scholarly journals The boundary between the eastern and western domains of the Pyrenean Orogen: a Cenozoic triple junction zone in Iberia?

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 507-564
Author(s):  
S. Tavani
Keyword(s):  
Triple Junction ◽  
Foreland Basin ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Fault System ◽  
Internal Boundary ◽  
Junction Zone ◽  
The South ◽  
Total N ◽  
Transitional Area ◽  
Iberian Chain

Abstract. The Cantabrian Transitional Area (CTA) is located in the eastern portion of the Cantabrian Mountain Range of the northern Spain. It represents the most important internal boundary within the Upper Cretaceous to Cenozoic E–W elongated Pyrenean Orogen. In the south-verging portion of this orogen, the CTA divides the western thick-skinned Cantabrian Domain, which accommodated for a limited portion of the total N–S oriented orogenic shortening, from the Pyrenean realm to the east, where the south-verging frontal structures are characterised by a marked thiN–Skin style of deformation, and significantly contributed to accommodate the total shortening. In the Cantabrian Transitional Area, Cenozoic syn-orogenic left-lateral, right-lateral and reverse dip-slip movements have occurred along different directions, postdating early-orogenic extensional structures. The latter indicate that the southern portion of the study area formed the eastern termination of the northward concave roughly E–W oriented proto Duero Foreland Basin. This basin was flanked to the north by the thick-skinned proto Cantabrian Belt, which included in its easternmost part the northern portion of the Cantabrian Transitional Area. Onset of right-lateral strike-slip tectonics along the WNW-ESE striking Ubiernal-Venatniella Fault System, which locates to the SW of the CTA and crosses the entire Cantabrian Belt and its formerly southern foreland basin, caused the dislocation of the belt-foredeep system. Contextually, thiN–Skinned structures belonging to the eastern domain of the Pyrenean Orogen laterally propagated and incorporated the eastern part of the proto Duero Foreland Basin. Coexistence of right-lateral and reverse movements to the west and to the east, respectively, determined the onset of an intrabelt compression at the boundary between the Cantabrian and Pyrenean domains, which was the ultimate act of the fusion of the two domains into a single orogen. Paradoxically, this fusion has basically occurred due to the penetration of the NW-SE-striking intraplate right-lateral transpressive system of the Iberian Chain into the Cantabrian Domain of the Pyrenean Orogen. Cenozoic right-lateral reactivation of the Ubierna Fault System, in fact, is part of a NW-SE striking intraplate strike-slip transpressive system, which to the south-east includes the Iberian Chain until the Mediterranean Sea and that, in the western termination of the Ubierna Fault System, branches off into three main splay faults, which are the Ventaniella and Leon faults, and the Duero frontal thrust. Taking into account the role of this Cenozoic transpressive system allows to drastically reduce the gap between plate kinematic reconstructions and geological evidences. This implies that, despite the limited amount of displacement, the Iberian Chain and the Ubierna-Ventaniella systems must be elevated to the rank of microplate boundary, which divided two sectors of the Iberian Plate. Accordingly, the intersection between this system and the Pyrenean Orogen, which occurs in the CTA, must be regarded as a triple junction zone.

scholarly journals Palaeozoic tectonic and sedimentary evolution and hyrdrocarbon prospectivity in the Bornholm area

1994 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Ole Valdemar Vejbæk ◽  
Svend Stouge ◽  
Kurt Damtoft Poulsen
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Foreland Basin ◽  
Fault System ◽  
Structural Development ◽  
The South ◽  
Alum Shale ◽  
Present Distribution ◽  
Lower Palaeozoic ◽  
Wrench Fault ◽  
Uplift And Erosion

