North Atlantic Margins Evolution Project (NAME) 2017-2019

The NAME project focuses on the sedimentology, stratigraphy, palaeoecology and structural geology of Early Jurassic to Early Cretaceous sedimentary units deposited in North Atlantic marginal basins. The study region extends between Florida and Newfoundland in the west and Senegal and the British Isles in the east. In the current project phase, fieldwork will be undertaken in the Lusitanian Basin (Portugal) and the Senegal Basin (Senegal, Gambia and Cabo Verde), and we will produce new data on sediment provenance, biostratigraphy and salt tectonics. The techniques we will employ include petrography, heavy mineral analysis, zircon geochronology, palynology, palaeontology and restoration of structural cross-sections. These results will be integrated with data collected during the 2014-2016 phase of the project to produce palaeogeographic facies maps.

Main Objectives

  • Salt tectonics and its influence on sediment routing and sandstone provenance in the Lusitanian Basin, Portugal.
  • Provenance signatures of modern river sands in the Senegal Basin: potential analogues for Mesozoic reservoirs.
  • Biostratigraphy, sedimentology and sandstone provenance of the Mesozoic succession on Maio, Cabo Verde Archipelago.
  • Biostratigraphy, sedimentology and sandstone provenance of key DSDP/ODP sites corresponding to onshore research areas.
  • Palaeogeographic facies maps for major source and reservoir rock intervals.
  • Mesozoic ‘Basal Complex’ on Fuerteventura (Canary Islands, Spain): analytical results.

Project length: 24 months from August 2017.

Contact(s): Simon Schneider

Project Map

The map below shows the samples collected and/or the areas of relevance for reports issued during this project phase. To interactively explore all the reports and samples belonging to the project series, click the blue button below the map.

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Reports Issued in This Project

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