scholarly journals Pre-existing basement faults controlling deformation in the Jura Mountains fold-and-thrust belt: Insights from analogue models

2021 ◽  
pp. 228980
Author(s):  
Marc Schori ◽  
Frank Zwaan ◽  
Guido Schreurs ◽  
Jon Mosar
Keyword(s):  
Thrust Belt ◽  
Jura Mountains ◽  
Basement Faults ◽  
Fold And Thrust Belt ◽  
Analogue Models

The pre-Mesozoic basement underneath the Jura Mountains fold-and-thrust belt: an overview from models and maps

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Schori ◽  
Anna Sommaruga ◽  
Jon Mosar
Keyword(s):  
Cross Sections ◽  
Structural Evolution ◽  
Rift System ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Thrust Belt ◽  
Jura Mountains ◽  
Basement Faults ◽  
Fold And Thrust Belt ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Basement Structures

<p>The Jura Mountains are a thin-skinned fold-and-thrust belt (FTB) in the northern foreland of the European Alps, extending over northern and western Switzerland and eastern France. The Jura FTB was detached in Triassic evaporites during Late Miocene and Pliocene compression. Prior to this, the pre-Mesozoic basement was intensely pre-structured by inherited faults that had been reactivated under changing stress fields during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic structural evolution of continental Europe. In order to understand the connection between thin-skinned FTB formation and pre-existing basement structures, we compiled boreholes and geological cross-sections across the Northern Alpine Foreland and derived elevation, thickness and erosion models of defined Mesozoic units and the top of the pre-Mesozoic basement.</p><p>Our models confirm the presence of basement faults concealed underneath the detached cover of the Jura Mountains. The pre-Mesozoic basement shows differences in structural altitudes resulting from partially overlapping lithospheric processes. They include graben formation during evolution of the European Cenozoic Rift System (ECRIS), flexural subsidence during Alpine forebulge development and lithospheric long-wavelength buckle folding. Faults in connection with these processes follow structural trends that suggest the reactivation of inherited Variscan and post-Variscan fault systems. We discuss the spatio-temporal imprint of lithospheric signatures on the pre-Mesozoic basement and their consequence on the formation of the Jura Mountains FTB. Untangling structures within the pre-Mesozoic basement leads us to a modern understanding of the long-term evolution of the detached Mesozoic cover. Furthermore, it allows us to improve the prediction of ages that are potentially preserved within the Mesozoic cover of the Jura FTB.</p>

scholarly journals Possible Quaternary growth of a hidden anticline at the front of the Jura fold-and-thrust belt: geomorphological constraints from the Forêt de Chaux area, France

2011 ◽  
Vol 182 (4) ◽  
pp. 337-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane Molliex ◽  
Olivier Fabbri ◽  
Vincent Bichet ◽  
Herfried Madritsch
Keyword(s):  
Focal Depth ◽  
Fault Reactivation ◽  
Thrust Belt ◽  
Alluvial Deposits ◽  
The North ◽  
Basement Faults ◽  
Fold And Thrust Belt ◽  
Median Position ◽  
Differential Uplift ◽  
River Migration

Abstract This study presents new constraints for Plio-Quaternary (post-2.4 Ma to present-day) anticline growth along the frontal zone of the Jura fold-and-thrust belt, in the Forêt de Chaux area, located 30 km SW of Besançon. The Forêt de Chaux area consists of a N080°E-elongated depression bordered by the Doubs and Loue rivers to the north and south respectively, and filled with Sundgau-type Pliocene alluvial deposits. The upper surface of the Pliocene deposits between the Loue and Doubs rivers is marked by a N065°E-trending ridge crossing the depression in a median position. A differential uplift along this ridge, post-dating the deposition of the gravels (2.4 Ma), is suggested by several geomorphological observations such as the opposite river migration on each side of the ridge as well as variations of drainage geometry and incision intensity. Geological and geophysical subsurface data indicate that the ridge roughly coincides with the axis of an anticline hidden beneath the Pliocene deposits. The observed uplift is presumably related to a post-2.4 Ma anticline growth. The fact that the azimuth of the hidden anticline axis is parallel to the strike of deep-seated Late Paleozoic basement faults and not to the local strike of the thin-skinned Jura structures indicates that the inferred post-Pliocene deformation could possibly be an expression of a recent thick-skinned deformation of the basement of the northern Alpine foreland. The focal depth (15 km) of the February 24th, 2004, Besançon earthquake supports the hypothesis of a basement fault reactivation.

