Geology of the Netherlands
Encyclopedia
The geology of the Netherlands describes the geological sequence of the Netherlands. Large parts of the Netherlands
today are below sea level
and have in the past been covered by the sea or flooded at regular intervals. The modern Netherlands
formed as a result of the interplay of the four main rivers (Rhine, Meuse
, Schelde and IJssel
) and the influence of the North Sea
. The Netherlands is mostly composed of deltaic
, coast
al and eolian derived sediments during the Pleistocene
glacial and interglacial
periods.
Fairly all of the west Netherlands is composed of the Rhine-Meuse
river estuary
, but human intervention greatly modified the natural processes at work. Most of the western Netherlands is below sea level due to the human process of turning standing bodies of water into usable land, a polder
.
In eastern Holland, remains are found of the last ice age
, which took place approximately ten thousand years ago. As the continental ice sheet
moved in from the north, it pushed moraine
forward. The ice sheet halted as it covered the eastern half of the Netherlands. After the ice age ended, the moraine
remained in the form a long hill-line. The cities of Arnhem
and Nijmegen are built upon these hills.
s from the Carboniferous
period (360 - 299 mya) outcrop
in the southeastern province of Limburg
, e.g. in the Heimans quarry. Younger sediments (Permian
in age) are not exposed at surface. The subsurface
of the Netherlands (including the Dutch sectors of the North Sea) is geologically far more significant especially with respect to the occurrence of oil
and gas
resources. The Slochteren
reservoir rock in Groningen
is an eolian sandstone
from the Rotliegend
(lower Permian). This reservoir has excellent porosity
and permeability
characteristics and supplies the vast majority of the Dutch natural gas reserves. The lateral equivalent of this reservoir comes at surface near the German
town of Bad Bentheim
.
The latest Permian deposits in the area of northwestern Europe
was characterised by the laying down of thick successions of rocksalt and anhydrite
. This Zechstein
stage also comprises dolomite
s and limestone
s. The salt is mined in the east of the Netherlands (in villages as Boekelo
) and forms an excellent seal over the deeper North Sea reservoirs.
near Winterswijk
(Triassic
Muschelkalk
limestone
s). The Jurassic Posidonia Shale
is well developed but is buried deep in the West and under the North Sea. It acts as source rock for oil fields in the West Netherlands Basin. During late Jurassic times the Zuidwal volcano
was active in a now submerged part of the Netherlands known as the Wadden Sea
.
During Cretaceous
times, most of the Netherlands was covered by a warm shallow (inland) sea in which thick successions of chalk
were deposited. This is in places chert
-bearing; chalk is mined near the southern city of Maastricht
and the Maastrichtian
stage was named after this locality. Here a number of mosasaur
-fossil
s have been excavated as well. The Schoonebeek
oil-bearing sandstones are Early Cretaceous
in age and underlain by hydrocarbon
-rich Lower Cretaceous lacustrine Coevorden Formation which forms the source rock
for the east Netherlands oil.
is characterised by a further shallowing and erosion of earlier sediments. In places a reasonable thickness of Paleocene
and Eocene
sediments is reached, but most of the subsurface of the Netherlands lack deposits of this age.
The recent Netherlands is formed by Pleistocene
and Holocene
age sediments as result of (glacio
)-fluvial
, eolian and marine
sedimentation. Eolian dunes characterise the North Sea
coast, a horseshoe
-shaped moraine
forms the Utrecht Hill Ridge
(Dutch: Utrechtse Heuvelrug) and the river influence is still visible all over the Netherlands.
quiet area, a number of fault activities have been shown in the past. The latest (1992) strong earthquake
(5.4 on Richter scale) had its epicenter
close to the Limburg city of Roermond
. The south of the Netherlands is topographically higher and is linked to the geology of the Ardennes and the London-Brabant Massif. The Lower Rhine Graben, part of the European Cenozoic Rift System
, which has been tectonically active since the Oligocene, affects the southwestern part of the Netherlands.
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
today are below sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
and have in the past been covered by the sea or flooded at regular intervals. The modern Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
formed as a result of the interplay of the four main rivers (Rhine, Meuse
Meuse
Meuse is a department in northeast France, named after the River Meuse.-History:Meuse is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
, Schelde and IJssel
IJssel
River IJssel , sometimes called Gelderse IJssel to avoid confusion with its Hollandse IJssel namesake in the west of the Netherlands, is a branch of the Rhine in the Dutch provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel...
