The persistence and role of basin structures on the 3D architecture of the Marañón Fold-Thrust Belt,Peru

The 3D architecture of fold-thrust belts commonly involves thin-skinned and thick-skinned deformation. Both thick- and thin-skinned deformation styles have been suggested to occur in the Marañón Fold-Thrust Belt (MFTB) in Peru, but the relative timing and strain partitioning associated with them are not well understood. We demonstrate that inherited basement structures along the Peruvian convergent margin reactivated during the evolution of the MFTB. We present results from field mapping, interpretation of remote sensing imagery, and cross section construction and restoration. The results show that the Chonta Fault, a median pre-folding basin normal fault, was inverted and acted as a mechanical buttress during initial east-vergent contraction of the fold-thrust belt. This fault separates the belt into two domains of distinctly different structural styles. During the Eocene, units to the west of the Chonta Fault deformed by folding, using the fault as a buttress, and subsequently propagated eastward by thin-skinned thrusting. This was followed in the Miocene by west-vergent, basement-involved deformation, which overprinted the earlier east-vergent, thin-skinned structures. The proposed tectonic model of the MFTB highlights the role of basement-fault reactivation during orogenesis and the involvement of deep structures in partitioning deformation styles.     

Structural analysis of the Gachsar sub-zone in central Alborz range; constrain for inversion tectonics followed by the range transverse faulting

Analysis of the Gachsar structural sub-zone has been carried out to constrain structural evolution of the central Alborz range situated in the central Alpine Himalayan orogenic system. The sub-zone bounded by the northward-dipping Kandovan Fault to the north and the southward-dipping Taleghan Fault to the south is transversely cut by several sinistral faults. The Kandovan Fault that controls development of the Eocene rocks in its footwall from the Paleozoic–Mesozoic units in the fault hanging wall is interpreted as an inverted basin-bounding fault. Structural evidences include the presence of a thin-skinned imbricate thrust system propagated from a detachment zone that acts as a footwall shortcut thrust, development of large synclines in the fault footwall as well as back thrusts and pop-up structures on the fault hanging wall. Kinematics of the inverted Kandovan Fault and its accompanying structures constrain the N–S shortening direction proposed for the Alborz range until Late Miocene. The transverse sinistral faults that are in acute angle of 15° to a major magnetic lineament, which represents a basement fault, are interpreted to develop as synthetic Riedel shears on the cover sequences during reactivation of the basement fault. This overprinting of the transverse faults on the earlier inverted extensional fault occurs since the Late Miocene when the south Caspian basin block attained a SSW movement relative to the central Iran. Therefore, recent deformation in the range is a result of the basement transverse-fault reactivation.     

库车坳陷却勒地区新生代盐构造特征、演化及变形控制因素

本文利用野外地质调查结果、遥感资料、地震资料和钻、测井数据,建立了两条库车坳陷却勒地区的区域大剖面,约束却勒地区盐构造特征和演化,分析东、西段变形差异及差异形成过程,探讨构造变形控制因素。却勒地区发育的盐构造样式主要有盐底辟、盐焊接、盐撤凹陷、大型盐推覆体、外来盐席、盐枕、盐背斜和滑脱褶皱,其中,盐撤凹陷、盐背斜和滑脱褶皱仅发育于东段,造成东、西段构造变形差异。却勒地区盐构造分为3期:①渐新世—中新世吉迪克期为构造平静期,发育盐撤凹陷和盐底辟;②中新世康村期—上新世早期构造挤压微弱,发生早期褶皱作用,却勒盐丘继续发育,北部盐底辟中新世末停止发育;③上新世晚期—现今发生大规模逆冲推覆,是褶皱-冲断带主要形成时期,发育大型盐撤凹陷、外来盐席、盐推覆构造、盐背斜和滑脱褶皱。却勒地区东、西段盐构造变形差异主要形成于上新世晚期—现今(第3期)。喀拉玉尔滚右旋走滑断层为薄皮构造,调节了却勒地区东、西段前缘的变形差异。却勒地区构造变形主要受控于盐岩沉积范围、区域构造应力及强度、上覆层应变强度和差异负载(沉积负载和局部构造负载)。     

