Axial and transverse deep-water sediment supply to syn-rift fault terraces: Insights from the West Xylokastro Fault Block,Gulf of Corinth,Greece

Deep-water syn-rift systems develop in partially- or transiently-linked depocentres to form complicated depositional architectures, which are characterised by short transport distances, coarse grain sizes and a wide range of sedimentary processes. Exhumed systems that can help to constrain the tectono-stratigraphic evolution of such systems are rare or complicated by inversion tectonics. Here, we document a mid-Pleistocene deep-water syn-rift system fed by Gilbert-type fan deltas in the hangingwall of a rift margin fault bounding the West Xylokastro Horst block, on the southern margin of the Gulf of Corinth, Greece. Structural and stratigraphic mapping combined with digital outcrop models permit observations along this syn-rift depositional system from hinterland source to deep-water sink. The West Xylokastro Fault hangingwall is filled by two distinct sediment systems; an axial system fed by coarse-grained sediment gravity flows derived from fault-tip Gilbert-type fan deltas and a lateral system dominated by mass transport deposits fed from an evolving fault-scarp apron. Abrupt changes in stratigraphic architecture across the axial system are interpreted to record changes in relative base level, sediment supply and tectonics. Locally, depositional topography and intra-basinal structures controlled sediment dispersal patterns, from bed-scale infilling of local rugose topography above mass transport complexes, to basin-scale confinement from the fault scarp apron. These acted to generate a temporally and spatially variable, heterogeneous stratigraphic architecture throughout the basin-fill. The transition of the locus of sedimentation from a rift margin to a fault terrace through the syn-sedimentary growth of a basinward fault produced regressive surfaces updip, which manifest themselves as channels in the deep-water realm and acted to prograde the system. We present a new conceptual model that recognises coeval axial and transverse systems based on the stratigraphic architecture around the West Xylokastro fault block that emphasizes the lateral and vertical heterogeneity of rift basin-fills with multiple entry points.     

Tectono‐sedimentary development of early syn‐rift deposits: the Abura Graben,Suez Rift,Egypt

The thickness and distribution of early syn‐rift deposits record the evolution of structures accommodating the earliest phases of continental extension. However, our understanding of the detailed tectono‐sedimentary evolution of these deposits is poor, because in the subsurface, they are often deeply buried and below seismic resolution and sparsely sampled by borehole data. Furthermore, early syn‐rift deposits are typically poorly exposed in the field, being buried beneath thick, late syn‐rift and post‐rift deposits. To improve our understanding of the tectono‐sedimentary development of early syn‐rift strata during the initial stages of rifting, we examined quasi‐3D exposures in the Abura Graben, Suez Rift, Egypt. During the earliest stage of extension, forced folding above blind normal fault segments, rather than half‐graben formation adjacent to surface‐breaking faults, controlled rift physiography, accommodation development and the stratigraphic architecture of non‐marine, early syn‐rift deposits. Fluvial systems incised into underlying pre‐rift deposits and were structurally focused in the axis of the embryonic depocentre, which, at this time, was characterized by a fold‐bound syncline rather than a fault‐bound half graben. During this earliest phase of extension, sediment was sourced from the rift shoulder some 3 km to the NE of the depocentre, rather than from the crests of the flanking, intra‐basin extensional forced folds. Fault‐driven subsidence, perhaps augmented by a eustatic sea‐level rise, resulted in basin deepening and the deposition of a series of fluvial‐dominated mouth bars, which, like the preceding fluvial systems, were structurally pinned within the axis of the growing depocentre, which was still bound by extensional forced folds rather than faults. The extensional forced folds were eventually locally breached by surface‐breaking faults, resulting in the establishment of a half graben, basin deepening and the deposition of shallow marine sandstone and fan‐delta conglomerates. Because growth folding and faulting were coeval along‐strike, syn‐rift stratal units deposited at this time show a highly variable along‐strike stratigraphic architecture, locally thinning towards the growth fold but, only a few kilometres along‐strike, thickening towards the surface‐breaking fault. Despite displaying the classic early syn‐rift stratigraphic motif recording net upward‐deepening, extensional forced folding rather than surface faulting played a key role in controlling basin physiography, accommodation development, and syn‐rift stratal architecture and facies development during the early stages of extension. This structural and stratigraphic observations required to make this interpretation are relatively subtle and may go unrecognized in low‐resolution subsurface data sets.     

