Backstripping dip-slip fault histories: apparent slip rates for the Miocene of the Vienna Basin

Backstripped basement subsidence histories from both the hanging wall and the footwall blocks adjacent to synsedimentary normal faults can be used to reconstruct the sense of fault motion through time and to quantify the vertical component of fault slip. Consequently, apparent dip-slip rates of faults can be calculated for each stratigraphic interval and times of increased fault activity can be distinguished. An application of this method to well data along a transect through the central part of the Miocene Vienna Basin indicates that two distinct phases of faulting occurred during the Karpatian, with rates as high as 3000 m Myr⁻¹. Changes in the sense of movements during the early Karpatian and the earliest Badenian indicate a major rearrangement in the fault patterns. During the early Sarmatian another short pulse of dip-slip is recorded along the investigated faults.