从西宁盆地新生代变形探讨青藏高原东北缘的变形特征

位于青藏高原东北缘的西宁盆地在新生代期间的变形具有明显的阶段性,新生代早期该盆地顺时针的转动在西宁盆地中的基底中产生或复活了一些北北西向的左行走滑断裂。晚期（中新世以来）,由于盆地边缘断裂持续强烈活动并伴随着一定的顺时针旋转,在盆地中形成一系列切割盆地基底的北北东向和北东向次级断裂,盆地中不同方向次级断裂不同时间的发育与边界左行斜向剪切造成的变形类似。同时盆地中薄皮与厚皮构造共同发育为特征,不仅盆地盖层发生了一定程度的褶皱变形,而且沿着切割盆地内部的断裂,往往基底被抬升至地表,形成比较明显的基底卷入型褶皱。西宁盆地因此被分割,形成了一系列更小的次级盆地。而青藏高原东北部新生代变形同样具有以上特征,斜向挤压是该地区变形的重要方式,正是由于长期的斜向挤压,造成了盆地内部与边界之间的应变分配,盆地内部基底隆起,并逐渐分割原先的大盆地。而热水—日月山断裂以及温泉断裂发育在海原断裂与昆仑山断裂之间的阶区,它们的活动和发育与边缘大型走滑断裂有重要的联系,同时也是压剪作用的重要特征之一。     

The interplay of fold mechanisms and basement weaknesses at the transition between Laramide basement-involved arches, north-central Wyoming, USA

Horizontally-shortened, basement-involved foreland orogens commonly exhibit anastomosing networks of bifurcating basement highs (here called arches) whose structural culminations are linked by complex transition zones of diversely-oriented faults and folds. The 3D geometry and kinematics of the southern Beartooth arch transition zone of north-central Wyoming were studied to understand the fold mechanisms and control on basement-involved arches.Data from 1581 slickensided minor faults are consistent with a single regional shortening direction of 065°. Evidence for oblique-slip, vertical axis rotations and stress refraction at anomalously-oriented folds suggests formation over reactivated pre-existing weaknesses. Restorable cross-sections and 3D surfaces, constrained by surface, well, and seismic data, document blind, ENE-directed basement thrusting and associated thin-skinned backthrusting and folding along the Beartooth and Oregon Basin fault systems. Between these systems, the basement-cored Rattlesnake Mountain backthrust followed basement weaknesses and rotated a basement chip toward the basin before the ENE-directed Line Creek fault system broke through and connected the Beartooth and Oregon Basin fault systems. Slip was transferred at the terminations of the Rattlesnake Mountain fault block by pivoting to the north and tear faulting to the south. In summary, unidirectional Laramide compression and pre-existing basement weaknesses combined with fault-propagation and rotational fault-bend folding to create an irregular yet continuous basement arch transition.     

Structure and kinematics of a foothills transect,Lago Viedma,southern Andes (49°30′S)

The western edge of Patagonia, south of 47°S, experienced a major tectonic reorganization during the Tertiary. The Chile ridge, separating Nazca from Antarctica, collided obliquely with western Tierra del Fuego at about 14 Ma and the triple point migrated northwards to its present position at about 47°S. Consequently, the southern tip of South America has passed from a Miocene context of rapid oblique convergence (ENE–WSW at about 9 cm/yr) between Nazca and South America, to a Pliocene context of slow frontal convergence (EW at about 2 cm/yr) between Antarctica and South America. The Andean foreland fold-and-thrust belt lies on the eastern side of the Patagonian Cordillera and is well exposed along the northern shore of Lago Viedma (49°30′S). Structural observations, digital mapping, subsurface data, balancing of a cross-section and kinematic analysis of fault populations provide new information on the structure of the fold-and-thrust belt, the timing and style of deformation and their relationship with Tertiary plate tectonics. Along the studied transect, synsedimentary structures show that compressional deformation began at least during the Late Cretaceous, was ongoing during the syntectonic emplacement of the Lower Miocene granitic Monte Fitz Roy pluton and continued into the Pliocene. Folds and thrusts are thick-skinned in the west, and mostly thin-skinned above a décollement in Early Cretaceous black shales in the east. Analysis of fault populations, measured within Jurassic basement and its Cretaceous cover, provides subhorizontal principal directions of shortening, striking between E–W and ENE–WSW. Compressional deformation was associated with a major component of right-lateral wrenching parallel to the Cordillera.     