Tectono‐sedimentary evolution of the Plio‐Pleistocene Corinth rift,Greece

The onshore central Corinth rift contains a syn‐rift succession >3 km thick deposited in 5–15 km‐wide tilt blocks, all now inactive, uplifted and deeply incised. This part of the rift records upward deepening from fluviatile to lake‐margin conditions and finally to sub‐lacustrine turbidite channel and lobe complexes, and deep‐water lacustrine conditions (Lake Corinth) were established over most of the rift by 3.6 Ma. This succession represents the first of two phases of rift development – Rift 1 from 5.0–3.6 to 2.2–1.8 Ma and Rift 2 from 2.2–1.8 Ma to present. Rift 1 developed as a 30 km‐wide zone of distributed normal faulting. The lake was fed by four major N‐ to NE‐flowing antecedent drainages along the southern rift flank. These sourced an axial fluvial system, Gilbert fan deltas and deep lacustrine turbidite channel and lobe complexes. The onset of Rift 2 and abandonment of Rift 1 involved a 30 km northward shift in the locus of rifting. In the west, giant Gilbert deltas built into a deepening lake depocentre in the hanging wall of the newly developing southern border fault system. Footwall and regional uplift progressively destroyed Lake Corinth in the central and eastern parts of the rift, producing a staircase of deltaic and, following drainage reversal, shallow marine terraces descending from >1000 m to present‐day sea level. The growth, linkage and death of normal faults during the two phases of rifting are interpreted to reflect self‐organization and strain localization along co‐linear border faults. In the west, interaction with the Patras rift occurred along the major Patras dextral strike‐slip fault. This led to enhanced migration of fault activity, uplift and incision of some early Rift 2 fan deltas, and opening of the Rion Straits at ca. 400–600 ka. The landscape and stratigraphic evolution of the rift was strongly influenced by regional palaeotopographic variations and local antecedent drainage, both inherited from the Hellenide fold and thrust belt.     

Fault architecture, basin structure and evolution of the Gulf of Corinth Rift, central Greece

The style of extension and strain distribution during the early stages of intra-continental rifting is important for understanding rift-margin development and can provide constraints for lithospheric deformation mechanisms. The Corinth rift in central Greece is one of the few rifts to have experienced a short extensional history without subsequent overprinting. We synthesise existing seismic reflection data throughout the active offshore Gulf of Corinth Basin to investigate fault activity history and the spatio-temporal evolution of the basin, producing for the first time basement depth and syn-rift sediment isopachs throughout the offshore rift. A major basin-wide unconformity surface with an age estimated from sea-level cycles at ca . 0.4 Ma separates distinct seismic stratigraphic units. Assuming that sedimentation rates are on average consistent, the present rift formed at 1–2 Ma, with no clear evidence for along-strike propagation of the rift axis. The rift has undergone major changes in relative fault activity and basin geometry during its short history. The basement depth is greatest in the central rift (maximum ∼3 km) and decreases to the east and west. In detail however, two separated depocentres 20–50 km long were created controlled by N- and S-dipping faults before 0.4 Ma, while since ca . 0.4 Ma a single depocentre (80 km long) has been controlled by several connected N-dipping faults, with maximum subsidence focused between the two older depocentres. Thus isolated but nearby faults can persist for timescales ca . 1 Ma and form major basins before becoming linked. There is a general evolution towards a dominance of N-dipping faults; however, in the western Gulf strain is distributed across several active N- and S-dipping faults throughout rift history, producing a more complex basin geometry.     

Impact of volcanism on the sedimentary record of the Neuquén rift basin,Argentina: towards a cause and effect model

The analysis of volcano‐sedimentary infill in sedimentary basins constitutes a challenge for basin analysis and hydrocarbon exploration worldwide. In order to understand the contribution of volcanism to the sedimentary record in rift basins, we study the Jurassic effusive‐explosive volcanic infill of an inverted extensional depocentre at the Neuquén Basin, Argentina. A cause and effect model that evaluates the relationship between volcanism and sedimentation was devised to develop a conceptual model for the tectono‐stratigraphic evolution of this volcanic rift basin. We show how the variations in the volcanism, coupled with the activity of extensional faults, determined the types of volcanic edifices (i.e., composite volcanoes, graben‐calderas, and lava fields). Volcanic edifices controlled the stacking patterns of the volcanic units as well as sedimentary systems. The landform of the volcanic edifices, as well as the styles and scales of the eruptions governed the sedimentary input to the basin, setting the main variables of the sedimentary systems, such as provenance, grain size, transport and deposition and geometry. As a result, the contrasting volcaniclastic input, from higher volcaniclastic input to lower volcaniclastic input, associated with different subsidence patterns, determined the high‐resolution syn‐rift infill patterns of the extensional depocentre. The cause and effect model presented in this study isolates the variables of the volcanic environments that control the sedimentary scenarios. We suggest that, by adjusting the first order input parameters of the model, these cause and effect scenarios could be adapted to similar rift basins, in order to establish predictive facies models with stratigraphic controls, and the impact of volcanism on their stratigraphic records.     

