Paleolatitude and Tectonic Rotations of the Early Carboniferous Fountain Lake Group, Cobequid Highlands, Nova Scotia, Canada

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Brooks ◽  
Phil J.A. McCausland ◽  
John W.F. Waldron
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Early Carboniferous ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Block Rotation ◽  
Beam Analysis ◽  
Recent Origin ◽  
Stable Characteristic ◽  
Dextral Strike Slip ◽  
Slip Motion ◽  
Moose River

The ca. 355 Ma Fountain Lake Group, in the Cobequid Highlands of Nova Scotia, is part of the transtensional basin fill which formed during dextral strike-slip motion between Avalonia and the Meguma terranes following the Acadian Orogeny. Paleomagnetic analysis of the Fountain Lake Group offers a paleolatitude estimate for the Laurentian accretionary margin in the Early Carboniferous and locality-specific paleomagnetic directions which indicate clockwise-sense block rotations during dextral strike-slip motion along the Cobequid Fault zone. Stepwise demagnetization of 142 specimens from 20 sites in three Fountain Lake Group localities across the Cobequid Highlands (Squally Point, West Moose River, and Wentworth exposures) reveals remanence consisting of an easily removed component of probable recent origin, and more persistent components carried by magnetite and hematite, which in petrographic and electron beam analysis appear to be of primary igneous and volcanic oxidation origins, respectively. Sites from all three localities carry stable characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM) directions that assume similar moderate downward inclinations when tilt-corrected. A Block Rotation Fisher analysis inclination-only fold test demonstrated best agreement at 90% unfolding, showing that remanence acquisition pre-dates Alleghenian deformation in the Late Carboniferous and is most likely of primary 355 Ma age. Paleomagnetic results for the Squally Point, West Moose River and Wentworth localities show relative rotations between the blocks that are variously clockwise-rotated compared with a Laurentia cratonic reference frame. Inclinations at all three localities imply a subtropics paleolatitude for the margin (at Squally Point, 27.2° ± 9.4°; N= 7 sites), directly supporting the depicted location of Laurentia and its Appalachian accretionary margin in most Devonian to Early Carboniferous reconstructions.

Post-Taconian shortening, inversion and strike slip in the Stephenville area, western Newfoundland Appalachians

2002 ◽  
Vol 39 (9) ◽  
pp. 1393-1410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E Palmer ◽  
John W.F Waldron ◽  
D M Skilliter
Keyword(s):  
Cross Sections ◽  
Complex Geometry ◽  
Early Carboniferous ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Petroleum Exploration ◽  
The West ◽  
Table Mountain ◽  
History Of ◽  
Dextral Strike Slip ◽  
Slip Motion

Deformed terrigenous and carbonate sedimentary rocks representing the early Paleozoic Laurentian continental margin form a series of elongate, fault-bounded blocks that plunge north beneath the Humber Arm Allochthon in the Stephenville area, west Newfoundland Appalachians. The continental shelf succession was folded and thrust-faulted after emplacement of the Humber Arm Allochthon. In the west of the area, Table Mountain is cut by a "pop-up" structure bounded by downward-converging reverse faults. Structures at the east margin of Table Mountain indicate both dextral and reverse slip. The Phillips Brook Structure, farther east, contains multiple, fault-bounded carbonate slices; one slice, carried by the West Blanche Brook fault, is thrust over the Humber Arm Allochthon. The western edge of the Indian Head massif, consisting of Grenville basement, is also a thrust contact. These reverse faults and thrusts, which cut the carbonate succession and postdate emplacement of the Humber Arm Allochthon, are in turn overprinted by structures formed during dextral strike-slip motion. Unconformable Early Carboniferous cover postdates most of the deformation. Cross-sections indicate shortening of a few kilometres, and basement was clearly involved in the deformation. The Port au Port Peninsula, immediately to the west, records a history of Acadian inversion of Taconian basins. The prevalence of pop-up structures and mappable variations within the stratigraphic units forming the top of the carbonate succession indicate that a complex geometry of Taconian horsts and grabens was inverted during post-Taconian (?Acadian) shortening and dextral strike-slip motion. These relationships suggest a variety of attractive targets in petroleum exploration.