On the consistency of proposed models for the Pyrenees with the structure of the eastern parts of the belt

The structure of the eastern Pyrenees consists mainly of south-directed thrusts involving basement and cover rocks. An antiformal stack developed by the piling up of basement thrust sheets which outcrop in the Axial zone. These structures account for a thin-skinned thrust model rather than a vertical fault model in which the Axial zone would be essentially autochthonous, and the North-Pyrenean fault the axial plane of a fan thrust system. New data from the Eastern Pyrenees and the thin-skinned model suggest that(1) the structure east of the Pedraforca nappe is similar to that of the Central Pyrenees; (2) the cover rocks of the South-Pyrenean units and of the Axial zone-after restoration—built up a northwards-thickening prism consistent with the existence of a unique Pyrenean sedimentary basin during Mesozoic time; (3) the Axial zone is only a complex antiformal stack developed as a part of South-Pyrenean system related to the Paleogene thrusting-tectonics. The Axial zone palaeogeographic area had no special meaning during Mesozoic time.     

Structural style of the Malargüe fold-and-thrust belt at the Diamante River area (34°30′–34°50′S) and its linkage with the Cordillera Frontal,Andes of central Argentina

The Malargüe fold-and-thrust belt is a thick-skinned belt developed in Miocene-Pliocene times during the Andean orogeny, which together with the Cordillera Frontal constitutes the Andes of central Argentina in the Diamante River area. Detailed field mapping and construction of three regional balanced cross-sections, supported by seismic and well information, constrains the structural style of this Andean region as two basement uplifts in the western and eastern sectors surrounding a central region of thin-skinned deformation. In the west, large basement wedges related to thrust faults developed during Andean compression propagated along favourable horizons (commonly gypsum) into the sedimentary cover. These wedges transferred shortening to the cover rocks producing the thin-skinned structures. There is therefore a close spatial and temporal relationship between basement and cover deformation. In the thin-skinned region, the abundance of shales and salt horizons in the west facilitated the formation of fault-related folds while the more competent units in the east were deformed into duplex and imbricated thrusts. The basement uplift in the eastern sector represents the southern end of the Cordillera Frontal, where the Carrizalito fault placed pre-Jurassic rocks over tertiary synorogenic sediments in the northern area while in the southern region it remained as a blind thrust. A common feature is the development of backthrust systems related to the major east-vergent basement structures. The backthrusts therefore serve to locate basement uplifts where outcrops are absent. Three-dimensional integration of the cross-sections and a structural map at the top of the pre-Jurassic basement show that although the main structures change considerably along strike, the total shortening of each section shows little variation.     

Paleomagnetic and inner diapiric structural constraints on the kinematic evolution of a salt-wall: The Bicorb-Quesa and northern Navarrés salt-wall segments case (Prebetic Zone,SE Iberia)

Paleomagnetism together with an analysis of the internal structure of the Bicorb-Quesa and northern Navarrés salt-wall segments (Prebetic Zone in SE Iberia) were used to constrain their kinematics and driving mechanisms. Paleomagnetic data from Upper Triassic red beds of the selected salt-related structures and from the Miocene rocks belonging to adjacent syn-diapiric half-grabens reveal 15–30° counter-clockwise vertical-axis rotations of the salt-wall rocks and a 20° clockwise rotation of the Jurassic-Miocene cover block located south of the salt-wall. This, together with the salt-wall structure, indicates that the origin of the salt-wall was linked to the motion of a late Miocene thin-skinned extensional fault system, which detached on the Upper Triassic evaporites. Specifically, the salt-wall formed by the south-southwest displacement with a 20° clockwise rotation component of a cover block bounded northwards by the detachment disruptions generated by the motion of pre-existent basement faults. The Upper Triassic detachment level was first affected by a counter-clockwise vertical axis rotation and, during the Paleogene-earliest Miocene building of the Iberian Chain, by tight WNW-trending folds and SSE-directed minor thrusts. This study also shows that Paleomagnetism together with the analysis of the internal structure can successfully depict the geometry and kinematic evolution of complex salt-wall structures.     