Depositional systems in multiphase rifts: seismic case study from the Lofoten margin,Norway

The evolution of depositional systems in multiphase rifts is influenced by the selective reactivation of faults between subsequent rift phases. The Middle Jurassic to Palaeocene tectonic history of the Lofoten margin, a segment of the North Atlantic rift system, is characterised by three distinct rift phases separated by long (>20 Myr) inter‐rift periods. The initial rift phase comprised a distinct fault initiation and linkage stage, whereas the later rift phases were characterised by selective reactivation of previously linked through‐going faults which resulted in immediate rift climax. Using 2‐D and 3‐D seismic reflection data in conjunction with shallow core data we present a 100 Myr record of shallow to deep marine depositional environments that includes deltaic clinoform packages, slope aprons and turbidite fans. The rapid re‐establishment of major faults during the later rift phases impacts on drainage systems and sediment supply. Firstly, the immediate localisation of strain and accumulation of displacement on few faults results in pronounced footwall uplift and possible fault block rotation along those faults, which makes it more likely for any antecedent fault‐transverse depositional systems to become reversed. Secondly, any antecedent axially‐sourced depositional systems that are inherited from the foregoing rift phase(s) are likely to be sustained after reactivation because such axial systems have already been directed around fault tips. Hence, the immediate localisation of strain through selective reactivation in the later rift phases restricts fault‐transverse sediment supply more than axial sediment supply, which is likely to be a key aspect of the tectono‐sedimentary evolution of multiphase rifts.     

Impact of a pre-existing transverse drainage system on active rift stratigraphy: An example from the Corinth Rift,Greece

Models to explain alluvial system development in rift settings commonly depict fans that are sourced directly from catchments formed in newly uplifted footwalls, which leads to the development of steep-sided talus-cone fans in the actively subsiding basin depocentre. The impact of basin evolution on antecedent drainage networks orientated close to perpendicular to a rift axis, and flowing over the developing hangingwall dip slope, remains relatively poorly understood. The aim of this study is to better understand the responses to rift margin uplift and subsequent intrabasinal fault development in determining sedimentation patterns in alluvial deposits of a major antecedent drainage system. Field-acquired data from a coarse-grained alluvial syn-rift succession in the western Gulf of Corinth, Greece (sedimentological logging and mapping) has allowed analysis of the spatial distribution of facies associations, stratigraphic architectural elements and patterns of palaeoflow. During the earliest rifting phase, newly uplifted footwalls redirected a previously established fluvial system with predominantly southward drainage. Footwall uplift on the southern basin margin at an initially relatively slow rate led to the development of an overfilled basin, within which an alluvial fan prograded to the south-west, south and south-east over a hangingwall dip slope. Deposition of the alluvial system sourced from the north coincided with the establishment of small-scale alluvial fans sourced from the newly uplifted footwall in the south. Deposits of non-cohesive debris flows close to the proposed hangingwall fan apex pass gradationally downstream into predominantly bedload conglomerate deposits indicative of sedimentation via hyperconcentrated flows laden with sand- and silt-grade sediment. Subsequent normal faulting in the hangingwall resulted in the establishment of further barriers to stream drainage, blocking flow routes to the south. This culminated in the termination of sediment supply to the basin depocentre from the north, and the onset of underfilled basin conditions as signified by an associated lacustrine transgression. The evolution of the fluvial system described in this study records transitions between three possible end-member types of interaction between active rifting and antecedent drainage systems: (a) erosion through an uplifted footwall, (b) drainage diversion away from an uplifted footwall and (c) deposition over the hangingwall dip slope. The orientation of antecedent drainage pathways at a high angle to the trend of a developing rift axis, replete with intrabasinal faulting, exerts a primary control on the timing and location of development of overfilled and underfilled basin states in evolving depocentres.     

Source‐to‐sink analysis in an active extensional setting: Holocene erosion and deposition in the Sperchios rift,central Greece

We present a source‐to‐sink analysis to explain sediment supply variations and depositional patterns over the Holocene within an active rift setting. We integrate a range of modelling approaches and data types with field observations from the Sperchios rift basin, Central Greece that allow us to analyse and quantify (1) the size and characteristics of sediment source areas, (2) the dynamics of the sediment routing system from upstream fluvial processes to downstream deposition at the coastline, and (3) the depositional architecture and volumes of the Holocene basin fill. We demonstrate that the Sperchios rift comprises a ‘closed’ system over the Holocene and that erosional and depositional volumes are thus balanced. Furthermore, we evaluate key controls in the development of this source‐to‐sink system, including the role of pre‐existing topography, bedrock erodibility and lateral variations in the rate of tectonic uplift/subsidence. We show that tectonic subsidence alone can explain the observed grain size fining along the rift axis resulting in the downstream transition from a braided channel to an extensive meander belt (>15 km long) that feeds the fine‐grained Sperchios delta. Additionally, we quantify the ratios of sediment storage to bypass for the two main footwall‐sourced alluvial fan systems and relate the fan characteristics to the pattern and rates of fault slip. Finally, we show that ≥40% of the sediment that builds the Sperchios delta is supplied by ≤22% of the entire source area and that this can be primarily attributed to a longer‐term (~10⁶ years) transient landscape response to fault segment linkage. Our multidisciplinary approach allows us to quantify the relative importance of multiple factors that control a complex source‐to‐sink system and thus improve our understanding of landscape evolution and stratigraphic development in active extensional tectonic settings.     

