A spatial statistics approach to the quantification of finite strain variation in penetratively deformed thrust sheets: an example from the Sheeprock Thrust Sheet, Sevier Fold-and-Thrust belt, Utah

1998 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malay Mukul
Lithosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 414-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Subhadip Mandal ◽  
Delores M. Robinson ◽  
Matthew J. Kohn ◽  
Subodha Khanal ◽  
Oindrila Das

Abstract Existing structural models of the Himalayan fold-thrust belt in Kumaun, northwest India, are based on a tectono-stratigraphy that assigns different stratigraphy to the Ramgarh, Berinag, Askot, and Munsiari thrusts and treats the thrusts as separate structures. We reassess the tectono-stratigraphy of Kumaun, based on new and existing U-Pb zircon ages and whole-rock Nd isotopic values, and present a new structural model and deformation history through kinematic analysis using a balanced cross section. This study reveals that the rocks that currently crop out as the Ramgarh, Berinag, Askot, and Munsiari thrust sheets were part of the same, once laterally continuous stratigraphic unit, consisting of Lesser Himalayan Paleoproterozoic granitoids (ca. 1850 Ma) and metasedimentary rocks. These Paleoproterozoic rocks were shortened and duplexed into the Ramgarh-Munsiari thrust sheet and other Paleoproterozoic thrust sheets during Himalayan orogenesis. Our structural model contains a hinterland-dipping duplex that accommodates ∼541–575 km or 79%–80% of minimum shortening between the Main Frontal thrust and South Tibetan Detachment system. By adding in minimum shortening from the Tethyan Himalaya, we estimate a total minimum shortening of ∼674–751 km in the Himalayan fold-thrust belt. The Ramgarh-Munsiari thrust sheet and the Lesser Himalayan duplex are breached by erosion, separating the Paleoproterozoic Lesser Himalayan rocks of the Ramgarh-Munsiari thrust into the isolated, synclinal Almora, Askot, and Chiplakot klippen, where folding of the Ramgarh-Munsiari thrust sheet by the Lesser Himalayan duplex controls preservation of these klippen. The Ramgarh-Munsiari thrust carries the Paleoproterozoic Lesser Himalayan rocks ∼120 km southward from the footwall of the Main Central thrust and exposed them in the hanging wall of the Main Boundary thrust. Our kinematic model demonstrates that propagation of the thrust belt occurred from north to south with minor out-of-sequence thrusting and is consistent with a critical taper model for growth of the Himalayan thrust belt, following emplacement of midcrustal Greater Himalayan rocks. Our revised stratigraphy-based balanced cross section contains ∼120–200 km greater shortening than previously estimated through the Greater, Lesser, and Subhimalayan rocks.


2015 ◽  
Vol 186 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 243-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Cavalcante ◽  
Giacomo Prosser ◽  
Fabrizio Agosta ◽  
Claudia Belviso ◽  
Giuseppe Corrado

Abstract The Gorgoglione Formation represents the infill of a thrust-top basin, which records the tectonic evolution of the southern Apennines (Italy) since Upper Miocene times. The Upper Miocene basin was divided into two main sub-basins, showing both about NNW-SSW elongation. During ongoing contractional deformation, the Gorgoglione basin was incorporated into the allochthonous units of the Apennine fold-and-thrust belt, as outlined by the emplacement of thrust sheets of internal provenance (Sicilide Unit) and by the development of two main generations of tight to open folds. In this work, the modalities of deformation associated to the incorporation of the Gorgoglione Formation into the fold-and-thrust belt has been documented by means of mineralogical and structural analyses. Mineralogical data show that, in the northeastern sub-basin of the Gorgoglione Formation, the illite content and the order of illite/smectite mixed layer increase near the contact with the overlaying Sicilide Unit. These data are hence used to estimate the relative tectonic load produced by thrusting of the aforementioned tectonic unit. Structural data are consistent with tight, NNW-trending, meso-scale folds particularly frequent in the upper pelitic/arenaceous portion of the Gorgoglione Formation. Within these folded pelitic levels, a well-developed axial-plane foliation, and an ordered I/S (R1 and R3) with higher illite content, is documented. Instead, other folds developed far away from the Sicilide klippen show an incipient axial-plane foliation and a random I/S (R0) with lower illite amount is found in pelites. The data suggest that the eastern sub-basin of the Gorgoglione Formation underwent variable tectonic load, increasing from E to W, as well as deformation produced by thrusting of Sicilide sheet. The mineralogical data also indicate that illitization process is favoured for the high availability of potassium due to the dissolution of k-feldspar. High potassium availability affects the samples subjected to the highest diagenetic degree, characterized by kaolinite illitization process.