On the lag time between internal strain and basement involved thrust induced exhumation: The case of the Colombian Eastern Cordillera

Thrust sheets accumulate internal strain before they start moving along discrete fault planes. However, there are no previous studies evaluating the time difference between initiation of strain and fault displacement. In this paper we use observations from the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia to evaluate this interval. We utilize multiple thermochronometers and paleothermometers to refine the timing of deformation. Based on these new data we build time-temperature path estimates that together with geometric outcrop-based structural analysis and fluid inclusions allow us to assign relative timing to features associated with strain, such as cleavage, veins and certain types of fractures, and compare that with the timing of thrusting. We find that cleavage was only formed close to maximum paleotemperatures, almost coeval with the onset of thrust-induced denudation by the Late Oligocene. The corresponding structural level of fold-related veins suggest that they were formed later but still when the country rocks were at temperatures higher than 160 °C, mostly during the Early Miocene and still coexisted with the latest stages of cleavage formation. Our data show that the main period of strain hardening was short (probably a few million years) and occurred before first-order basement thrusting was dominant, but was associated with second-order folding.     

Effect of initial fault geometry on the development of fixed-hinge, fault-propagation folds

This paper describes how a model of fixed-hinge, basement-involved, fault-propagation folds may be adapted to apply to thin-skinned thrust faults to generate footwall synclines. Fixed-hinge, fault-propagation folding assumes that the fold-axial surfaces diverge upwards, fold hinges are fixed in the rock, the fault propagated through the forelimb, thickness changes occur in the forelimb and the forelimb progressively rotates with increasing displacement on the underlying fault. The original model for fixed-hinge, fault-propagation folds was developed for the case of a planar fault in basement with a tip line that was at the interface between basement and the overlying sedimentary cover rocks. The two geometries applicable to thin-skinned thrusts are for the cases where a fixed-hinge fault-propagation fold develops above an initial bedding-parallel detachment, and an initial fault ramp of constant dip which flattens down-dip into a bedding-parallel detachment.     

New insights on diapirism in the Adriatic Sea: the Tremiti salt structure (Apulia offshore,southeastern Italy)

The reinterpretation of public seismic profiles in the Adriatic offshore of Gargano (Apulia, southern Italy) allowed the detection of a kilometre‐scale salt‐anticline, the Tremiti diapir, within the larger Tremiti Structure. This anticline was generated by diapirism of Upper Triassic anhydrites within a thick Mesozoic to Quaternary sedimentary succession. Both internal stratal patterns and shapes of Plio‐Quaternary units, and the occurrence of an angular unconformity between early Tortonian and Pliocene rocks on the Tremiti Islands, suggest that halokinesis began during the late Miocene and is still active today. An ancient extensional SE‐dipping fault, cutting an older Mesozoic low‐amplitude anhydritic ridge, played an important role during salt mobilization, which was promoted by NW‐SE shortening. The diapir grew in the footwall of this fault, causing its upward propagation. In some places, the ancient fault served as a preferential channel for the upward migration of the anhydrites.     

Geometry and kinematics of the Andean thick-skinned thrust systems: Insights from the Chilean Frontal Cordillera (28°–28.5°S), Central Andes