The present distribution of Palaeozoic sediments in the Bornholm area is a consequence of several different tectonic regimes during the Phanerozoic eon. This development may be divided into three main evolutionary phases: A Caledonian to Variscian phase encompassing the Lower Palaeozoic sediments. The sediments are assumed originally to have showed a gradual thickness increase towards the Caledonian Deformation Front located to the south. This pre-rift development may be further subdivided into three sub-phases: A period of slow sedimentation on a relatively stable platform as recorded by the uniformly low thicknesses of the Cambrian to Lower Silurian sediments. A period of foreland-type rapid sedimentation commencing in the Llandoverian to Wenlockian, continuing in the Ludlovian and possibly into the Devonian. The period is characterized by /olding and uplift of the Caledonides to the south causing tectonic loading of the foreland and resultant rapid sedimentation in the foreland basin. A period of gravitational collapse causing minor erosion during the Devonian. The transition to the second major phase in the Phanerozaic structural development, during which the Sorgenfrei-Tornquist zone came into existence, is recorded by regional deposition of Carboniferous sediments. These sediments are, however, mostly removed by tater erosion. A syn-rift phase characterized by sedimentation in graben areas and expanding basins commencing in the Rotliegendes and continuing through the Triassic, Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous. This phase was probably initiated by a Late Carboniferous- Early Permian tensional dominated right-lateral wrench fault system within the Sorgenfrei-Tornquist zone. A Post-rift development phase dominated by Late Cretaceous carbonate sedimentation. During Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary times the Bornholm area was strongly affected by inversion tectonism caused by compressional strike-slip movements. This resulted in reverse faulting and uplift and erosion of former basinal areas. Understanding the two latter phases is important for understanding the present distribution of the Palaeozoic. A key to understanding the hydrocarbon potential of the area is the maturation of the organic matter in the main potential source, the Ordovician Upper Alum Shale. Maturity was mainly achieved during the Silurian to Late Palaeozoic time, and little further maturation took place later. The Upper Alum Shale is accordingly expected to be overmature in the main part of the study area and mature in the Hano Bay Basin. This reflects the assumed primary uniform thickness of the Lower Palaeozoic, with a general thinning towards the northeast. A Caledonian to Variscian phase encompassing the Lower Palaeozoic sediments. The sediments are assumed originally to have showed a gradual thickness increase towards the Caledonian Deformation Front located to the south. This pre-rift development may be further subdivided into three sub-phases: A period of slow sedimentation on a relatively stable platform as recorded by the uniformly low thicknesses of the Cambrian to Lower Silurian sediments. A period of foreland-type rapid sedimentation commencing in the Llandoverian to Wenlockian, continuing in the Ludlovian and possibly into the Devonian. The period is characterized by /olding and uplift of the Caledonides to the south causing tectonic loading of the foreland and resultant rapid sedimentation in the foreland basin. A period of gravitational collapse causing minor erosion during the Devonian. The transition to the second major phase in the Phanerozaic structural development, during which the Sorgenfrei - Tornquist zane came into existence, is recorded by regional deposition of Carboniferous sediments. These sediments are, however, mostly removed by tater erosion. A syn-rift phase characterized by sedimentation in graben areas and expanding basins commencing in the Rotliegendes and continuing through the Triassic, Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous. This phase was probably initiated by a Late Carboniferous- Early Permian tensional dominated right-lateral wrench fault system within the Sorgenfrei-Tornquist zone. A Post-rift development phase dominated by Late Cretaceous carbonate sedimentation. During Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary times the Bornholm area was strongly affected by inversion tectonism caused by compressional strike-slip movements. This resulted in reverse faulting and uplift and erosion of former basinal areas. Understanding the two latter phases is important for understanding the present distribution of the Palaeozoic. A key to understanding the hydrocarbon potential of thearea is the maturation of the organic matter in the main potential source, the Ordovician Upper Alum Shale. Maturity was mainly achieved during the Silurian to Late Palaeozoic time, and little further maturation took place later. The Upper Alum Shale is accordingly expected to be overmature in the main part of the study area and mature in the Hano Bay Basin. This reflects the assumed primary uniform thickness of the Lower Palaeozoic, with a general thinning towards the northeast.

scholarly journals Triple junction kinematics accounts for the 2016 Mw7.8 Kaikoura earthquake rupture complexity

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (52) ◽  
pp. 26367-26375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuhua Shi ◽  
Paul Tapponnier ◽  
Teng Wang ◽  
Shengji Wei ◽  
Yu Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Triple Junction ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Plate Motion ◽  
Fault System ◽  
Coseismic Deformation ◽  
Coseismic Slip ◽  
Slab Geometry ◽  
Kaikoura Earthquake