1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 1915-1927 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Brown ◽  
Taoby Rivers ◽  
Tom Calon

Northeast Gagnon terrane is located within the Parautochthonous Belt of the Grenville Orogen, near the projected intersection of the front zones of the Grenville and New Quebec orogens. The area consists principally of supracrustal units of the Early Proterozoic Knob Lake Group, and a newly recognized unit, the Equus Lake formation. Both are intruded by the Middle Proterozoic Shabogamo gabbro. Structural elements in the rocks record evidence of a polyorogenic history that is attributed to both the ca. 1800 Ma Hudsonian and the ca. 1000 Ma Grenvillian orogenies. This paper is concerned with the latter.Grenvillian deformation resulted in the formation of a relatively deep-level fold–thrust belt. Three thrust sheets can be defined on the basis of basal thrusts, variations in morphology and orientation of structural elements, and internal thrust sheet geometry. The polydeformational style of the area, rotation of fold axes into subparallelism with the tectonic transport direction, and internal imbrication lead to a complex internal thrust sheet geometry. Thrusting has produced and inverted the metamorphic gradient, with lower greenschist facies in the basal thrust sheet and upper greenschist facies in the upper thrust sheet.Documentation of the northeastern margin of Gagnon terrane as a north- to northwest-directed metamorphic fold–thrust belt corroborates similar interpretations for Gagnon terrane from elsewhere along the Grenville Front and is in accord with the models of the Grenville Province as a collisional orogen. Furthermore, it is suggested that northeast Gagnon terrane is an exhumed, internal, ductile part of a fold–thrust belt.


Author(s):  
Hugo Ortner ◽  
Sinah Kilian

AbstractWe investigate the tectonic evolution of the Wetterstein and Mieming mountains in the western Northern Calcareous Alps (NCA) of the European Eastern Alps. In-sequence NW-directed stacking of thrust sheets in this thin-skinned foreland thrust belt lasted from the Hauterivian to the Cenomanian. In the more internal NCA major E-striking intracontinental transform faults dissected the thrust belt at the Albian–Cenomanian boundary that facilitated ascent of mantle melts feeding basanitic dykes and sills. Afterwards, the NCA basement was subducted, and the NCA were transported piggy-back across the tectonically deeper Penninic units. This process was accompanied by renewed Late Cretaceous NW-directed thrusting, and folding of thrusts. During Paleogene collision, N(NE)-directed out-of-sequence thrusts developed that offset the in-sequence thrust. We use this latter observation to revise the existing tectonic subdivision of the western NCA, in which these out-of-sequence thrusts had been used to delimit nappes, locally with young-on-old contacts at the base. We define new units that represent thrust sheets having exclusively old-on-young contacts at their base. Two large thrust sheets build the western NCA: (1) the tectonically deeper Tannheim thrust sheet and (2) the tectonically higher Karwendel thrust sheet. West of the Wetterstein and Mieming mountains, the Imst part of the Karwendel thrust sheet is stacked by an out-of-sequence thrust onto the main body of the Karwendel thrust sheet, which is, in its southeastern part, in lateral contact with the latter across a tear fault.