The structure of the Chilean Frontal Cordillera, located over the Central Andes flat-slab subduction segment (27°–28.5°S), is characterized by a thick-skinned deformation, affecting both the pre-rift basement and the Mesozoic and Cenozoic infill of the NNE-SSW Lautaro and Lagunillas Basins, which were developed during the Pangea-Gondwana break-up. The compressive deformation show a complex interaction between Mesozoic rift structures and thrust systems, affecting a suite of Permo-Triassic (258–245 Ma) granitic blocks. We used a combination of geological mapping, new structural data, balanced and restored cross sections and geochronological data to investigate the geometry and kinematics of the Andean thick-skinned thrust systems of the region. The thrust systems include double-vergent thick-skinned thrust faults, basement-cored anticlines and minor thin-skinned thrusts and folds. The presence of Triassic and Jurassic syn-rift successions along the hanging wall and footwall of the basement thrust faults are keys to suggest that the current structural framework of the region should be associated with the shortening of previous Mesozoic half grabens. Based on this interpretation, we propose a deformation mechanism characterized by the tectonic inversion of rift-related faults and the propagation of basement ramps that fold and cut both, the early normal faults and the basement highs. New U–Pb ages obtained from synorogenic deposits (Quebrada Seca and Doña Ana formations) indicate at least three important compressive pulses. A first pulse at ∼80 Ma (Late Cretaceous), a second pulse related to the K-T phase of Andean deformation and, finally, a third pulse that occurred during the lower Miocene.     

统一应力场中基底断裂对盖层复杂断块变形的影响——来自砂箱实验的启示

基底先存断裂的活动会对其盖层岩层的变形起到较大的影响,尤其当应力直接作用于基底时更是对变形起到了控制作用。通过一系列的砂箱实验模拟分析了在统一的构造应力场中,当深部的基底断裂作平移滑动时盖层断块的被动变形情况:当其具有伸展分量时,会形成一个近对称的走滑 伸展裂谷形态,当具有挤压分量时,会形成以逆冲走滑断裂为边界的对称的局部挠曲隆起;同时在剖面上会形成典型的走滑构造特征,变形区域的大小与伸展或挤压分量的大小有关。先存的盖层断块受到基底作用力时,除内部变形本身还会发生旋转,形成局部的拉伸和挤压区;当一个地区的基底断裂多次活动甚至发生反转时,就会使地表形成特别复杂的构造现象;郯庐断裂带中段的埕岛-垦东潜山构造带的变形是一个典型的走滑基底控制的情况,实验结果证明基底的走滑反转变形造成这些断块的旋扭,盖层的非完全反转形成了剖面上的“复式花状构造”。     

冀东马兰峪背斜南翼与西部倾伏端盖层变形特征及其构造意义

燕山中部冀东遵化、迁西、青龙一带以太古宇深变质结晶岩系为核部的东西向构造形迹长期以来被认为是一个复式背斜构造,近年来又有学者提出它是一个中生代变质核杂岩。这2种不同认识涉及到华北克拉通北部中生代区域大地构造演化和稳定克拉通内部大型基底结晶岩系的剥露机制问题。对马兰峪背斜南翼和西部倾伏端盖层岩系开展的详细构造研究表明,变形总体表现为连续的褶皱变形及伴生的逆冲构造;构造样式表现为基底卷入式的厚皮构造与盖层内部软弱岩系控制的薄皮构造共存的特征;变形机制表现为顺层挤压导致的纵弯弯曲和相关的断裂构造;近南北向的缩短率介于16%～27%之间。盖层岩系中未发现变质核杂岩构造模型所预期的系列高角度正断层。基底与盖层不整合面接触带尽管在后期构造变形过程中曾经发生过局部的差异性滑动,但并不是造成大规模构造剥蚀和地壳柱切失的剥离断层。因此,冀东马兰峪背斜不是中生代的变质核杂岩,而是水平挤压背景下基底结晶岩系与盖层共同卷入纵弯褶皱变形的厚皮式褶皱构造。     

Basement-cover relations in the Appalachian fold and thrust belt

The external massifs along the Appalachian orogen include Precambrian basement rocks with attached cover. To the northwest (cratonward), in the Appalachian foreland fold and thrust belt, Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks, but no basement rocks, are exposed; that belt was the subject of the classic debate about thin-skinned (deformed cover rocks detached from undeformed basement) and thick-skinned (basement deformed with attached cover) structural styles. Presently available data indicate detached cover rocks and thin-skinned style in the fold and thrust belt: large-scale thrusting occurred late in the orogenic history. In the external basement massifs, late Precambrian graben-fill sedimentary and volcanic rocks indicate early basement faults; and within the craton, steep basement faults bound graben blocks of Cambrian age. Distribution of known basement faults suggests that basement rocks beneath the fold and thrust belt may also be faulted. Local episodic synsedimentary structural movement through much of the Palaeozoic is documented by stratigraphy in the fold and thrust belt. Axes of early synsedimentary structures are approximately coincident with axes of late folds and thrust fault ramps, but stratigraphic data show that magnitude of the early structures was much less than that of the late structures. These relations suggest the interpretation that early low-magnitude structures formed in cover rocks over basement faults and that the early structures, or the basement faults, significantly influenced the geometry of later detachment structures during large-scale horizontal translation.     