Late syn‐rift evolution of the Vingleia Fault Complex,Halten Terrace,offshore Mid‐Norway; a test of rift basin tectono‐stratigraphic models

Rift basin tectono‐stratigraphic models indicate that normal fault growth controls the sedimentology and stratigraphic architecture of syn‐rift deposits. However, such models have rarely been tested by observations from natural examples and thus remain largely conceptual. In this study we integrate 3D seismic reflection, and biostratigraphically constrained core and wireline log data from the Vingleia Fault Complex, Halten Terrace, offshore Mid‐Norway to test rift basin tectono‐stratigraphic models. The geometry of the basin‐bounding fault and its hangingwall, and the syn‐rift stratal architecture, vary along strike. The fault is planar along a much of its length, bounding a half‐graben containing a faultward‐thickening syn‐rift wedge. Locally, however, the fault has a ramp‐flat‐ramp geometry, with the hangingwall defined by a fault‐parallel anticline‐syncline pair. Here, an unusual bipartite syn‐rift architecture is observed, comprising a lower faultward‐expanding and an upper faultward‐thinning wedge. Fine‐grained basinfloor deposits dominate the syn‐rift succession, although isolated coarse clastics occur. The spatial and temporal distribution of these coarse clastics is complex due to syn‐depositional movement on the Vingleia Fault Complex. High rates of accommodation generation in the fault hangingwall led to aggradational stacking of fan deltas that rapidly (<5 km) pinch out basinward into offshore mudstone. In the south of the basin, rapid strain localization meant that relay ramps were short‐lived and did not represent major, long‐lived sediment entry points. In contrast, in the north, strain localization occurred later in the rift event, thus progradational shorefaces developed and persisted for a relatively long time in relay ramps developed between unlinked fault segments. The footwall of the Vingleia Fault Complex was characterized by relatively low rates of accommodation generation, with relatively thin, progradational hangingwall shorelines developed downdip of the fault block apex, sometime after the onset of sediment supply to the hangingwall. We show that rift basin tectono‐stratigraphic models need modifying to take into account along‐strike variability in fault structure and basin physiography, and the timing and style of syn‐rift sediment dispersal and facies, in both hangingwall and footwall locations.     

Fault-proximal stratigraphic record of episodic extension and oblique inversion, Bisbee basin, southwestern New Mexico, USA

Tectonic inversion models predict that stratigraphic thickening and local facies patterns adjacent to reactivated fault systems should record at least two phases of basin development: (1) initial extension‐related subsidence and (2) subsequent shortening‐induced uplift. In the central Peloncillo Mountains of southwestern New Mexico, thickness trends, distribution, and provenance of two major stratigraphic intervals on opposite sides of a northwest‐striking reverse fault preserve a record of Early Cretaceous normal displacement and latest Cretaceous–Paleogene reverse displacement along the fault. The Aptian–Albian Bisbee Group thickens by a factor of three from the footwall to the hanging‐wall block, and the Late Cretaceous?–Eocene Bobcat Hill Formation is preserved only in the footwall block. An initial episode of normal faulting resulted in thickening of upper Aptian–middle Albian, mixed siliciclastic and carbonate deposits and an up section change from coarse‐grained deltas to shallow‐marine depositional conditions. A second episode of normal faulting caused abrupt thickening of upper Albian, quartzose coastal‐plain deposits across the fault. These faulting episodes record two events of extension that affected the northern rift shoulder of the Bisbee basin. The third faulting episode was oblique‐slip, reverse reactivation of the fault and other related, former normal faults. Alluvial and pyroclastic deposits of the Bobcat Hill Formation record inversion of the Bisbee basin and development of an intermontane basin directly adjacent to the former rift basin. Inversion was coeval with latest Cretaceous–Paleogene shortening and magmatism. This offset history offers significant insight into extensional basin tectonics in the Early Cretaceous and permits rejection of models of long‐term Mesozoic shortening and orogen migration during the Cretaceous. This paper also illustrates how episodes of fault reactivation modify, in very short distances (<10 km), regional patterns of subsidence, the distribution of sediment‐source areas, and sedimentary depositional systems.     

