ALT Details of the Mesozoic North Sea rift system. (A) Map of the extent of Triassic (stretching-stage) and Jurassic (necking-stage) rift basins, as well as Moho depth. Modified after Ziegler (1990) and Goldsmith et al. (2003). (B–C) Shift of the North Sea rift basin depocenter configuration during Late Jurassic rifting. Erratt et al. (1999) proposed a scenario involving a transition from E-W divergence to SW-NE diver- gence (gray arrows) to explain this shift in depocenter configurations. We propose an alternative scenario with continuous E-W divergence (red arrows) and increased coupling between mantle and upper crust. Modified after Erratt et al. (1999). CB—Cheshire Basin; CG—Central Graben; EB—Egersund Basin; HG—Horn Graben; IMF—Inner Moray Firth; Outer Moray Firth; SPB—Sole Pit Basin; VG—Viking Graben; WG— Worchester Graben; WSB—West-Shetland Basin.

ALT Overview of set-up and results from key analogue models from Zwaan et al. (2022) showing the impact of coupling between mantle and upper crust on rift basin evolution. (A) 3-D sketch of model set-up. (B) Top view sketch show- ing the orientations of the velocity discontinuity (VD), representing mantle inheritance, and seeds (S), representing crustal inheritance, in models B3 and B5. (θs = obliquity of seeds, θVD = obliquity of VD). (C) Cross-section sketch of model layer- ing and seed location, of which the natural proto- type is shown in (D). (E) Maximum normal strain (indicating active normal faulting) and topography analysis of models B3 and B5. The models under- went a shift from low to high coupling (as a result of increasing divergence velocity), leading to the initial development of crustal structures, con- trolled by the crustal inheritances, that are subsequently overprinted by a phase of mantle- controlled deformation. d—VD displacement.