Forward depositional modelling of the Cretaceous post-rift deposits in the northern North Sea

The 2D stratigraphic simulation software DEMOSTRAT is used to model the Cretaceous post-rift deposits of the northern North Sea. The aim is to reproduce the geometry of the structural reconstruction of a regional profile across the northern Horda Platform and Viking Graben. The geometry of the reconstruction is reproduced successfully by the simulation and shows that deposition during the Cretaceous was submarine with mass-flowage being a significant process in the Viking Graben in the early Cretaceous. In contrast, no mass flowage occurred on the Horda Platform. The simulations show that subsidence occurred throughout almost the entire Cretaceous in the Viking Graben and on the Horda Platform and that subsidence rates accelerated in the Cenomanian - Turonian. A structural high separating the Viking Graben and the Horda Platform experienced uplift and emergence in the early Cretaceous, but after this it was submerged. The Viking Graben experienced minor subsidence in the Maastrichtian, but only if the palaeowater-depth at this time was more than 180 m, whereas shallower water depths require uplift.