Impact of faulting in depocentres development,facies assemblages,drainage patterns,and provenance in continental half-graben basins: An example from the Fanja Basin of Oman

Fault throw gradients create transverse folding, and this can influence accommodation creation and sedimentary routing and infill patterns in extensional half-graben basin. The Fanja half-graben basin (Oman) offers an excellent outcrop of an alluvial fan succession displaying cyclical stacking and basin-scale growth-fold patterns. These unique conditions allow for an investigation of fault-timing and accommodation development related to fault-transverse folding. Our study combines geological mapping, structural analysis, sedimentary logging and correlation, and bulk mineralogical compositions. Mapping reveals that the basin is bounded by a regional-scale fault, with local depocentres changing position in response to transverse syncline and anticline development ascribed to fault-displacement gradients. The alluvial Qahlah Formation (Late Cretaceous) is unconformably overlying the Semail Ophiolite, and is in turn overlain by the marine Jafnayn Formation (Late Palaeocene). Facies and stratigraphic analysis allows for subdivision of the Qahlah Formation into four informal units, from base to top: (i) laterite in topographic depressions of the ophiolite, (ii) greenish pebbly sandstones, deriving from axially draining braided streams deposited in the low-relief half-graben basin. This green Qahlah grades vertically into the red Qahlah, formed by alluvial fanglomerates and floodplain mudstones, with drainage patterns changing from fault-transverse to fault-parallel with increasing distance to the main fault. The red Qahlah can be divided into (iii) the Wadi al Theepa member, found in a western basin depocentre, with higher immaturity and sand: mud ratio, suggesting a more proximal source, and (iv) the Al Batah member, located in the eastern part of the basin. The latter shows better sorting, a lower sand: mud ratio, and more prominent graded sub-units. It also shows eastward expansion from an orthogonal monocline, ascribed to accommodation developed in a relay ramp. Changes in sedimentary facies and depositional patterns are consistent with differential mineralogical composition. The Green Qahlah is composed of quartz and lithic mafic rock fragments, sourced from the ophiolite and schists of the metamorphic basement. The Red Qahlah is composed of chert and kaolinite sourced from the Hawasina Nappe succession in the footwall of the master fault. These changes in source area are linked to unroofing of fault-footwalls and domal structures during the extensional collapse of the Semail Ophiolite. The novelty of this study resides in linking sedimentology and fault-displacement events controlling fault-perpendicular folding, and its influence on depocentre generation and stratigraphic architecture. This is an approach seldom considered in seismic analysis, and rarely analysed in outcrop studies, thus placing the results from this study among the key outcrop-based contributions to the field.     

Straight from the source's mouth: Controls on field-constrained sediment export across the entire active Corinth Rift,central Greece

The volume and grain-size of sediment supplied from catchments fundamentally control basin stratigraphy. Despite their importance, few studies have constrained sediment budgets and grain-size exported into an active rift at the basin scale. Here, we used the Corinth Rift as a natural laboratory to quantify the controls on sediment export within an active rift. In the field, we measured the hydraulic geometries, surface grain-sizes of channel bars and full-weighted grain-size distributions of river sediment at the mouths of 47 catchments draining the rift (constituting 83% of the areal extent). Results show that the sediment grain-size increases westward along the southern coast of the Gulf of Corinth, with the coarse-fraction grain-sizes (84^th percentile of weighted grain-size distribution) ranging from approximately 19 to 91 mm. We find that the median and coarse-fraction of the sieved grain-size distribution are primarily controlled by bedrock lithology, with late Quaternary uplift rates exerting a secondary control. Our results indicate that grain-size export is primarily controlled by the input grain-size within the catchment and subsequent abrasion during fluvial transport, both quantities that are sensitive to catchment lithology. We also demonstrate that the median and coarse-fraction of the grain-size distribution are predominantly transported in bedload; however, typical sand-grade particles are transported as suspended load at bankfull conditions, suggesting disparate source-to-sink transit timescales for sand and gravel. Finally, we derive both a full Holocene sediment budget and a grain-size-specific bedload discharged into the Gulf of Corinth using the grain-size measurements and previously published estimates of sediment fluxes and volumes. Results show that the bedload sediment budget is primarily comprised (~79%) of pebble to cobble grade (0.475–16 cm). Our results suggest that the grain-size of sediment export at the rift scale is particularly sensitive to catchment lithology and fluvial mophodynamics, which complicates our ability to make direct inferences of tectonic and palaeoenvironmental forcing from local stratigraphic characteristics.     

Supradetachment to rift basin transition recorded in continental to marine deposition; Paleogene Bandar Jissah Basin,NE Oman

