Correlation of Tethyan and Boreal Berriasian – Barremian strata with emphasis on strata in the subsurface of the Netherlands

The standard Tethyan Berriasian–Barremian successions of France and Spain are correlated with the Boreal successions of England, Germany and the Netherlands. Special emphasis is placed on the correlation and sequence stratigraphy of the main hydrocarbon-producing strata of the Berriasian–Barremian stages in the four main basins in the subsurface of the Netherlands and the Dutch part of the North Sea continental shelf. All available biostratigraphic, magnetostratigraphic, and sequence-stratigraphic correlation data-sets were used to draw this correlation chart. Many lacunae in shallow marine successions could be correlated with sediments in deeper marine successions. Some sequence boundaries are tectonically enhanced and were accompanied by extra large falls in sea level; they initiated important changes in the biota and sedimentary regimes of western Europe, viz, the boundaries of the so-called ‘transgressive regressive facies cycles’ of Jacquin & de Graciansky.