The Border Ranges fault system in Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska: evidence for major early Cenozoic dextral strike-slip motion

1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (9) ◽  
pp. 1268-1282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin J. Smart ◽  
Terry L. Pavlis ◽  
Virginia B. Sisson ◽  
Sarah M. Roeske ◽  
Lawrence W. Snee
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Fault System ◽  
Glacier Bay ◽  
Oblique Convergence ◽  
Glacier Bay National Park ◽  
Wrangellia Terrane ◽  
Early Cenozoic ◽  
Dextral Strike Slip ◽  
Slip Motion

The Border Ranges fault system of southern Alaska, the fundamental break between the arc basement and the forearc accretionary complex, is the boundary between the Peninsular–Alexander–Wrangellia terrane and the Chugach terrane. The fault system separates crystalline rocks of the Alexander terrane from metamorphic rocks of the Chugach terrane in Glacier Bay National Park. Mylonitic rocks in the zone record abundant evidence for dextral strike-slip motion along north-northwest-striking subvertical surfaces. Geochronologic data together with regional correlations of Chugach terrane rocks involved in the deformation constrain this movement between latest Cretaceous and Early Eocene (~50 Ma). These findings are in agreement with studies to the northwest and southeast along the Border Ranges fault system which show dextral strike-slip motion occurring between 58 and 50 Ma. Correlations between Glacier Bay plutons and rocks of similar ages elsewhere along the Border Ranges fault system suggest that as much as 700 km of dextral motion may have been accommodated by this structure. These observations are consistent with oblique convergence of the Kula plate during early Cenozoic and forearc slivering above an ancient subduction zone following late Mesozoic accretion of the Peninsular–Alexander–Wrangellia terrane to North America.

Acadian deformation in the shallow crust: an example from the Siluro-Devonian Arisaig Group, Avalon terrane, mainland Nova Scotia

2006 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A Braid ◽  
J Brendan Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Shear Zones ◽  
Thrust Fault ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Normal Faults ◽  
Progressive Deformation ◽  
Acadian Orogeny ◽  
Shallow Crust ◽  
Dextral Strike Slip

The Silurian – Early Devonian Arisaig Group of the Avalon terrane in northern mainland Nova Scotia consists mainly of thinly bedded sandstones, siltstones, and shales deposited in a near shore environment. These strata were deformed in the middle Devonian to form regional northeast- to NNE-trending folds and record deformation processes in the shallow crust during the Acadian orogeny, one of the most regionally extensive orogenic events in the Canadian Appalachians. Structural features in the Arisaig Group are consistent with fold propagation associated with thrust fault geometry and coeval local extension recorded by a set of conjugate normal faults. Many outcrop-scale folds have sheared limbs and show evidence of a complex progressive deformation. Folding was predominantly accomplished by bulk rotation and flattening above thrust fault tips. Early structures (D1–D2) produced regional cylindrical folds, whereas later (D3a, D3b, D3c) structures produced conical folds. D1–D3 fold orientations show high variability, but are consistent with progressive deformation related to reactivation and coeval dextral strike-slip movement along the Hollow Fault. The style of deformation is compatible with models in which strain is partitioned into preexisting shear zones in the basement, with folds in the overlying Arisaig Group initiated above the tips of upward-propagating thrusts as second-order structures related to movement along those shear zones. Taken together, these data indicate that fold mechanisms and geometry in the shallow crust during the Acadian orogeny in mainland Nova Scotia may be related to dextral strike-slip along major faults in the basement and co-genetic upward-propagating thrusts that rotated and flattened overlying strata.

Paleomagnetic evidence for dextral strike-slip motion in the Pyrenees during alpine convergence (Mauléon basin, France)

2010 ◽  
Vol 494 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 165-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Oliva-Urcia ◽  
A.M. Casas ◽  
E.L. Pueyo ◽  
T. Román-Berdiel ◽  
J.W. Geissman
Keyword(s):  
Strike Slip ◽  
Dextral Strike Slip ◽  
Slip Motion

Deformation of soft sediments and evaporites in a tectonically active basin: Bay St. George sub-basin, Newfoundland, Canada