A transition from supradetachment to rift basin signature is recorded in the ~1,500 m thick succession of continental to shallow marine conglomerates, mixed carbonate‐siliciclastic shallow marine sediments and carbonate ramp deposits preserved in the Bandar Jissah Basin, located southeast of Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman. During deposition, isostatically‐driven uplift rotated the underlying Banurama Detachment and basin fill ~45° before both were cut by the steep Wadi Kabir Fault as the basin progressed to a rift‐style bathymetry that controlled sedimentary facies belts and growth packages. The upper Paleocene to lower Eocene Jafnayn Formation was deposited in a supradetachment basin controlled by the Banurama Detachment. Alluvial fan conglomerates sourced from the Semail Ophiolite and the Saih Hatat window overlie the ophiolitic substrate and display sedimentary transport directions parallel to tectonic transport in the Banurama Detachment. The continental strata grade into braidplain, mouth bar, shoreface and carbonate ramp deposits. Subsequent detachment‐related folding of the basin during deposition of the Eocene Rusayl and lower Seeb formations marks the early transition towards a rift‐style basin setting. The folding, which caused drainage diversion and is affiliated with sedimentary growth packages, coincided with uplift‐isostasy as the Banurama Detachment was abandoned and the steeper Marina, Yiti Beach and Wadi Kabir faults were activated. The upper Seeb Formation records the late transition to rift‐style basin phase, with fault‐controlled sedimentary growth packages and facies distributions. A predominance of carbonates over siliciclastic sediments resulted from increasing near‐fault accommodation, complemented by reduced sedimentary input from upland catchments. Hence, facies distributions in the Bandar Jissah Basin reflect the progression from detachment to rift‐style tectonics, adding to the understanding of post‐orogenic extensional basin systems.     

Evolution of the late Cenozoic Chaco foreland basin, Southern Bolivia

Eastward Andean orogenic growth since the late Oligocene led to variable crustal loading, flexural subsidence and foreland basin sedimentation in the Chaco basin. To understand the interaction between Andean tectonics and contemporaneous foreland development, we analyse stratigraphic, sedimentologic and seismic data from the Subandean Belt and the Chaco Basin. The structural features provide a mechanism for transferring zones of deposition, subsidence and uplift. These can be reconstructed based on regional distribution of clastic sequences. Isopach maps, combined with sedimentary architecture analysis, establish systematic thickness variations, facies changes and depositional styles. The foreland basin consists of five stratigraphic successions controlled by Andean orogenic episodes and climate: (1) the foreland basin sequence commences between ～27 and 14 Ma with the regionally unconformable, thin, easterly sourced fluvial Petaca strata. It represents a significant time interval of low sediment accumulation in a forebulge‐backbulge depocentre. (2) The overlying ～14–7 Ma‐old Yecua Formation, deposited in marine, fluvial and lacustrine settings, represents increased subsidence rates from thrust‐belt loading outpacing sedimentation rates. It marks the onset of active deformation and the underfilled stage of the foreland basin in a distal foredeep. (3) The overlying ～7–6 Ma‐old, westerly sourced Tariquia Formation indicates a relatively high accommodation and sediment supply concomitant with the onset of deposition of Andean‐derived sediment in the medial‐foredeep depocentre on a distal fluvial megafan. Progradation of syntectonic, wedge‐shaped, westerly sourced, thickening‐ and coarsening‐upward clastics of the (4) ～6–2.1 Ma‐old Guandacay and (5) ～2.1 Ma‐to‐Recent Emborozú Formations represent the propagation of the deformation front in the present Subandean Zone, thereby indicating selective trapping of coarse sediments in the proximal foredeep and wedge‐top depocentres, respectively. Overall, the late Cenozoic stratigraphic intervals record the easterly propagation of the deformation front and foreland depocentre in response to loading and flexure by the growing Intra‐ and Subandean fold‐and‐thrust belt.     

The role of evaporite mobility in modifying subsidence patterns during normal fault growth and linkage, Halten Terrace, Mid-Norway

Well‐calibrated seismic interpretation in the Halten Terrace of Mid‐Norway demonstrates the important role that structural feedback between normal fault growth and evaporite mobility has for depocentre development during syn‐rift deposition of the Jurassic–Early Cretaceous Viking and Fangst Groups. While the main rift phase reactivated pre‐existing structural trends, and initiated new extensional structures, a Triassic evaporite interval decouples the supra‐salt cover strata from the underlying basement, causing the development of two separate fault populations, one in the cover and the other confined to the pre‐salt basement. Detailed displacement–length analyses of both cover and basement fault arrays, combined with mapping of the component parts of the syn‐rift interval, have been used to reveal the spatial and temporal evolution of normal fault segments and sediment depocentres within the Halten Terrace area. Significantly, the results highlight important differences with traditional models of normal fault‐controlled subsidence, including those from parts of the North Sea where salt is absent. It can now be shown that evaporite mobility is intimately linked to the along‐strike displacement variations of these cover and basement faults. The evaporites passively move beneath the cover in response to the extension, such that the evaporite thickness becomes greatest adjacent to regions of high fault displacement. The consequent evaporite swells can become large enough to have pronounced palaeobathymetric relief in hangingwall locations, associated with fault displacement maxima– the exact opposite situation to that predicted by traditional models of normal fault growth. Evaporite movement from previous extension also affects the displacement–length relationships of subsequently nucleated or reactivated faults. Evaporite withdrawal, on the other hand, tends to be a later‐stage feature associated with the high stress regions around the propagating tips of normal faults or their coeval hangingwall release faults. The results indicate the important effect of, and structural feedback caused by, syn‐rift evaporite mobility in heavily modifying subsidence patterns produced by normal fault array evolution. Despite their departure from published models, the results provide a new, generic framework within which to interpret extensional fault and depocentre development and evolution in areas in which mobile evaporites exist.     

