Marit Stokke Bauck

• Bauck, Marit Stokke; Faleide, Jan Inge; Fossen, Haakon & Gawthorpe, Rob (2025). Paleolandscapes recorded by the Top Basement surface in the Norwegian North Sea. Marine and Petroleum Geology. ISSN 0264-8172. 181. doi: 10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2025.107527. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Mapping the diachronous Top Basement in the North Sea reveals a complex amalgamation of paleolandscapes and provides valuable insights into the Late Paleozoic and Mesozoic geologic history. To illuminate the temporal geologic and geomorphic evolution, we document and analyze geomorphic characteristics and relate these to the regional tectonostratigraphic events. The paleolandscapes represented by the Top Basement surface generally fall into the following categories: rough, irregular terrains; rough, confined drainage networks; and smooth, planar landscapes. Notably, the irregular landscape found at the base of the deep basins is covered by Upper Paleozoic sediments and represents a potential late stage of the Devonian denudation of the Caledonian mountain chain. A distinct drainage network on the Top Basement of the Patch Bank Ridge represents two exposure phases: one related to extension during Devonian exhumation and the other associated with Carboniferous exhumation. Two regional tectonic events are candidates for such Carboniferous exhumation, one is Variscan contraction, the other is the Pennsylvanian event dated onshore Greenland and Fenoscandia. Preserved drainage networks observed on various basement highs correspond to local Late Permian to Early Triassic fault block uplift. In tilted fault blocks, these features are significant, while in horst block structures, smooth, planar landscape expression occurs. This is linked to repeated uplift of horst block structures, while tilted fault blocks get buried sooner. A distinct terrain observed in a confined area on the western Måløy Slope exhibits geomorphic characteristics comparable to those found on the tilted Vette and Tusse fault blocks overlain by sediment of Triassic or older origin. Thus, we suggest that this is a strong indication that Late Permian to Early Triassic rifting impacted the Måløy Slope. Tectonic and climatic processes controlled the relief and spatial extent of these landscapes. Our findings correlate with onshore exhumation and landscape development documented from other studies onshore East Greenland and Fennoscandia. These insights highlight the potential for identifying further paleolandscape features across the wider North Sea region and beyond.

• Fossen, Haakon; Polonio, Israel; Bauck, Marit Stokke & Cavalcante, Geane Carolina Goncalves (2024). The North Sea rift basement records extensional collapse of the Caledonian orogen. Communications Earth & Environment. 5(1). doi: 10.1038/s43247-024-01374-y. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Our knowledge of crystalline basement rocks flooring continental rift basins, rifted margin deposits, and foreland basins is poor, yet important for understanding basin evolution, crustal heat production, petroleum maturation, and for offshore mineral exploration. Using the northern North Sea rift as an example, we demonstrate how modern broadband seismic data can be utilized to unravel basement lithology and structure at a previously unprecedented level of detail. In our case study, we have discovered a pre-rift Caledonian basement with a folded structural pattern very similar to Devonian collapse-related structures onshore Western Norway. The data indicate that the collapse-generated Caledonian infrastructure extends >100 km into the northern North Sea, defining a wide zone of Caledonian crust that turned hot and mobilized vertically by upright folding and detachment faulting during the post-collisional stage. This extensive post-orogenic thermally induced collapse makes the south Scandinavian Caledonides unique among Phanerozoic orogens.

• Bauck, Marit Stokke; Faleide, Jan Inge; Fossen, Haakon; Hassaan, Muhammad & Braathen, Alvar (2024). Late Palaeozoic structural evolution of the Patch Bank Ridge and Utsira High, northern North Sea. Basin Research. ISSN 0950-091X. 36(5). doi: 10.1111/bre.12890. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This study focuses on the Late Palaeozoic development of the area east of Utsira High in the North Sea, where the stratigraphic section below the late Permian Rotliegend Group is undrilled. We use regional 3D seismic data to study structuring, sediment distribution and geomorphology across the Patch Bank Ridge and Utsira High in the North Sea. The results show that the Stord Basin and the bounding Utsira East fault initially developed during the Late Palaeozoic extension, probably during the Devonian, and that the Utsira Shear Zone controlled the location of Late Palaeozoic depocentres. The Patch Bank Ridge is an uplifted part of the Stord Basin where we identify Late Palaeozoic growth strata along the southern and northern flanks, indicating a similar timing of the structural evolution in this area. Two key wells, in the Sele High and Ling Depression, are used to relate a Late Palaeozoic isopach map with regional structuring, surface tilt and basement morphology to the enigmatic parts of the Late Palaeozoic basin system. Our results supplement regional models for the Late Palaeozoic basin development, we suggest that the deeply eroded Devonian half-grabens preserved on the Utsira High formed parts of an extensive basin system that show stratigraphic expansion towards their bounding faults. The Top Basement surface at these highs offers several distinct geomorphologies that evolved during three periods of exposure, expressed as (i) a tilted and rugose landscape, (ii) distinct drainage networks and (iii) peneplain surfaces. Cover sediments place these landscapes to the (i) Devonian, (ii) Carboniferous/Permian/Triassic and (iii) Late Triassic periods.

