THE VALUE OF QUANTITATIVE PALYNOLOGY AND GEOCHEMISTRY IN PROVIDING NEW INSIGHTS INTO REGIONAL TECTONO-STRATIGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT AND CLIMATIC EVOLUTION OF THE LATE JURASSIC OF THE NETHERLANDS

The pre-Quaternary Stratigraphic Nomenclature of the Netherlands as compiled by Van Adrichem Boogaert & Kouwe in 1993 provided a consistent framework for use by the Dutch geological community. The combination of non-marine to shallow marine lateral facies changes, repetitive log and facies characteristics in time, sea-level and climate change, salt tectonics and structural compartmentalisation hamper straightforward seismic interpretation and log correlation. On-going development of new and more integrated stratigraphic techniques, including marine- and terrestrial palynology, sedimentology and stable isotope analyses together with an ever-increasing resolution and spatial coverage provide the opportunity to disentangle this complexity. Over the past decades, this integrated approach has led to increased stratigraphic detail for the Upper Jurassic of the Southern North Sea Basin, to a level at which high-order changes can be related to global climate- and sea level changes. As a next and ensuing step, stable carbon isotope analyses are providing another means for calibration of the regional stratigraphic insights to the global standard. Eventually, the integrated insights are now applied as an interpretive model in the complex inverted, truncated and compartmentalized basins of the area. Here we present how this integrated stratigraphic approach has led to a new tectono-stratigraphic multi-basin model that has a relevant level of detail for well planning and de-risking.