) and the influence of the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
. The Netherlands is mostly composed of deltaic
River delta
A delta is a landform that is formed at the mouth of a river where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, flat arid area, or another river. Deltas are formed from the deposition of the sediment carried by the river as the flow leaves the mouth of the river...
, coast
Coast
A coastline or seashore is the area where land meets the sea or ocean. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the dynamic nature of tides. The term "coastal zone" can be used instead, which is a spatial zone where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs...
al and eolian derived sediments during the Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
glacial and interglacial
Interglacial
An Interglacial period is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age...
periods.
Fairly all of the west Netherlands is composed of the Rhine-Meuse
Meuse
Meuse is a department in northeast France, named after the River Meuse.-History:Meuse is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
river estuary
Estuary
An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....
, but human intervention greatly modified the natural processes at work. Most of the western Netherlands is below sea level due to the human process of turning standing bodies of water into usable land, a polder
Polder
A polder is a low-lying tract of land enclosed by embankments known as dikes, that forms an artificial hydrological entity, meaning it has no connection with outside water other than through manually-operated devices...
.
In eastern Holland, remains are found of the last ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
, which took place approximately ten thousand years ago. As the continental ice sheet
Ice sheet
An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 km² , thus also known as continental glacier...
moved in from the north, it pushed moraine
Moraine
A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum. This debris may have been plucked off a valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...
forward. The ice sheet halted as it covered the eastern half of the Netherlands. After the ice age ended, the moraine
Moraine
A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum. This debris may have been plucked off a valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...
remained in the form a long hill-line. The cities of Arnhem
Arnhem
Arnhem is a city and municipality, situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland and located near the river Nederrijn as well as near the St. Jansbeek, which was the source of the city's development. Arnhem has 146,095 residents as one of the...
and Nijmegen are built upon these hills.
Paleozoic Era
RockRock (geology)
In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...
s from the Carboniferous
Carboniferous
The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Permian Period, about 299.0 ± 0.8 Mya . The name is derived from the Latin word for coal, carbo. Carboniferous means "coal-bearing"...
period (360 - 299 mya) outcrop
Outcrop
An outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. -Features:Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficial deposits are covered by a mantle of soil and vegetation and cannot be...
in the southeastern province of Limburg
Limburg (Netherlands)
Limburg is the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. It is located in the southeastern part of the country and bordered by the province of Gelderland to the north, Germany to the east, Belgium to the south and part of the west, andthe Dutch province of North Brabant partly to...
, e.g. in the Heimans quarry. Younger sediments (Permian
Permian
The PermianThe term "Permian" was introduced into geology in 1841 by Sir Sir R. I. Murchison, president of the Geological Society of London, who identified typical strata in extensive Russian explorations undertaken with Edouard de Verneuil; Murchison asserted in 1841 that he named his "Permian...
in age) are not exposed at surface. The subsurface
Subsurface
Subsurface is the seventh studio album by British progressive metal band Threshold. The album was released in August 2004, and received an Album of the Month award in several European music magazines....
of the Netherlands (including the Dutch sectors of the North Sea) is geologically far more significant especially with respect to the occurrence of oil
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
and gas
Gas
Gas is one of the three classical states of matter . Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid. As heat is added to this substance it melts into a liquid at its melting point , boils into a gas at its boiling point, and if heated high enough would enter a plasma state in which the electrons...
resources. The Slochteren
Slochteren
Slochteren is a municipality in the northeastern Netherlands.The municipality can be characterized as a chain of small villages dividing a mostly agricultural landscape. Having an agricultural background for at least a thousand years, the community houses for the most part commuters to nearby...
reservoir rock in Groningen
Groningen (province)
Groningen [] is the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands. In the east it borders the German state of Niedersachsen , in the south Drenthe, in the west Friesland and in the north the Wadden Sea...
is an eolian sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
from the Rotliegend
Rotliegend
The Rotliegend or Rotliegendes is a lithostratigraphic unit of Cisuralian age that is found in the subsurface of large areas in western and central Europe. The Rotliegend mainly consists of sandstone layers...
