SPP 1135:  Dynamics of Sedimentary Systems under Varying Stress Regimes: The Example of the Central European Basin System

• Subject Area: Geosciences
• Term: from 2002 to 2008
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5471600

Sedimentary basins are compartments of the upper crust in which mineral and organic material has accumulated over millions of years. This material undergoes partial transformation at temperatures ranging from 0° to 300°C and pressures up to approximately 100 MPa. Due to their longevity and high contents of chemically metastable components, sedimentary basins can be regarded as long-term reactors. The substance turnover and product composition of such a geo-reactor depends essentially on both externally and internally operating processes which affect the sedimentary basin fill over long geological periods. The main objective of this programme is to quantify the major processes that control or affect the formation and evolution of sedimentary basins, including the fluid inventory, using modern geoscientific methods. The focus is on the complex Central European basin system for which a wealth of seismic and borehole data was made available for this programme by the German petroleum industry. Processes of major interest are a) strain and stress in the upper crust leading to crustal extension and compression, evolution of fault zones, their influence on the crustal rheology and their effects on large scale and regional subsidence as well as on the geothermal field, b) inherent processes of a sedimentary system such as compaction, salt movement and fluid generation under the control of the external factors mentioned above, c) transport processes involving the migration of gas and fluids through the pore space either by pressure-driven single-phase or multi-phase flow or by diffusion, their dependence on compaction, fault zones and the geothermal field as well as associated fluid-rock interactions, and d) the supply and redistribution of sedimentary matter acting as a mirror of tectonic activities and climate changes. Finally, important results of the priority programme will be applied to other, less explored basins. This application of concepts relies on the fact that the essential solid and fluid phases as well as the prevailing processes are similar or identical in different sedimentary basins.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• International Connection: Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland

