ABSTRACT: Geological History of the Flemish Pass Basin, Offshore Newfoundland

FOSTER, D. G., and A. G. ROBINSON, BP Exploration Operating Company Ltd., Uxbridge, England

This paper describes a sequence-stratigraphic interpretation of the Mesozoic and Tertiary geological history of the Flemish Pass Basin offshore Newfoundland, based on seismic and data from seven wells. Four megasequences are identified. Megasequence (MS) 1 is of Triassic to Early Berriasian age. It includes poorly known sediments associated with Triassic-Early Jurassic rifting prior to spreading of North Africa from America. The uppermost unit (MS1-50) contains major Kimmeridgian to Portlandian marine source rocks deposited in two WNW-ESE-trending subbasins in the Baccalieu and Gabriel areas. In the early Berriasian, pronounced rifting linked to the subsequent spreading of Iberia from the Grand Banks (Barremian/Aptian) led to regional deepening and deposition of clastic sediments (MS2 in two northeast-southwest-trending, fault-bounded subbasins in the Baccalieu and Gabriel areas. In the Aptian, Early Cretaceous subbasins were inverted due to strike-slip movement as extension assumed a northeast-southwest orientation prior to movement of Greenland/Europe away from Labrador (Albian). MS3 sediments fill northwest-southwest-trending fault-bounded depocenters typically located on areas that had formed highs during the Early Cretaceous. Postrift sedimentation continued from the Albian (?) to present with pelagic limestone and later clastic sediment deposition.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91012©1992 AAPG Annual Meeting, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 22-25, 1992 (2009)