2002 ◽  
Vol 139 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. SAALMANN ◽  
F. THIEDIG

The Tertiary fold-and-thrust belt on Brøggerhalvøya is characterized by a NE-vergent pile of nine thrust sheets. The sole thrust of the pile is located in Precambrian phyllites and climbs up-section to the northeast. Four lower thrust sheets consisting predominantly of Upper Palaeozoic sediments are overlain by two thrust sheets in the central part of the stack which contain a kilometre-scale syncline and anticline. The fold is cut by juxtaposed thrusts giving rise to the formation of three structurally higher basement-dominated thrust sheets. A multiple-stage kinematic model is proposed including (1) in-sequence foreland-propagating formation of the lower thrust sheets in response to N–S subhorizontal bedding-parallel movements, (2) a change in tectonic transport to ENE and out-of-sequence thrusting and formation of the kilometre-scale fold-structure followed by (3) truncation of the kilometre-scale fold and stacking of the highest basement-dominated thrust sheets by hind-ward-propagating out-of-sequence thrusting. The strain of the thrust sheets is predominantly compressive with the exception of the structurally highest thrust sheets, reflecting a temporal change to a more transpressive regime. Thrusting was followed by (4) N–S extension and (5) W–E extension. Comparison of the structural geometry and kinematic evolution of Brøggerhalvøya with the data reported for the fold belt further south allows us to assume a coeval evolution with the fold belt. A latest Paleocene/Early Eocene age for the main phase of thrusting is suggested for the West Spitsbergen Fold-and-Thrust Belt; the main phases therefore pre-date the separation of Svalbard and Greenland due to right-lateral movements along the Hornsund Fault Zone. The fold belt's temporal evolution followed by the formation of the Forlandsundet Graben can be linked with the plate-kinematic framework in the span between latest Paleocene and Middle Eocene times.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Peigney ◽  
Elisabet Beamud ◽  
Óscar Gratacós ◽  
Luis Valero ◽  
Ruth Soto ◽  
...  

<p>The South-Pyrenean fold-and-thrust belt consists of three major thin-skinned thrust sheets (Bóixols, Montsec and Serres Marginals) made up of uppermost Triassic to Oligocene cover rocks emplaced during Late Cretaceous-Oligocene times. In its central part, it forms a major salient (the Pyrenean South-Central Unit) whose geometry is controlled by the areal distribution of the pre-orogenic Upper Triassic and synorogenic Eocene salt décollement layers. Both westwards and eastwards, the salient is fringed by Paleogene synorogenic deposits that are deformed by detachment folds with orientations ranging from N-S to E-W. In the western edge of the salient, the varying trend of the folds is a result of synorogenic vertical axis rotations (VAR) which caused the clockwise rotation of the folds from an initial predominant E-W trend to the current NW-SE to NNW-SSE trend. The salient, at least on its western part, developed from a progressive curve originated from divergent thrust transport directions and distributed shortening.</p><p>The aim of our study is to get a better understanding of the whole salient, by studying the kinematics of the deformation on the most frontal part of its eastern edge. Here, some sparse anticlockwise rotations have been reported but their origin and their possible relationship with the distribution of the salt décollements has not yet been addressed. For this purpose, 78 paleomagnetic sites have been sampled on the synorogenic upper Eocene-Oligocene materials of the NE Ebro foreland Basin, in the Artesa de Segre area, focusing on the limbs of oblique salt-cored anticlines (Ponts, Vilanova de l’Aguda, Cardona) which are detached above the synorogenic Eocene-Oligocene evaporites of the Cardona and the Barbastro formations. VAR analyses principally show anticlockwise rotations similar to those previously identified to the North in the Oliana Anticline, although a small number of clockwise rotations were also detected.</p><p>In addition to the VAR analysis, a magnetostratigraphic study of the Eocene-Oligocene continental materials of the northern limb of the Sanaüja Anticline has been conducted in order to constrain the age of these rotations from stratigraphic correlations. The demagnetization of 104 samples from a ca. 1100 m thick magnetostratigraphic section shows Priabonian to Rupelian ages for this succession. The integration of our results on timing, direction and magnitude of foreland VAR with previous paleomagnetic and structural data from both the western and eastern boundaries of the frontal thrust of the Pyrenean South-Central Unit will allow the understanding of the kinematics of the thrust salient as a whole.</p>


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