Aspects of the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous history of The Netherlands

Abstract

Three depth structure maps, two subcrop maps, two isopach maps and two structural cross-sections are enclosed. They illustrate the results of uplift and erosion and of subsequent subsidence and sedimentation that occurred in The Netherlands area during the Jurassic and cretaceous. Near the end of the Middle Jurassic, rapid sedimentation began in narrow and restricted basins after a period of uplift and erosion, known as the Mid Kimmerian tectonic phase. This sedimentation was followed by another period of uplift and erosion, known as the Late Kimmerian tectonic phase, near the beginning of the Cretaceous. Subsequent Cretaceous sedimentation started in the centres of the Upper Jurassic basins and gradually spread towards the Mid to Late Kimmerian highs. These highs were the last areas covered with sediments near the end of the Cretaceous. The Mid Kimmerian Unconformity, which can be mapped in the centres of the Upper Jurassic basins, was itself eroded in the areas of the Mid to late Kimmerian highs during the Late Kimmerian phase. Sedimentation during the Cretaceous, particularly the Late Cretaceous, was more widespread than during the Late Jurassic. Near the end of the Cretaceous, inversion and erosion took place. This erosion was strongest near the centres of the Upper Jurassic basins, where a substantial package of Cretaceous, Jurassic and locally Triassic or older sediments was eroded. This explains the present decreasing thickness of the Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous sequence and of the Upper Cretaceous sediments towards the centres of the former Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous basins.