• Wrona, Thilo; Whittaker, Alexander C.; Bell, Rebecca E.; Gawthorpe, Rob; Fossen, Haakon & Jackson, Christopher A.-L. [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2022). Rift kinematics preserved in deep-time erosional landscape below the northern North Sea. Basin Research. ISSN 0950-091X. p. 1–18. doi: 10.1111/bre.12732. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Our understanding of continental rifting is, in large parts, derived from the stratigraphic record. This record is, however, incomplete as it does not often capture the geomorphic and erosional signal of rifting. New 3D seismic reflection data reveal a Late Permian-Early Triassic landscape incised into the pre-rift basement of the northern North Sea. This landscape, which covers at least 542 km2, preserves a drainage system bound by two major tectonic faults. A quantitative geomorphic analysis of the drainage system reveals 68 catchments, with channel steepness and knickpoint analysis of catchment-hosted palaeo-rivers showing that the landscape preserved a >2 Myr long period of transient tectonics. We interpret that this landscape records a punctuated uplift of the footwall of a major rift-related normal fault (Vette Fault) at the onset of rifting. The landscape was preserved by a combination of relatively rapid subsidence in the hangingwall of a younger fault (Øygarden Fault) and burial by post-incision sediments. As such, we show how and why erosional landscapes are preserved in the stratigraphic record, and how they can help us understand the tectono-stratigraphic evolution of ancient continental rifts.

• Fossen, Haakon; Ksienzyk, Anna K.; Rotevatn, Atle; Bauck, Marit Stokke & Wemmer, Klaus (2021). From widespread faulting to localised rifting: Evidence from K-Ar fault gouge dates from the Norwegian North Sea rift shoulder. Basin Research. ISSN 0950-091X. 33(3), p. 1934–1953. doi: 10.1111/bre.12541. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Although seismic and stratigraphic well information put tight constraints on rift basin evolution, eroded rift shoulders commonly expose polydeformed prerift basement whose deformation history may be difficult to constrain. In this work, we apply K-Ar dating of fault gouge samples from 18 faults to explore the brittle deformation of the well-exposed eastern rift margin to the northern North Sea rift. We find evidence of clay gouge formation since the Late Devonian, with distinct Permian and Jurassic fault activity peaks that closely match early stages of the two well-established North Sea rift phases. A marked decay in fault density away from the rift margin confirms a close relationship between rifting and onshore faulting. The results show that initial rift-related extension affected a much wider area than the resulting offshore rift. Hence our data support a rift model where strain is initially distributed over a several 100 km wide region, as a prelude to the development of the ~150–200 km wide Permo-Triassic northern North Sea rift as defined by large marginal faults. Towards the end of the second rift phase, strain localises even more strongly to the 25–50 km wide Viking Graben. Interestingly, a period of early widespread extension is seen for both phases of North Sea rifting and may be a general characteristic of continental rifting. The documented prerift faulting and fracturing of the basement since the Devonian weakened the basement and probably facilitated the widespread initial extension that subsequently localised to form the northern North Sea rift, with further localisation to its relatively narrow central part (Viking Graben).