2021 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 275-304
Author(s):  
Morgan E. Snyder ◽  
John W. F. Waldron
Keyword(s):  
Hanging Wall ◽  
Normal Growth ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Late Paleozoic ◽  
Tectonic Structures ◽  
Tectonically Active ◽  
Maritimes Basin ◽  
Dextral Strike Slip ◽  
Slip Motion ◽  
Overlying Strata

The Bay St. George sub-basin of SW Newfoundland, part of the larger late Paleozoic Maritimes basin, formed under the influence of strike-slip faulting and the movement of evaporites. New stratigraphic correlations between Newfoundland and other late Paleozoic sub-basins illustrate the effects of both basement and salt movement. Coastal outcrops show complex combinations of synsedimentary, salt-related, and tectonic structures. Map relationships and dramatic thickness contrasts in the Tournaisian Anguille Group indicate that a large, concealed, NE–striking normal growth fault (Ship Cove fault) controlled sedimentation; the exposed Snakes Bight fault originated as a hanging-wall splay. Structures formed during, or soon after deposition include soft-sediment folds, boudins, clastic dykes, and millimetre-scale diapiric bulb structures, formed by overpressuring and liquidization of sediment. These suggest that the sub-basin was tectonically active throughout deposition. Evaporite-related deformation is recorded in the Visean Codroy Group and overlying strata. Comparisons between outcrop and subsurface suggests that significant amounts of evaporite were removed from exposed sections by halokinesis and solution. Complex outcrop relationships indicate salt welds, and suggest that units of the upper Codroy and overlying Barachois groups represent fills of minibasins that subsided into thick evaporites. Field relationships suggest tectonic inversion deposition related to E-W dextral strike slip motion that affected the entire Maritimes basin in the Serpukhovian, producing reverse-sense offsets and contractional folds. Many of the structures in the Bay St. George sub-basin, previously interpreted as post-depositional and purely tectonic, were formed by deformation of unlithified sediment and ductile evaporites during basin development.

Albian syndepositional block rotation and its geological consequences, Basque–Cantabrian Basin (western Pyrenees)

2013 ◽  
Vol 150 (6) ◽  
pp. 986-1001 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUIS MIGUEL AGIRREZABALA ◽  
JAUME DINARÈS-TURELL
Keyword(s):  
Slip Rate ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Block Rotation ◽  
Minimum Block ◽  
Magmatic Intrusions ◽  
Axis Rotation ◽  
High Level ◽  
Basque Cantabrian Basin ◽  
Dextral Strike Slip

AbstractStratigraphic, structural, palaeocurrent and palaeomagnetic analyses of Upper Albian deep-water deposits in and around the Deba block (Northern Iberia) are presented. Results indicate an anticlockwise vertical-axis rotation of this block by 35° during a maximum time span of c. 1 Ma (Late Albian intra-C. auritus ammonite Subzone). This Albian syndepositional block rotation is interpreted to be the consequence of the coeval activity of conjugate major sinistral strike-slip faults and minor (antithetic) dextral strike-slip faults, which border the Deba block. On the base of conservative estimations, a minimum block-rotation rate of 35° Ma−1 and a sinistral strike-slip rate of 1.2 km Ma−1 are calculated. As a consequence of the interaction of the rotated Deba block with adjacent non-rotated blocks, its corners experienced coeval transpressive (NW and SE corners) and transtensional deformations (SW and, possibly, NE corners). At the transtensional SW corner, two domal high-reflective seismic structures have been recorded and interpreted as high-level magmatic laccoliths. These magmatic intrusions triggered the development of a mineralizing hydrothermal system, which vented to the Late Albian seafloor warm to hot hydrocarbon-rich fluids. Vented hydrocarbon was generated from Albian organic-rich sediments by contact alteration with hydrothermal fluids.

scholarly journals Kinematic partitioning in the Southern Andes (39° S–46° S) inferred from lineament analysis and reassessment of exhumation rates

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Leon Göllner ◽  
Jan Oliver Eisermann ◽  
Catalina Balbis ◽  
Ivan A. Petrinovic ◽  
Ulrich Riller
Keyword(s):  
Fault Zone ◽  
Vertical Displacement ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Structural Studies ◽  
Southern Andes ◽  
Plate Convergence ◽  
Exhumation Rates ◽  
Lineament Analysis ◽  
Dextral Strike Slip ◽  
Data Call