Improving 2D seismic interpretation in challenging settings by integration of restoration techniques: A case study from the Jura fold-and-thrust belt (Switzerland)

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. SAA37-SAA58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Malz ◽  
Herfried Madritsch ◽  
Jonas Kley
Keyword(s):  
Cross Section ◽  
Lower Triassic ◽  
Seismic Profile ◽  
Seismic Interpretation ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Thrust Belt ◽  
Jura Mountains ◽  
Northern Switzerland ◽  
Fold And Thrust Belt

The structural geologic interpretation of reflection seismic data is affected by conceptual uncertainty, particularly in challenging onshore settings. This uncertainty can be significantly reduced by the integration of cross-section restoration and balancing techniques into the seismic interpretation workflow. Moreover, these techniques define a solid and comprehensive basis, grounding the interpretation and allowing a closer investigation of the deformation history that led to the interpreted structures. These benefits are demonstrated on the basis of a case study from the eastern Jura Mountains in northern Switzerland. This mountain range was formed by a thin-skinned foreland fold-and-thrust belt with a multiphase prethrusting tectonic history. Despite significant seismic acquisition and processing efforts, seismic imaging of the strongly deformed parts of the belt widely remains ambiguous. We have developed a detailed systematic interpretation workflow that is exemplified here for a single seismic profile across the Jura Main Thrust. Classical cross-section balancing techniques of equal bed lengths and areas were applied to validate and reinterpret the given seismic interpretation. Our results suggest that most of the observed structures resulted from thin-skinned deformation along a basal décollement in Lower Triassic evaporites, which is generally inferred for the Jura Mountains. Nevertheless, secondary detachment levels in above lying strata have to be considered as well. The stepwise restoration of the analyzed cross section points toward different styles of thin-skinned deformation and possibly several episodes of earlier basement-rooted faulting events, which are indicated by subtle stratigraphic thickness changes. In summary, our workflow allowed us to significantly improve the original seismic interpretation, highlight specific deformation styles, and illuminate possible prethrusting deformation events that would otherwise be easily overlooked.

Kinematics of a backthrust system in the Agrio fold and thrust belt, Argentina: Insights from structural analysis and analogue models

2020 ◽  
Vol 100 ◽  
pp. 102594
Author(s):  
Fernando Lebinson ◽  
Martín Turienzo ◽  
Natalia Sánchez ◽  
Ernesto Cristallini ◽  
Vanesa Araujo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Structural Analysis ◽  
Thrust Belt ◽  
Fold And Thrust Belt ◽  
Analogue Models

scholarly journals Insights into the Thermal History of North-Eastern Switzerland—Apatite Fission Track Dating of Deep Drill Core Samples from the Swiss Jura Mountains and the Swiss Molasse Basin

Geosciences ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Diego Villagómez Díaz ◽  
Silvia Omodeo-Salé ◽  
Alexey Ulyanov ◽  
Andrea Moscariello
Keyword(s):  
Fission Track ◽  
Foreland Basin ◽  
Molasse Basin ◽  
Thrust Belt ◽  
Apatite Fission Track ◽  
Jura Mountains ◽  
Fold And Thrust Belt ◽  
North Alpine Foreland Basin ◽  
History Of ◽  
Swiss Jura