• Bauck, Marit Stokke; Faleide, Jan Inge & Fossen, Haakon (2021). Late Jurassic to Late Cretaceous canyons on the Måløy Slope: Source to sink fingerprints on the northernmost North Sea rift margin, Norway. Norwegian Journal of Geology. ISSN 2387-5844. 101. doi: 10.17850/njg101-3-1. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The Måløy Slope is a key area for studying the connection between onshore and offshore geology of South Norway. It has functioned as an area of bypass, erosion and deposition between the Norwegian mainland source area and the offshore northern North Sea sink area since the Permian. The slope was faulted into N–S-trending rift fault-blocks through flexural down-bending during the large-scale extension and rapid rift basin subsidence in the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. Mapping of 3D seismic data has revealed a profound network of E–W-oriented erosional submarine canyons. These canyons cut up to 500 m into the crystalline bedrock on the rift-related fault-block crests. We suggest that the canyons were first established prior to the faulting associated with late Jurassic rifting. The canyons may have been important feeders in the Oxfordian, Kimmeridgian and Tithonian like canyons in the Uer Terrace to the south, although we lack direct evidence for this. Further erosion and deepening of the canyons into the basement occurred during Cretaceous in a post-rift setting. The position of the main canyons sustained during recurring periods of erosion from the Late Jurassic until burial within the slope in the Late Cretaceous. By the aid of detailed bathymetric maps, the main canyons can be correlated with onshore faults and drainage systems (fjords and valleys). The evolution of the slope canyon system over time is controlled by both tectonic and isostatic movements and, as discussed in the text, can help understand when and where the pre-fjord drainage was established. Multiple incision events have been detected, and each of these express some correlation to regional tectonic events in (1) Late Jurassic–Earliest Cretaceous, (2) Late Aptian–Albian and (3) Turonian– Coniacian.

• Wiest, Johannes; Wrona, Thilo; Bauck, Marit Stokke; Fossen, Haakon; Gawthorpe, Rob & Osmundsen, Per Terje [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2020). From Caledonian collapse to North Sea Rift: The extended history of a metamorphic core complex. Tectonics. ISSN 0278-7407. 39:e2020TC006178(10). doi: 10.1029/2020TC006178. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Extensional systems evolve through different stages due to changes in the rheological state of the lithosphere. It is crucial to distinguish ductile structures formed before and during rifting, as both cases have important but contrasting bearings on the structural evolution. To address this issue, we present the illustrative ductile‐to‐brittle structural history of a metamorphic core complex (MCC) onshore and offshore western Norway. Combining geological field mapping with newly acquired 3‐D seismic reflection data, we correlate two distinct onshore basement units (BU1 and BU2) to corresponding offshore basement seismic facies (SF1 and SF2). Our interpretation reveals two 40 km wide domes (one onshore and one offshore), which both show characteristic kilometer‐scale, westward plunging upright folds. The gneiss domes fill antiformal culminations in the footwall of a >100 km long, shallowly west dipping, extensional detachment. Overlying Caledonian nappes and Devonian supradetachment basins occupy saddles of the hyperbolic detachment surface. Devonian collapse of the Caledonian orogen formed dome and detachment geometries. During North Sea rifting, brittle reactivation of the MCC resulted in complex fault patterns deviating from N‐S strike dominant at the eastern margin of the rift. Around 61°N, only minor N‐S faults (

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• Bauck, Marit Stokke; Gawthorpe, Rob L.; Fossen, Haakon & Faleide, Jan Inge (2024). Late Paleozoic Development of the Patch Bank Ridge Structure and Top Basement Morphology, North Sea, Norway. Full text in Research Archive
• Bauck, Marit Stokke (2025). Top Basement Landscape Evolution through the Late Paleozoic and Mesozoic Periods, Norwegian North Sea. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Onshore, the Norwegian bedrock, exposed at the surface, has been studied for decades through geologic mapping, leading to a solid understanding of its development. Limited well coverage, challenges in seismic imaging, and scarcity of dating constraints complicate the potential to reveal the offshore geologic evolution before the Permian in the Norwegian North Sea. In her PhD research study, Marit Stokke Bauck has employed regional 3D seismic data to map the bedrock surface of the North Sea. The doctoral work combines different techniques to explore the basement landscape: geologic mapping, specialized geophysical techniques, geomorphology analysis, and 2D restoration to reveal details of bedrock erosion during the Late Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras. An evolution of landscape development at the Top Basement surface is proposed in the study, which can be linked to known tectonic events from neighboring onshore regions such as Fennoscandia and East Greenland.

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