The Paleocene stratigraphic records in the Central Netherlands and close surrounding basins: Highlighting the different responses to a late Danian change in stress regime within the Central European Basin System

• The Middle Paleocene stratigraphic records of the Central Netherlands and close surroundings basins were studied.
• These records show that the Central Netherlands and other close surrounding basins experienced subsidence during the Middle Paleocene tectonic phase.
• Several other basins in the Central European Basin System (CEBS) were inverted during this tectonic phase.
• Two possible mechanisms are discussed that could provide an explanation for the Middle Paleocene vertical surface movements in the CEBS.

Despite their similar structural style of inversion under Late Cretaceous compressional stress, basins in the Central European Basin System showed different kinematic responses to a late Danian change in the European intra-plate stress-field.The Late Cretaceous phase was recognized throughout the Central European Basin System by compressional inversion of the Mesozoic rifts, and the simultaneous formation of marginal troughs. The late Danian change in stress regime resulted in a Middle Paleocene phase which excited longer wavelength of vertical surface movements. In several basins in Central Europe, this Middle Paleocene phase was characterized by domal uplift of the Late Cretaceous inversion zones and their proximal areas, which was interpreted to result from a sudden relaxation of the in-plane tectonic stress (a so-called relaxation inversion).Based on the Paleocene stratigraphic records, this study shows that some basins in the south-western part of the Central European Basin System experienced subsidence of the Late Cretaceous inversion zones during the Middle Paleocene phase, or the complete opposite vertical surface movements of a relaxation inversion. Two possible mechanisms (superposition of relaxation inversions and lithospheric folding during compression) are discussed that could provide an explanation for the opposite late Danian and Selandian vertical surface movements of nearby basins in the Central European Basin System.