Evolution of the Cockburn Basin: implications for the structural development of the Celtic Sea basins

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Abstract
The Cockburn Basin is one of a series of sub-parallel basins in the Celtic Sea-Western Approaches area to the south and southwest of Ireland. These basins share broadly similar structural and depositional histories, and are regarded as the remnants of a regionally extensive Triassic-Middle Jurassic basin which was dissected by Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous tectonics. During the late Paleogene the basin was offset dextrally by 4–5 km across the Cockburn Fault, part of a major Tertiary wrench zone. Displacement on the Cockburn Fault is entirely Tertiary in age; however, the adjacent Fastnet segment of the Goban-Cockburn Fault Zone appears to have exerted a degree of control on the pre-Aptian development of the Fastnet Basin. At least one major basement structure, the Scilly Wrench Zone, appears to have entirely avoided reactivation during the post-Variscan development of the Western Approaches Trough. It would appear that reactivation of basement structures in the Celtic Sea-Western Approaches area has occurred in a patchy and unpredictable manner and, although pre-existing faults locally exert considerable influence, there is no fundamental basement control of the evolution of sedimentary basins in the region.