南大西洋东岸尼日尔三角洲大型重力滑动构造东南缘的断裂和泥构造

尼日尔三角洲位于南大西洋东岸被动大陆边缘之上,以大型重力滑动构造为主要构造特征。该大型重力滑动构造的东南缘位于喀麦隆境内,断裂和泥构造都很发育。这里的断裂包括重力滑动构造后缘伸展形成的正断层、侧翼剪切形成的撕裂断层和泥底辟成因的断层。泥柱和泥墙是研究区的两种类型的泥构造。泥柱代表主动泥底辟;泥墙是撕裂断层控制下被动泥底辟的结果。研究区重力滑动构造相关的断裂活动起始于中新世中期,随后,在上新世和第四纪各有一个断裂活动的加速期。每个断裂活动的加速期都伴随有泥底辟。中新世中期有一次泥底辟,上新世和第四纪各有两次泥底辟。     

Structure of the Patagonian Andes: Regional Balanced Cross Section at 50° S,Argentina

A 100 km long balanced structural transect is presented for the Patagonian Andes at 50° S Latitude. The area studied is characterized by a fold belt in the eastern Andean foothills and basement-involved thrusts in a western-basement thrust zone. The basement thrust zone exposes pre-Jurassic, polydeformed sedimentary and layered metamorphic rocks emplaced over Lower Cretaceous rocks above an E-vergent thrust located at the western end of the fold belt.

The fold belt is developed in a 3 km thick deformed Cretaceous–Paleogene sedimentary cover with few basement outcrops and scarce calc-alkaline magmatism. Cover structures related to shallow décollements have a N-S to NW-SE strike, with fold wavelengths from 1100 to 370 m in the east to 20 to 40 m in the west. However, long-wavelength basement-involved structures related to deeper décollements have a dominant N-S to NE-SW trend along the eastern and western parts of the fold belt. Field evidence showing different degrees of inversion of N-S–trending normal faults suggests that the orientation of the Cenozoic compressive basement structures was inherited partially from the original geometry of Mesozoic normal faults.

The deformation propagated toward the foreland in at least two events of deformation. The effects of Paleogene (Eocene?) compressive episode are observed in the western fold belt and a Neogene (Late Miocene) compressive episode is present in the eastern fold belt. Basement-involved structures typically refold older cover structures, producing a mixed thick and thin-skinned structural style. By retrodeforming a regional balanced cross section in the fold belt, a minimum late Miocene shortening of 35 km (26%) was calculated.     

新疆库车新生代前陆褶皱冲断带的变形特征、时代和机制

库车前陆褶皱冲断带自北向南可分为基底冲断带、箱状背斜带、梳状背斜带和挠曲褶皱带,东西方向上可分为西段、中段和东段。本文分段叙述了各变形带的变形特征,指出东段箱状背斜带不发育,秋里塔格山脉(构造带)东延未进入东段,因而总体看自西向东变形强度减弱,地形上趋于夷平。该冲断带的形成经历了两次重大的冲断活动,分别发生在中新世和早(-中)更新世;相应地,该带可分为南、北两个"盆""山"亚系统,两者在地层记录、变形期次和变形机制上尚有若干差异。库车前陆褶皱冲断带的发育,除了受南天山的冲断和向南扩展引起的近南北向挤压应力场控制外,还受到基底断裂在新生代的活化和膏盐层底辟的制约,前者以近北西向的构造变换带及其共轭发育的近北东向断层最为重要,后者既控制了秋里塔格山脉的形成(主要受垂直的挤压应力场作用),也在库车前陆褶皱冲断带东西方向的变形分段中起了重要作用。文章还讨论了变形与地貌发育的关系和在油气勘探中的指导意义。