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= Münsterland Basin = Münsterland Basin is located in an area of Germany called the Münsterlandische Bucht (Münsterland Bay) meaning low-lying area. The basin is a bowl-shaped tectonic and geomorphic Cretaceous basin located in the northwestern portion of Germany. The basin is enclosed to the north/northeast by the Teutoburg Forest, and to the east/south by the Egge and Haarstrang mountain ranges. Major sea level rise, fall, and tectonic events resulted in the Münsterland Basin fully developing into a depositional basin as it is today. Potential sources of gas in conventional and unconventional reservoirs can be seen in black shales from the Carboniferous in the southern portion of the basin.

Regional Geology
Late Paleozoic: Collision of Gondwana and Laurussia, which formed the supercontinent Pangaea.

Late Jurassic to Aptian: The Lower Saxony Basin, which consists of the Teutoburg Forest and the area north of it, underwent rapid subsidence which was related to the North Sea graben rifting. Albian to Late Turonian: Tectonic activity subsided at this time, but sea level rise caused nearshore and hemi-pelagic strata to onlap onto the northern part of the Rhenish Massif. This transformed Münsterland into a shallow marine depositional basin with open connections to the west as the Anglo-Paris Basin, north as the North Sea Basin, and east as the Lower Saxony Basin and Russian Platform. A major southward shift in the coastline formed during the Cenomanian as a part of a transgressive phase interval causing pelagic facies to prevail over much of the basin.


 * The Rhenish Massif is a block of Devonian and Carboniferous rocks that consolidated during the Variscan orogeny. The Variscan orogeny was caused by collision of Eurasia and Gondwana, which also affected Avalonia. Then throughout the Permian to the early Cretaceous, the Rhenish Massif was a low-lying non-depositional mountain range.

Late Turonian to Early Coniacian: Tectonic inversion of the Lower Saxony Basin occurred during this time.

Coniacian to Early Campanian: Due to the tectonic inversion of the Lower Saxony Basin, Münsterland Basin experiences significant subsidence with very high sedimentation rates. Marine sedimentation ceased in the late Campanian but the exact date of the final marine transgression is unknown.

Foreland Basin Evolution
The Variscan Orogeny continued until the Late Pennsylvanian as a result of continental plate collision between Eurasia and Gondwana. This specific figure shows the process of the formation of the foreland basin from the Variscan Orogeny. The Variscan foreland basin underwent downward flexure and there was a northward movement of the depocenter of the orogeny causing the Münsterland Basin to form. During the late Pennsylvanian to early Permian, thermal relaxation of the lithosphere and sediment loading contributed to ongoing subsidence and renewed subsidence occurring throughout the Late Permian to Late Jurassic which was eventually interrupted by uplift and erosion.

Cretaceous Stratigraphy


The study area of this lithological sequence is located in the southwestern portion of the Münsterland Cretaceous Basin and is along a transect from West Duisburg to East Herne. The regional geology during the Cenomanian includes a sequence of sea level rise which can be seen in the Lower Cenomanian under the Essen Grünsand Formation defined by the transgressive line. Then the Büren Formation during the Lower Turonian represents silty marlstones reflecting the maximum flooding of the basin. Throughout the Turonian, many hiatus sections are present which represent the changes in sea level and synsedimentary tectonics. Tectonic inversion of the Lower Saxony Basin occurred in the Late Turonian to Early Coniacian, which caused significant subsidence and high terrigenous sedimentation rates during the middle Santonian. Lower Campanian marlstones, which can be seen in the Bottrop Formation, represent a mid-shelf depositional environment. The exact date of the final transgressive sequence is unknown, but formals and belemnites document the resumed transgression of the sea after a hiatus period in the Lower Upper Campanian.

Hydrocarbon Potential
Carboniferous petroleum systems in the Münsterland Basin contain several black shales and coals that are good targets for shale gas and coalbed methane exploration in the area. Specifically, the Mississippian contains a marine sequence of shallow water carbonates and shales which possibly represent deeper water conditions while the Pennsylvanian contains a molasse-type sequence with coal. These coals are gas-rich are gas rich, which is well known from the mining operations located around the Münsterland Basin, but the shales are not as large as a target due to their high thermal maturity. Even though the shales have a high thermal maturity, some of the sequences are still within the gas window, indicating a possible potential for more research and exploration amongst the oil and gas industry.