During the late Paleocene–early Eocene the North Sea was a restricted marine basin, characterised by siliciclastic sedimentation and high terrigenous input, principally from the Scotland–Faeroe–Shetland landmass (Knox 1998, Fig. S1). Core 22/10a-4 is located in the central part of the basin (Figs. 1 and S1) and is therefore disconnected from many marginal marine processes that could mask oceanographic signals (e.g. tidal or storm-induced erosion and slumping). Paleobathymetry estimates in the North Sea during the Paleocene and Eocene are difficult to constrain accurately, as the extant benthic foraminifera present in the Paleogene are found today living between 200 and >1000 m water depth (Gradstein et al., 1992), and are controlled predominantly by substrate and bottom water properties. However using a number of paleoecologic micropaleontology methods together (Gillmore et al., 2001), along with 2D structural restoration (Kjennerud and Sylta, 2001), broad agreement was found and central parts of the northern North Sea appear to have had paleodepths of >0.5 km in the earliest Eocene near 22/10a-4 (Kjennerud and Gillmore, 2003, Fig. S1).
water
depth
between 200 and >1000 m
m
central parts of the northern North Sea
paleodepths
>0.5 km
km