Syn‐depositional thin‐ and thick‐skinned extensional tectonics in the mid‐Cretaceous Lasarte sub‐basin,western Pyrenees

In the mid‐Cretaceous Lasarte sub‐basin (LSB) [northeastern Basque‐Cantabrian Basin (BCB)] contemporaneous and syn‐depositional thin‐ and thick‐skinned extensional tectonics occur due to the presence of a ductile detachment layer that decoupled the extension. Despite the interest in extension modes of rift basins bearing intra‐stratal detachment layers, complex cases remain poorly understood. In the LSB, field results based on mapping, stratigraphic, sedimentological and structural data show the relationship between growth strata and tectonic structures. Syn‐depositional extensional listric faults and associated folds and faults have been identified in the supra‐detachment thin‐skinned system. But stratigraphic data also indicate the activation of sub‐detachment thick‐skinned extensional faults coeval with the development of the thin‐skinned system. The tectono‐sedimentary evolution of the LSB, since the Late Aptian until the earliest Late Albian, has been interpreted based on thin‐ and thick‐skinned extensional growth structures, which are fossilized by post‐extensional strata. The development of the thin‐skinned system is attributed to the presence of a ductile detachment layer (Upper Triassic Keuper facies) which decoupled the extension from deeper sub‐detachment basement‐involved faulting under a regional extensional/transtensional regime.     

Tectonic control on sedimentary evolution of three North Atlantic borderland Mesozoic basins1

Multiple episodes of extensional tectonism dominated the formation of Mesozoic fault-bounded basins on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, the Irish Continental Shelf and the central North Sea. A range of structural and stratigraphic responses in the Jeanne d'Arc, Porcupine and Moray Firth basins support widespread synchronous tectonic controls on sedimentation during one of these episodes, the Late Cimmerian. Rifting was preceded by a phase of related tectonism during which subsidence rates began to vary across broad areas but without significant fault block rotation. This Late Cimmerian ‘onset warp’ pattern of subsidence is considered to have been essential in the establishment of restricted anoxic basins from latest Oxfordian through Kimmeridgian (sensu gallico) time and the development of one prolific layer of organic-rich source rocks. The most prominent and widely recognized structural/lithostratigraphic response to Late Cimmerian rifting was the deposition of sediment wedges. Tithonian to early Valanginian strata generally thicken- into northerly trending faults in the Jeanne d'Arc and Porcupine basins, indicating that extensional stress was orientated WNW-ESE across a very broad area. The misalignment of this regional Late Cimmerian extensional stress with local inherited structural fabric may be responsible for transpressional uplift of individual fault blocks in the Outer Moray Firth basin. Sedimentological responses to Late Cimmerian rifting were varied, though a common lithofacies stacking pattern is recognized. Variably thick conglomerates and/or sandstones were widely deposited at the start of rift deformation, while palaeoenvironments ranged from alluvial and braid plain to submarine fan even within individual basins. The relatively coarse basal sediments fine upwards into a second layer of commonly organic-rich shales and mark The widest variations in palaeoenvironments and sediment thicknesses occurred during the last phase of Late Cimmerian rift tectonism, though all three basins show evidence of decreasing water depths, increasing oxygen levels and increasing grain size. This lithofacies stacking pattern of relatively coarse to fine to coarse (reservoir/source/reservoir) and the development of bounding unconformities are largely attributable to progressive changes in rift-controlled subsidence. Rift basin subsidence rates are interpreted to increase from a low at initiation of faulting to a mid-rift peak, followed by slowing subsidence to the end of extension. A number of counteracting crustal mechanisms that may account for progressive variations in rift-induced subsidence are considered.     

The stratigraphic and structural evolution of the Dzereg Basin, western Mongolia: clastic sedimentation, transpressional faulting and basin destruction in an intraplate, intracontinental setting

