1. Shannon Basin, West of Ireland (Thurmond et al.)

The Carboniferous Shannon Basin in western Ireland is approximately 100 km wide and filled with a sedimentary succession of up to 2200 m thick. The fill is an overall deepening to shallowing-upwards succession from shallow-water clastics to deepwater carbonates through a source-rock quality deep basinal shale (Clare Shale), followed by a 460 m thick sand-rich turbidite unit (the Ross Formation), a 550 m thick overall fine-grained, complex slope succession (the Gull Island Formation) and capped by a 900 m thick succession of deltaic cyclothems of the Central Clare Group. Outcrops of the Shannon Basin have been extensively studied, and provide both a testing ground for new ideas and a frequently visited location for fieldtrips and schools. There have been several studies aimed at collecting 3D data from the better-exposed outcrops, and these data have been used for various types of analyses, including sedimentological interpretation, structural measurement and construction of synthetic seismic profiles. The virtual fieldtrip provides an overview of Statoil's efforts in the Shannon Basin, including integration of several 3D outcrop models (photorealistic models), interpretations and advanced synthetic seismic within the framework of Google Earth and proprietary extensions to it. This illustrates how a wide variety of scales can be visualized simultaneously – from centimetre-scale features on a VO to basin-wide synthetic seismic lines and cross-sections.