Structural and stratigraphic analysis of the Dinaride thrust belt; A frontier exploration province in central-Southern Europe

Conference · Wed Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1993 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States)

OSTI ID:7135499

Tasker, D R; Weir, G M; Dale, R C ^[1]

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1. Amoco Production Company, Houston, TX (United States)

The Dinarides are a 200-300-km-wide southwest vergent fold and thrust belt extending along the eastern margin of the Adriatic Sea. The complex and varied structural and stratigraphic relationships can be used to define three major tectonic units: the internal, central, and external Dinarides. In the Internal Dinarides, platform sequences deposited in the Early and Middle Triassic underwent rapid subsidence and drowning in the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic along with rifting and subsequent formation of oceanic crust. Melange and flysch were deposited during the late Jurassic through Cretaceous as the developing thrust belt encroached upon the northeastern margin of the Dinaride carbonate platform. The Dinaride carbonate platform forms the cores of the central and external Dinarides and is composed primarily of Permian-Triassic clastics and evaporites overlain by Middle Triassic through early Eocene platform carbonates. The entire sequence is overlain by late Eocene and early Oligocene synorogenic flysch. In the central Dinarides, late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous unconformities suggest structural uplift prior to the onset of thrusting. Deformation involves Paleozoic basement and includes a major decollement in the Permian Triassic clastic and evaporite unit. Thrusting in the external Dinarides occurred in the late Eocene-early Oligocene and is restricted to Middle Triassic and younger units with major detachments forming near the base of the Ladinian and within a Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous evaporite. Important oil source and seal lithofacies occur within intraplatform basins and lagoons in the Mesozoic sequences of the central and external Dinarides. Widespread dolomitized units within the Mesozoic carbonate sequence are potential reservoir zones. The presence of surface hydrocarbon seeps and of existing production on trend to the Dinarides in the thrust belt of Italy and Albania suggest the potential for hydrocarbon discoveries in this underexplored area.

• OSTI ID: 7135499
• Report Number(s): CONF-9310237--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States) Journal Volume: 77:9
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020200* -- Petroleum-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
ADRIATIC SEA
ALBANIA
CARBONATE ROCKS
CROATIA
DEFORMATION
DEPOSITION
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
EARTH CRUST
EASTERN EUROPE
EUROPE
EVAPORITES
EXPLORATION
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGY
GROUND SUBSIDENCE
GROUND UPLIFT
JURASSIC PERIOD
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
MESOZOIC ERA
MINERAL RESOURCES
OCEANIC CRUST
PALEOZOIC ERA
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
RESERVOIR ROCK
RESOURCES
RIFT ZONES
ROCKS
SEAS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SEEPS
SOURCE ROCKS
STRATIGRAPHY
SURFACE WATERS
TECTONICS