This work presents new apatite fission track LA–ICP–MS (Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry) data from Mid–Late Paleozoic rocks, which form the substratum of the Swiss Jura mountains (the Tabular Jura and the Jura fold-and-thrust belt) and the northern margin of the Swiss Molasse Basin. Samples were collected from cores of deep boreholes drilled in North Switzerland in the 1980s, which reached the crystalline basement. Our thermochronological data show that the region experienced a multi-cycle history of heating and cooling that we ascribe to burial and exhumation, respectively. Sedimentation in the Swiss Jura Mountains occurred continuously from Early Triassic to Early Cretaceous, leading to the deposition of maximum 2 km of sediments. Subsequently, less than 1 km of Lower Cretaceous and Upper Jurassic sediments were slowly eroded during the Late Cretaceous, plausibly as a consequence of the northward migration of the forebulge of the neo-forming North Alpine Foreland Basin. Following this event, the whole region remained relatively stable throughout the Paleogene. Our data show that the Tabular Jura region resumed exhumation at low rates in early–middle Miocene times (≈20–15 Ma), whereas exhumation in the Jura fold-and-thrust belt probably re-started later, in the late Miocene (≈10–5 Ma). Erosional exhumation likely continues to the present day. Despite sampling limitations, our thermochronological data record discrete periods of slow cooling (rates of about 1°C/My), which might preclude models of elevated cooling (due to intense erosion) in the Jura Mountains during the Miocene. The denudation (≈1 km) of the Tabular Jura region and the Jura fold-and-thrust belt (≈500 m) has provided sediments to the Swiss Molasse Basin since at least 20 Ma. The southward migration of deformation in the Jura mountains suggests that the molasse basin started to uplift and exhume only after 5 Ma, as suggested also by previous authors. The data presented here show that the deformation of the whole region is occurring in an out-of-sequence trend, which is more likely associated with the reactivation of thrust faults beneath the foreland basin. This deformation trend suggests that tectonics is the most determinant factor controlling denudation and exhumation of the region, whereas the recently proposed “climate-induced exhumation” mechanism might play a secondary role.

Modelling oblique inversion of pre-existing grabens

2019 ◽  
Vol 487 (1) ◽  
pp. 263-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongling Deng ◽  
Hemin A. Koyi ◽  
Jinjiang Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Western China ◽  
Normal Faults ◽  
Thrust Belt ◽  
Fold And Thrust Belt ◽  
Analogue Models ◽  
Weak Zones ◽  
Different Parts ◽  
Extensional Structures

AbstractA series of analogue models were run to investigate oblique inversion of pre-existing grabens when overprinted by later shortening and the effect of these grabens on development of contractional structures. Obliquity angle (α) defining the initial trend of pre-existing grabens relative to the shortening direction, was systematically changed from 0°, 10°, 20°, 30°, 40°, 50°, 65° and 90°. Different structural styles are shown in different models and also in sections cutting across different parts of the models. Model results show that existence of multi-grabens enhances lateral discontinuity of overprinted thrusts in map view. With increasing the obliquity angle, more and longer lateral ramps developed sub-parallel to the graben trends. The pre-existing grabens were apparently rotated from their initial trends during shortening. Some of the normal faults bounding the grabens were partially inverted and resulted in bulging of the syn- and post-rift graben fill sediments. Most normal faults were displaced and rotated by thrusting, and provided relatively weak zones for propagation of thrusts. By comparing with observations from Qingxi graben in western China and from the SW Taiwan fold-and-thrust belt, where oblique inversion occurred, model results can be used to interpret unclear relationships between thrusts and pre-existing extensional structures during superimposed deformation.

Oblique half-graben inversion of the Mesozoic Neuquén Rift in the Malargüe Fold and Thrust Belt, Mendoza, Argentina: New insights from analogue models

2008 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 839-853 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel L. Yagupsky ◽  
Ernesto O. Cristallini ◽  
Julián Fantín ◽  
Gonzalo Zamora Valcarce ◽  
Germán Bottesi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thrust Belt ◽  
Fold And Thrust Belt ◽  
Analogue Models ◽  
Half Graben

The Jura Mountains — an active foreland fold-and-thrust belt?

2000 ◽  
Vol 321 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnfried Becker
Keyword(s):  
Thrust Belt ◽  
Jura Mountains ◽  
Fold And Thrust Belt
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