Using extensive data sets from three separate areas in the German North Sea sector, consisting of seismic grids, cores
and in-situ cone penetration tests (CPT), we have established a revised stratigraphical framework for the mid to late
Quaternary deposits of theGermanNorthSea sector. This framework consists of four regional unconformities and 15
other local unconformities derived from seismic profiles. Using these unconformities, along with lithological and
geotechnical data, it was possible to define and correlate 14 major units and 21 subunits within the framework. The
Quaternarycover in the area is characterized byavarietyof environmental settings ranging fromglacial terrestrial and
fluvial to lacustrine aswell as brackish and marine environments with associated erosion, reworking and deposition.
The complexity of Quaternary deposits within the area is explained by its history of repeated ice advances interrupted
by marine transgressions and exposed periglacial landscapes.Within the framework, eight buried tunnel valleys and
two shallow buried river valleys are identified from seismic profiles with four phases of tunnel valley generation
inferred. These phases of tunnel valley generation are associated with the Elsterian (three) and Saalian (one) glacial
stages. Infill of these tunnel valleys consists of glaciofluvial sands, thick sequences of marine and lacustrine finegrained
sediments and some reworked till remnants. Elsewhere, extensive tabular units have formed consisting of
marine and fluvial sediments.We compare this new stratigraphy with previous stratigraphies for the German North
Sea sector, attribute informal stratigraphical names and offer preliminary correlations with established stratigraphies
from other sectors of the North Sea.