The 2016, moment magnitude (Mw) 7.8, Kaikoura earthquake generated the most complex surface ruptures ever observed. Although likely linked with kinematic changes in central New Zealand, the driving mechanisms of such complexity remain unclear. Here, we propose an interpretation accounting for the most puzzling aspects of the 2016 rupture. We examine the partitioning of plate motion and coseismic slip during the 2016 event in and around Kaikoura and the large-scale fault kinematics, volcanism, seismicity, and slab geometry in the broader Tonga–Kermadec region. We find that the plate motion partitioning near Kaikoura is comparable to the coseismic partitioning between strike-slip motion on the Kekerengu fault and subperpendicular thrusting along the offshore West–Hikurangi megathrust. Together with measured slip rates and paleoseismological results along the Hope, Kekerengu, and Wairarapa faults, this observation suggests that the West–Hikurangi thrust and Kekerengu faults bound the southernmost tip of the Tonga–Kermadec sliver plate. The narrow region, around Kaikoura, where the 3 fastest-slipping faults of New Zealand meet, thus hosts a fault–fault–trench (FFT) triple junction, which accounts for the particularly convoluted 2016 coseismic deformation. That triple junction appears to have migrated southward since the birth of the sliver plate (around 5 to 7 million years ago). This likely drove southward stepping of strike-slip shear within the Marlborough fault system and propagation of volcanism in the North Island. Hence, on a multimillennial time scale, the apparently distributed faulting across southern New Zealand may reflect classic plate-tectonic triple-junction migration rather than diffuse deformation of the continental lithosphere.

Strain partitioning around an indenter during oroclinal bending: kinematics of the Circum-Moesian fault system of the Carpatho-Balkanides

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nemanja Krstekanic ◽  
Liviu Matenco ◽  
Uros Stojadinovic ◽  
Ernst Willingshofer ◽  
Marinko Toljić ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Fault System ◽  
Normal Faults ◽  
Strain Partitioning ◽  
The South ◽  
The Carpathians ◽  
The North ◽  
Moesian Platform ◽  
Parallel Extension

<p>The Carpatho-Balkanides of south-eastern Europe is a double 180° curved orogenic system. It is comprised of a foreland-convex orocline, situated in the north and east and a backarc-convex orocline situated in the south and west. The southern orocline of the Carpatho-Balkanides orogen formed during the Cretaceous closure of the Alpine Tethys Ocean and collision of the Dacia mega-unit with the Moesian Platform. Following the main orogen-building processes, the Carpathians subduction and Miocene slab retreat in the West and East Carpathians have driven the formation of the backarc-convex oroclinal bending in the south and west. The orocline formed during clockwise rotation of the Dacia mega-unit and coeval docking against the Moesian indenter. This oroclinal bending was associated with a Paleocene-Eocene orogen-parallel extension that exhumed the Danubian nappes of the South Carpathians and with a large late Oligocene – middle Miocene Circum-Moesian fault system that affected the orogenic system surrounding the Moesian Platform along its southern, western and northern margins. This fault system is composed of various segments that have different and contrasting types of kinematics, which often formed coevally, indicating a large degree of strain partitioning during oroclinal bending. It includes the curved Cerna and Timok faults that cumulate up to 100 km of dextral offset, the lower offset Sokobanja-Zvonce and Rtanj-Pirot dextral strike-slip faults, associated with orogen parallel extension that controls numerous intra-montane basins and thrusting of the western Balkans units over the Moesian Platform. We have performed a field structural study in order to understand the mechanisms of deformation transfer and strain partitioning around the Moesian indenter during oroclinal bending by focusing on kinematics and geometry of large-scale faults within the Circum-Moesian fault system.</p><p>Our structural analysis shows that the major strike-slip faults are composed of multi-strand geometries associated with significant strain partitioning within tens to hundreds of metres wide deformation zones. Kinematics of the Circum-Moesian fault system changes from transtensional in the north, where the formation of numerous basins is controlled by the Cerna or Timok faults, to strike-slip and transpression in the south, where transcurrent offsets are gradually transferred to thrusting in the Balkanides. The characteristic feature of the whole system is splaying of major faults to facilitate movements around the Moesian indenter. Splaying towards the east connects the Circum-Moesian fault system with deformation observed in the Getic Depression in front of the South Carpathians, while in the south-west the Sokobanja-Zvonce and Rtanj-Pirot faults splay off the Timok Fault. These two faults are connected by coeval E-W oriented normal faults that control several intra-montane basins and accommodate orogen-parallel extension. We infer that all these deformations are driven by the roll-back of the Carpathians slab that exerts a northward pull on the upper Dacia plate in the Serbian Carpathians. However, the variability in deformation styles is controlled by geometry of the Moesian indenter and the distance to Moesia, as the rotation and northward displacements increase gradually to the north and west.</p>

scholarly journals Polyphase deformation along the South Bohemian Batholith-Moldanubian nappes boundary – The Freyenstein Fault System (Bohemian Massif/Austria)

