- fessional layout work by Carsten E. Thuesen. To all the above, we offer our heartfelt thanks. Jon R. Ineson Finn Surlyk On behalf of the ‘Jurassic book’ convening group: Jon R. Ineson, Finn Surlyk, Karen Dybkjær, Lars. H. Nielsen, Niels E. Poulsen. References Callomon, J.H. & Donovan, D.T. 1974: A code of Mesozoic stratigraphic nomenclature. In: Colloque du Jurassique à Luxembourg 1967. Mémoire du Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières 75, 75–81. Gradstein, F.M., Agterberg, F.P., Ogg, J.G., Hardenbol, J., van Veen, P., Thierry, J. & Huang, Z. 1994: A Mesozoic time scale. Journal of Geophysical Research 99, 24051–24074. Haq, B.U., Hardenbol, J. & Vail, P. 1988: Mesozoic and Cenozoic chronostratigraphy and cycles of sea-level change. In: Wilgus, C.K. et al. (eds): Sea-level changes – an integrated approach. Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication 42, 71–108. Harland, W.B., Armstrong, R.L., Cox, A.V., Craig, L.E., Smith, A.G. & Smith, D.G. 1990: A geologic time scale 1989, 263 pp. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Salvador, A. (ed.) 1994: International stratigraphic guide. A guide to stratigraphic classification, terminology, and procedure, 2nd edition, 214 pp. Boulder, Colorado: International Union of Geological Sciences and Geological Society of America, Inc. 8