The Dzereg Basin is an actively evolving intracontinental basin in the Altai region of western Mongolia. The basin is sandwiched between two transpressional ranges, which occur at the termination zones of two regional‐scale dextral strike‐slip fault systems. The basin contains distinct Upper Mesozoic and Cenozoic stratigraphic sequences that are separated by an angular unconformity, which represents a regionally correlative peneplanation surface. Mesozoic strata are characterized by northwest and south–southeast‐derived thick clast‐supported conglomerates (Jurassic) overlain by fine‐grained lacustrine and alluvial deposits containing few fluvial channels (Cretaceous). Cenozoic deposits consist of dominantly alluvial fan and fluvial sediments shed from adjacent mountain ranges during the Oligocene–Holocene. The basin is still receiving sediment today, but is actively deforming and closing. Outwardly propagating thrust faults bound the ranges, whereas within the basin, active folding and thrusting occurs within two marginal deforming belts. Consequently, active fan deposition has shifted towards the basin centre with time, and previously deposited sediment has been uplifted, eroded and redeposited, leading to complex facies architecture. The geometry of folds and faults within the basin and the distribution of Mesozoic sediments suggest that the basin formed as a series of extensional half‐grabens in the Jurassic–Cretaceous which have been transpressionally reactivated by normal fault inversion in the Tertiary. Other clastic basins in the region may therefore also be inherited Mesozoic depocentres. The Dzereg Basin is a world class laboratory for studying competing processes of uplift, deformation, erosion, sedimentation and depocentre migration in an actively forming intracontinental transpressional basin.     

Three-dimensional forward stratigraphic modelling of the sedimentary architecture of meandering-river successions in evolving half-graben rift basins

The spatial organisation of meandering-river deposits varies greatly within the sedimentary fills of rift basins, depending on how differential rates of fault propagation and subsidence interplay with autogenic processes to drive changes in fluvial channel-belt position and rate of migration, avulsion frequency and mechanisms of meander-bend cut off. This set of processes fundamentally influences stacking patterns of the accumulated successions. Quantitative predictions of the spatio-temporal evolution and internal architecture of meandering fluvial deposits in such tectonically active settings remain limited. A numerical forward stratigraphic model—the Point-Bar Sedimentary Architecture Numerical Deduction (PB-SAND)—is applied to examine relationships between differential rates of subsidence and resultant fluvial channel-belt migration, reach avulsion and channel-deposit stacking in active, fault-bounded half-grabens. The model is used to reconstruct and predict the complex morphodynamics of fluvial meanders, their generated channel belts, and the associated lithofacies distributions that accumulate as heterogeneous fluvial successions in rift settings, constrained by data from seismic images and outcrop successions. The 3D modelling outputs are used to explore sedimentary heterogeneity at various spatio-temporal scales. Results show how the connectivity of sand-prone geobodies can be quantified as a function of subsidence rate, which itself decreases both along and away from the basin-bounding fault. In particular, results highlight the spatial variability in the size and connectedness of sand-prone geobodies that is seen in directions perpendicular and parallel to the basin axis, and that arises as a function of the interaction between spatial and temporal variations in rates of accommodation generation and fault-influenced changes in river morphodynamics. The results have applied significance, for example, to both hydrocarbon exploration and assessment of groundwater aquifers. The expected greatest connectivity of fluvial sandbody in a half-graben is primarily determined by the complex interplay between the frequency and rate of subsidence, the style of basin propagation, the rates of migration of channel belts, the frequency of avulsion and the proportion and spatial distribution of variably sand-prone channel and bar deposits.     

The tectono‐sedimentary evolution of a supra‐detachment rift basin at a deep‐water magma‐poor rifted margin: the example of the Samedan Basin preserved in the Err nappe in SE Switzerland

We describe the tectono‐sedimentary evolution of a Middle Jurassic, rift‐related supra‐detachment basin of the ancient Alpine Tethys margin exposed in the Central Alps (SE Switzerland). Based on pre‐Alpine restoration, we demonstrate that the rift basin developed over a detachment system that is traced over more than 40 km from thinned continental crust to exhumed mantle. The detachment faults are overlain by extensional allochthons consisting of upper crustal rocks and pre‐rift sediments up to several kilometres long and several hundreds of metres thick, compartmentalizing the distal margin into sub‐basins. We mapped and restored one of these sub‐basins, the Samedan Basin. It consists of a V‐shape geometry in map view, which is confined by extensional allochthons and floored by a detachment fault. It can be restored over a minimum distance of 11 km along and about 4 km perpendicular to the basin axis. Its sedimentary infill can be subdivided into basal (initial), intermediate (widening) and top (post‐tectonic) facies tracts. These tracts document (1) formation of the basin initially bounded by high‐angle faults and developing into low‐angle detachment faults, (2) widening of the basin and (3) migration of deformation further outboard. The basal facies tract is made of locally derived, poorly sorted gravity flow deposits that show a progressive change from hangingwall to footwall‐derived lithologies. Upsection the sediments develop into turbidity current deposits that show retrogradation (intermediate facies tract) and starvation of the sedimentary system (post‐tectonic facies tract). On the scale of the distal margin, the syn‐tectonic record documents a thinning‐ and fining‐upward sequence related to the back stepping of the tectonically derived sediment source, progressive starvation of the sedimentary system and migration of deformation resulting in exhumation and progressive delamination of the thinned crust during final rifting. This study provides valuable insights into the tectono‐sedimentary evolution and stratigraphic architecture of a supra‐detachment basin formed over hyper‐extended crust.