Projects

• 3D structural modelling and basin analysis of the Central European Basin System (CEBS) between the North Sea and Poland (Applicant Bayer, Ulf )
• Abschlusskolloquium "Dynamik sedimentärer Systeme unter wechselnden Spannungsregimen am Beispiel des zentraleuropäischen Beckensystems" (Applicant Littke, Ralf )
• Authigene Karbonate und CO2-Quellen in Reservoirgesteinen der CO2 Provinz im Niedersächsischen Becken (Applicant Botz, Reiner )
• Birth of the Central European Basin (CEB): volcanism, sedimentation and tectonics (Applicant Breitkreuz, Christoph )
• Birth of the Central European Basin (CEB): volcanism, sedimentation and tectonics (Applicant Hoffmann, Norbert )
• Co-ordination of the Schwerpunktprogramm (SPP): "Dynamik sedimentärer Systeme unter wechselnden Spannungsregimen am Beispiel des zentraleuropäischen Beckensystems" and general management of data supplied by the German oil and gas industry for this scientific project (Applicant Littke, Ralf )
• Co-ordination of the Schwerpunktprogramm (SPP): "Dynamik sedimentärer Systeme unter wechselnden Spannungsregimen am Beispiel des zentraleuropäischen Beckensystems" and general management of data supplied by the German oil and gas industry for this scientific project (Applicant Kosinowski, Michael )
• Deep reaching fluid-flow in the Central European Basin System (Applicant Pekdeger, Asaf )
• Deep reaching fluid-flow in the Central European Basin System (Applicant Bayer, Ulf )
• Deep reaching fluid-flow in the Central European Basin System (Applicant Voigt, Hans-Jürgen )
• Deep reaching fluid-flow in the Central European Basin System (Applicant Fuhrmann, Jürgen )
• Deformation and transport processes in halite: a microtectonics study (Applicant Urai, Janos L. )
• Diagenesis of red bed clastic reservoirs in the Central European Basin: how important is organic maturation and migration? (Applicant Gaupp, Reinhard )
• Discontinuous sedimentary evolution of the Keuper (Triassic), Central European Basin (Lithostratigraphy, unconformities, cyclic and sequence stratigraphy, paleotectonics) (Applicant Beutler, Gerhard K. )
• Dynamics of the salt - sediment system during the evolution of the Central European Basin - quantitative structural reconstruction, kinematic analysis and salt mechanics (Applicant Kukla, Ph.D., Peter )
• Evaluating eustatic and tectonic control on Late Jurassic (Oxfordian to Kimmeridgian) sedimentary successions in the Lower Saxony Basin (NW Germany) (Applicant Schülke, Immo )
• Finite element-based dynamic modelling of the neotectonic evolution of Schleswig-Holstein (N-Germany) with geological, geophysical and geomorphological data in order to identify and evaluate potential geohazards (Applicant Reicherter, Klaus )
• Fluid Flow and Petrophysical Properties of Sedimentary Rocks exposed to different Stress Regimes (Applicant Nover, Georg )
• Fluid flow, heat transport and solute migration in relation to young processes (Applicants Bayer, Ulf ;  Pekdeger, Asaf )
• Fracture sealing processes in the Buntsandstein - comparison of nature and see-through experiments (Applicant Hilgers, Christoph )
• Geochemical, isotope geochemical and mineralogical investigations on type, origin and transformation of nitrogen in Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks (Applicants Krooß, Bernhard M. ;  Ostertag-Henning, Christian )
• GIS analysis and seismic survey of the uppermost 200 m in tectonically and halokinetically active structures in Schleswig-Holstein (Applicant Sirocko, Frank )
• High-resolution seismic analysis of the coastal Mecklenburg Bay (North German Basin) based on industrial CDP-data in order to identify and evaluate the pre-Alpine evolution, the neotectonic evolution as well as fault reactivation and interaction (Applicant Schikowsky, Peter )
• Influence of basin margin parallel fault systems (Elbe Fault System and Tornquist Zone) and basin intersecting fault systems on the Mesozoic evolution of the Central European Basin System (CEBS) (Applicant Scheck-Wenderoth, Magdalena )
• Influence of Quaternary glaciations on the petroleum system of Schleswig-Holstein (Applicant Cramer, Bernhard )
• Influence of Quaternary glaciations on the petroleum system of Schleswig-Holstein (Applicant Winsemann, Jutta )
• Intrusion vs. inversion at the rims of the Northwest German Basin: the gravity highs of Bramsche and Pritzwalk revisited. 3D structural modelling by the aid of the "Digital Geotectonic Atlas" (Applicant Götze, Hans-Jürgen )
• Inversion tectonics in the Central European Basin and on its southern border: An approach integrating structural geology, sedimentology, and thermochronology (Applicants von Eynatten, Hilmar ;  Kley, Jonas )
• Late Paleozoic coarse-clastic deposits in NE Germany and W Poland: sedimentary facies and implications for the evolution of the Central European Basin System (CEBS) (Applicant Breitkreuz, Christoph )
• Magnetotelluric soundings through the centre of the North German Basin (Applicant Jödicke, Hartmut )
• Mapping of young tectonic and halocinetic structures in Schleswig-Holstein by interpretation of seismic profiles and fieldwork (Applicant Sirocko, Frank )
• Marine geophysical investigation of Post-Permian to recent structural evolution of the western Baltic Sea (Applicant Hübscher, Christian )
• Paleo-stress fields in the Harz Mountains and surrounding areas between the Variscan convergent period and the Upper Cretaceous (Applicant Franzke, Hans-Joachim )
• Permo-Triassic unconformities in the Central European Basin: Their petrographic, geochemical and petrophysical fingerprints and tectonic implications (Applicant Stollhofen, Harald )
• Processing and interpretation of lower crustal seismic events from recently released industry data to study the influence of deep rooted processes on formation and evolution of the North German Basin and their relation to neo-tectonic activities (Applicant Gajewski, Dirk )
• Quantitative reconstruction of the temporal evolution of stress in the Dutch basins (Applicant Urai, Janos L. )
• Reactions of petroleum compounds with hematite grain-coatings and their effects on diagenesis and pore structure of clastic reservoir rocks (Applicants Gaupp, Reinhard ;  Krooß, Bernhard M. )
• Reactions of petroleum compounds with hematite grain-coatings and their effects on diagenesis and pore structure of clastic reservoir rocks (Applicant Krooß, Bernhard M. )
• Rock-fluid interactions in deep overpressured basinal settings of the Central Graben, North Sea: organic and inorganic considerations (Applicant di Primio, Rolando )
• Rock-fluid interactions in deep overpressured basinal settings of the Central Graben, North Sea: Organic and inorganic considerations (Applicant Gaupp, Reinhard )
• Stress and strain modeling of the Central European Basin system during the Mesozoic (Applicant Bayer, Ulf )
• Sub-seismic deformation on different scales in the North German Basin (Applicants Gaupp, Reinhard ;  Kukla, Ph.D., Peter ;  Oncken, Onno )
• Sub-seismic deformation on different scales in the Northgerman Basin (Applicant Tanner, David )
• Subsidence, heat and mass transfer in the Central European Basin system: A regional 2D basin modelling study (Applicant Littke, Ralf )
• The Evolution of a Playa to a Sabkha System (Permian, North German Basin) (Applicant Schneider, Jörg W. )
• The evolution of the Carboniferous foreland basin of northern Germany (Applicant McCann, Tom )
• The origin of non-hydrocarbon gases in the North-German Basin: Sources, migration paths and relative timing of nitrogen release (Applicant Plessen, Birgit )
• The Pompeckj Block in NW Germany: An example of a European inversion structure of Cretaceous age (Applicant Mutterlose, Jörg )
• The post-Variscan Paleostress History of the Central European Basin System (Applicant Scheck-Wenderoth, Magdalena )
• Thermal evolution of the southwestern Lower Saxony Basin (Applicant Littke, Ralf )
• Thermal history of deeply buried sedimentary rocks in the vicinity of salt diapirs (Schleswig-Holstein area) (Applicant Littke, Ralf )
• Towards a correlation of basement structures and sedimentary basin tectonics - CORTEC - (Applicant Götze, Hans-Jürgen )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Ralf Littke