Response of Middle Jurassic shallow-marine environments to syn-depositional block tilting: Isles of Skye and Raasay, NW Scotland

Abstract

The Hebridean Province of NW Scotland provides insight into the interaction between tectonics and shallow-marine and tidal strait depositional environments in the Sea of the Hebrides and Inner Hebrides basins. The study tests the influence of syn-depositional block tilting on gross thickness, sand to mud ratio and the distribution of shallow-marine facies in the resulting succession. New Middle Jurassic palaeogeographical maps and stratigraphic correlations are presented that integrate both outcrop and well data and illustrate the evolution of the deltaic sedimentary system in a broad, semi-regional context. Results show that distance from the sediment entry point and the syn-rift tectonic geomorphology were the critical controls on gross thickness, sand to mud ratios and facies types. The impact of relative sea-level change is hard to detect in locations proximal to the Scottish hinterland, where sediment supply was large relative to accommodation (Ss > Ac), but becomes more influential in distal locations where eustasy and tectonic subsidence convolved to increase the influence of accommodation over sediment supply (Ac > Ss). Supplementary material: An outcrop to well log correlation exercise is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4397858