(lower Permian). This reservoir has excellent porosity
Porosity
Porosity or void fraction is a measure of the void spaces in a material, and is a fraction of the volume of voids over the total volume, between 0–1, or as a percentage between 0–100%...
and permeability
Permeability (fluid)
Permeability in fluid mechanics and the earth sciences is a measure of the ability of a porous material to allow fluids to pass through it.- Units :...
characteristics and supplies the vast majority of the Dutch natural gas reserves. The lateral equivalent of this reservoir comes at surface near the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
town of Bad Bentheim
Bad Bentheim
Bad Bentheim is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany lying in the district of Grafschaft Bentheim on the borders with North Rhine-Westphalia and the Netherlands roughly 15 km south of Nordhorn and 20 km northeast of Enschede. It is also a state-recognized thermal brine and sulphur spa town,...
.
The latest Permian deposits in the area of northwestern Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
was characterised by the laying down of thick successions of rocksalt and anhydrite
Anhydrite
Anhydrite is a mineral – anhydrous calcium sulfate, CaSO4. It is in the orthorhombic crystal system, with three directions of perfect cleavage parallel to the three planes of symmetry. It is not isomorphous with the orthorhombic barium and strontium sulfates, as might be expected from the...
. This Zechstein
Zechstein
The Zechstein is a unit of sedimentary rock layers of Middle to Late Permian age located in the European Permian Basin which stretches from the east coast of England to northern Poland...
stage also comprises dolomite
Dolomite
Dolomite is a carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg2. The term is also used to describe the sedimentary carbonate rock dolostone....
s and limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
s. The salt is mined in the east of the Netherlands (in villages as Boekelo
Boekelo
Boekelo is a Dutch village in the municipality of Enschede in the Eastern Netherlands, the population is estimated at approximately 2500. It is located just west of Usselo. The village is known for the Military Boekelo Enschede, an international equestrian event.It is also known for the salt...
) and forms an excellent seal over the deeper North Sea reservoirs.
Mesozoic Era
Mesozoic rocks are exposed in the Netherlands in the quarryQuarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
near Winterswijk
Winterswijk
Winterswijk is a municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands.Winterswijk is a town with a population of some 30,000 in the Achterhoek which lies in the most eastern part of the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. It was also known as Winethereswick, Winriswic or Wenterswic...
(Triassic
Triassic
The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 250 to 200 Mya . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events...
Muschelkalk
Muschelkalk
The Muschelkalk is a sequence of sedimentary rock strata in the geology of central and western Europe. It has a Middle Triassic age and forms the middle part of the Germanic Trias, that further consists of the Buntsandstein and Keuper...
limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
s). The Jurassic Posidonia Shale
Posidonia Shale
The Posidonia Shale is a Lower Jurassic geological formation famous for its exceptionally well-preserved complete skeletons of fossil marine fish and reptiles. The Posidonienschiefer as German paleontologists call it, takes its name from the ubiquitous fossils of Posidonia bronni that characterize...
is well developed but is buried deep in the West and under the North Sea. It acts as source rock for oil fields in the West Netherlands Basin. During late Jurassic times the Zuidwal volcano
Zuidwal volcano
The Zuidwal volcano is an extinct volcano in the Netherlands at more than 2 km below ground under the Wadden Sea, between Harlingen and Vlieland, just south west of the island Griend...
was active in a now submerged part of the Netherlands known as the Wadden Sea
Wadden Sea
The Wadden Sea is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern continental Europe and the range of Frisian Islands, forming a shallow body of water with tidal flats and wetlands. It is rich in biological diversity...
.
During Cretaceous
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
times, most of the Netherlands was covered by a warm shallow (inland) sea in which thick successions of chalk
Chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....
were deposited. This is in places chert
Chert
Chert is a fine-grained silica-rich microcrystalline, cryptocrystalline or microfibrous sedimentary rock that may contain small fossils. It varies greatly in color , but most often manifests as gray, brown, grayish brown and light green to rusty red; its color is an expression of trace elements...
-bearing; chalk is mined near the southern city of Maastricht
Maastricht
Maastricht is situated on both sides of the Meuse river in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border and near the German border...
and the Maastrichtian
Maastrichtian
The Maastrichtian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the latest age or upper stage of the Late Cretaceous epoch or Upper Cretaceous series, the Cretaceous period or system, and of the Mesozoic era or erathem. It spanned from 70.6 ± 0.6 Ma to 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma...
stage was named after this locality. Here a number of mosasaur
Mosasaur
Mosasaurs are large extinct marine lizards. The first fossil remains were discovered in a limestone quarry at Maastricht on the Meuse in 1764...
-fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
s have been excavated as well. The Schoonebeek
Schoonebeek
Schoonebeek is a village in the Dutch province of Drenthe. It is located in the municipality of Emmen, about 12 km south of that city.Schoonebeek was a separate municipality from 1884 to 1998, when it merged with Emmen....
oil-bearing sandstones are Early Cretaceous
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
in age and underlain by hydrocarbon
Hydrocarbon
In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons from which one hydrogen atom has been removed are functional groups, called hydrocarbyls....
-rich Lower Cretaceous lacustrine Coevorden Formation which forms the source rock
Source rock
In petroleum geology, source rock refers to rocks from which hydrocarbons have been generated or are capable of being generated. They form one of the necessary elements of a working petroleum system. They are organic-rich sediments that may have been deposited in a variety of environments including...
for the east Netherlands oil.
Cenozoic Era
The CenozoicCenozoic
The Cenozoic era is the current and most recent of the three Phanerozoic geological eras and covers the period from 65.5 mya to the present. The era began in the wake of the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous that saw the demise of the last non-avian dinosaurs and...
is characterised by a further shallowing and erosion of earlier sediments. In places a reasonable thickness of Paleocene
Paleocene
The Paleocene or Palaeocene, the "early recent", is a geologic epoch that lasted from about . It is the first epoch of the Palaeogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era...
and Eocene
Eocene
The Eocene Epoch, lasting from about 56 to 34 million years ago , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Palaeocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the...
sediments is reached, but most of the subsurface of the Netherlands lack deposits of this age.
The recent Netherlands is formed by Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
and Holocene
Holocene
The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene and continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period. Its name comes from the Greek words and , meaning "entirely recent"...
age sediments as result of (glacio
Ice
Ice is water frozen into the solid state. Usually ice is the phase known as ice Ih, which is the most abundant of the varying solid phases on the Earth's surface. It can appear transparent or opaque bluish-white color, depending on the presence of impurities or air inclusions...
)-fluvial
Fluvial
Fluvial is used in geography and Earth science to refer to the processes associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them...
, eolian and marine
Marine (ocean)
Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...
sedimentation. Eolian dunes characterise the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
coast, a horseshoe
Horseshoe
A horseshoe, is a fabricated product, normally made of metal, although sometimes made partially or wholly of modern synthetic materials, designed to protect a horse's hoof from wear and tear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall...
-shaped moraine
Moraine
A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum. This debris may have been plucked off a valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...
forms the Utrecht Hill Ridge
Utrecht Hill Ridge
Utrecht Hill Ridge is a ridge of low sandhills that stretches in a direction from southeast to northwest over the Dutch province of Utrecht and over a part of North Holland. The total length of the region is about 50 km. It covers an area of approximately 23.000 ha...
(Dutch: Utrechtse Heuvelrug) and the river influence is still visible all over the Netherlands.
Tectonics and orogeny
Although the Netherlands seems to be a tectonicallyTectonics
Tectonics is a field of study within geology concerned generally with the structures within the lithosphere of the Earth and particularly with the forces and movements that have operated in a region to create these structures.Tectonics is concerned with the orogenies and tectonic development of...
quiet area, a number of fault activities have been shown in the past. The latest (1992) strong earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
(5.4 on Richter scale) had its epicenter
Epicenter
The epicenter or epicentre is the point on the Earth's surface that is directly above the hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or underground explosion originates...
close to the Limburg city of Roermond
Roermond
Roermond is a city, a municipality, and a diocese in the southeastern part of the Netherlands.The city of Roermond is a historically important town, on the lower Roer at the east bank of the Meuse river. It received city rights in 1231...
. The south of the Netherlands is topographically higher and is linked to the geology of the Ardennes and the London-Brabant Massif. The Lower Rhine Graben, part of the European Cenozoic Rift System
European Cenozoic Rift System
The European Cenozoic Rift System is an 1100 km long system of rifts formed in the foreland of the Alps as the lithosphere responded to the effects of the Alpine and Pyrenean orogenies...
, which has been tectonically active since the Oligocene, affects the southwestern part of the Netherlands.