AbstractThe Southern Andes are often viewed as a classic example for kinematic partitioning of oblique plate convergence into components of continental margin-parallel strike-slip and transverse shortening. In this regard, the Liquiñe-Ofqui Fault Zone, one of Earth’s most prominent intra-arc deformation zones, is believed to be the most important crustal discontinuity in the Southern Andes taking up margin-parallel dextral strike-slip. Recent structural studies, however, are at odds with this simple concept of kinematic partitioning, due to the presence of margin-oblique and a number of other margin-parallel intra-arc deformation zones. However, knowledge on the extent of such zones in the Southern Andes is still limited. Here, we document traces of prominent structural discontinuities (lineaments) from the Southern Andes between 39° S and 46° S. In combination with compiled low-temperature thermochronology data and interpolation of respective exhumation rates, we revisit the issue of kinematic partitioning in the Southern Andes. Exhumation rates are maximal in the central parts of the orogen and discontinuity traces, trending predominantly N–S, WNW–ESE and NE–SW, are distributed across the entire width of the orogen. Notably, discontinuities coincide spatially with large gradients in Neogene exhumation rates and separate crustal domains characterized by uniform exhumation. Collectively, these relationships point to significant components of vertical displacement on these discontinuities, in addition to horizontal displacements known from published structural studies. Our results agree with previously documented Neogene shortening in the Southern Andes and indicate orogen-scale transpression with maximal vertical extrusion of rocks in the center of the transpression zone. The lineament and thermochronology data call into question the traditional view of kinematic partitioning in the Southern Andes, in which deformation is focused on the Liquiñe-Ofqui Fault Zone.

scholarly journals Coseismic fault-slip distribution of the 2019 Ridgecrest Mw6.4 and Mw7.1 earthquakes

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Gao ◽  
HuRong Duan ◽  
YongZhi Zhang ◽  
JiaYing Chen ◽  
HeTing Jian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Strike Slip ◽  
Fault Slip ◽  
Slip Distribution ◽  
Synthetic Aperture ◽  
Seismic Events ◽  
Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar ◽  
The Past ◽  
Dextral Strike Slip Fault ◽  
Fault Slip Distribution ◽  
Dextral Strike Slip

AbstractThe 2019 Ridgecrest, California seismic sequence, including an Mw6.4 foreshock and Mw7.1 mainshock, represent the largest regional seismic events within the past 20 years. To obtain accurate coseismic fault-slip distribution, we used precise positioning data of small earthquakes from January 2019 to October 2020 to determine the dip parameters of the eight fault geometry, and used the Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data processed by Xu et al. (Seismol Res Lett 91(4):1979–1985, 2020) at UCSD to constrain inversion of the fault-slip distribution of both earthquakes. The results showed that all faults were sinistral strike-slips with minor dip-slip components, exception for dextral strike-slip fault F2. Fault-slip mainly occurred at depths of 0–12 km, with a maximum slip of 3.0 m. The F1 fault contained two slip peaks located at 2 km of fault S4 and 6 km of fault S5 depth, the latter being located directly above the Mw7.1hypocenter. Two slip peaks with maximum slip of 1.5 m located 8 and 20 km from the SW endpoint of the F2 fault were also identified, and the latter corresponds to the Mw6.4 earthquake. We also analyzed the influence of different inversion parameters on the fault slip distribution, and found that the slip momentum smoothing condition was more suitable for the inversion of the earthquakes slip distribution than the stress-drop smoothing condition.

The Caledonoid faults of northern Lleyn (North Wales)

1970 ◽  
Vol 107 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. E. Tremlett
Keyword(s):  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Metamorphic Rocks ◽  
Red Sandstone ◽  
North Wales ◽  
Dextral Strike Slip

SummaryEvidence of substantial dextral strike-slip displacements along the Caledonoid fault-set of northern Lleyn is revealed by the distribution of Pre-Cambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks, Ordovician volcanic rocks and Caledonian ‘early granodioritic’ intrusions. These apparently occurred prior to some smaller sinistral strike-slip movements which left total net dextral displacements of 91/2 km. Both types of movement were completed before the Caledonoid faults were disrupted by NNW sinistral faulting and more intrusions of Lower Old Red Sandstone age were emplaced.

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