The Cheshire Basin is a half-graben formed as one of a series of sedimentary basins during
Permo-Triassic rifting. The Permo-Triassic infill of this basin may have been up to four or five
kilometres thick prior to geologically recent erosion. The basin is flanked to the East and West
by Carboniferous and older rocks. The succession in this region displays widespread uplift and
erosion resulting from northward encroachment of the Variscan Front at the end of the
Carboniferous.
This report details the development of 1-D thermal models and integration to a 2-D model of the
Cheshire Basin. BasinModTM (Platte River Software) has been used to model compaction and
temperature through burial over geological time using a variety of datasets. The report considers
the Cheshire Basin area through the Carboniferous to the present day, concentrating on the late
Carboniferous Coal Measures where maturity data are available.
Heat flow in this region was assumed to be generally high during the latest Carboniferous to
early Permian. Modelled isotherms and maturity plots imply that the greatest temperatures
attained in the productive Coal Measures occurred during Permian to Cretaceous burial in the
basin centre, and during late Carboniferous to Permian time outside of the basin.
The 1-D models imply that some Carboniferous Coal Measures reached the oil generation
window. Minor oil stains and shows were found in some Cheshire Basin boreholes. However
there does not appear to be a suitable trap to create a commercially viable reservoir.
The BasinMod model results and this best practice report with accompanying checklist and
guidelines are stored electronically for the DGSM