2020 ◽  
Vol 113 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 139-153
Author(s):  
Gerit E. U. Griesmeier ◽  
Christoph Iglseder ◽  
Ralf Schuster ◽  
Konstantin Petrakakis
Keyword(s):  
Shear Zone ◽  
Bohemian Massif ◽  
Potassium Feldspar ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Greenschist Facies ◽  
Fault System ◽  
Ductile Shear Zone ◽  
The South ◽  
Shear Sense ◽  
Ductile Shear

AbstractThis work describes the Freyenstein Fault System, which extends over 45 km in the southeastern part of the Bohemian Massif (Lower Austria). It represents a ductile shear zone overprinted by a brittle fault located at the eastern edge of the South Bohemian Batholith towards the Moldanubian nappes. It affects Weinsberg- and a more “fine-grained” granite, interlayered aplitic granite and pegmatite dikes as well as paragneiss of the Ostrong Nappe System. The ductile shear zone is represented by approximately 500 m thick greenschist-facies mylonite dipping about 60° to the southeast. Shear-sense criteria like clast geometries, SCC`-type shear band fabrics as well as abundant microstructures show top to the south/ southsouthwest normal shearing with a dextral strike-slip component. Mineral assemblages in mylonitized granitoid consist of pre- to syntectonic muscovite- and biotite-porphyroclasts as well as dynamically recrystallized potassium feldspar, plagioclase and quartz. Dynamic recrystallization of potassium feldspar and the stability of biotite indicate upper green-schist-facies metamorphic conditions during the early phase of deformation. Fluid infiltration at lower greenschist-facies conditions led to local sericitization of feldspar and synmylonitic chloritisation of biotite during a later stage of ductile deformation. Finally, a brittle overprint by a north-south trending, subvertical, sinistral strike-slip fault that shows a normal component is observed. Ductile normal shearing along the Freyenstein Shear Zone is interpreted to have occurred between 320 Ma and c. 300 Ma. This time interval is indicated by literature data on the emplacement of the hostrock and cooling below c. 300°C inferred from two Rb-Sr biotite ages measured on undeformed granites close to the shear zone yielding 309.6 ± 3 Ma and 290.9 ± 2.9 Ma, respectively. Brittle sinistral strike-slip faulting at less than 300°C presumably took place not earlier than 300 Ma. Early ductile shearing along the Freyenstein Fault System may be genetically, but not kinematically linked to the Strudengau Shear Zone, as both acted in an extensional regime during late Variscan orogenic collapse. A relation to other major northeast-southwest trending faults of this part of the Bohemian Massif (e.g. the Vitis-Pribyslav Fault System) is indicated for the phase of brittle sinistral movement.

scholarly journals Walanae Fault Kinematic Deduced from Geometric Geodetic GNSS GPS Monitoring

2019 ◽  
Vol 94 ◽  
pp. 04008
Author(s):  
Dina Anggreni Sarsito ◽  
Susilo Susilo ◽  
Alfend Rudyawan ◽  
Norman Arif Muhammad ◽  
Heri Andreas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Geometric Modeling ◽  
Slip Rate ◽  
Thrust Fault ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Fault System ◽  
The South ◽  
Fault Pattern ◽  
South Sulawesi ◽  
Structural Boundary ◽  
Central Sulawesi

The western Sulawesi region has the main structural boundary, the Palu Koro Fault which divides from Palu Bay at the northest part to Central Sulawesi and continues into the Bone Gulf in southest part. In the southern part of this region, namely the South Sulawesi Arm zone, there is a Walanae fault which is defined as a sinistral wrench with a NW-SE direction that divides the South Arm of Sulawesi. This fault in the northern part is expected to continue to the northwest intersecting the Makassar Strait and unite with Paternoster-Lupar (Kalimantan) sutures and at the southest ending in Flores thrust fault. Walanae fault system did not only have one strand but was divided into 4 parts, namely the northern East Walanae Fault with a slip rate of 6.634 mm/year and the southern part with a 7.097 mm/year of slip rate, as well as the northern part of West Walanae Fault with a slip rate of 4.528 mm/year and the southern part with a slip rate of 3.270 mm/year. The northern part of Walanae fault system has opening or spreading pattern occurs that is in harmony with the formation of Walanae depression. By using simple geometric modeling, we found the fault system have 2 strain partitions with dominant sinistral strike slip pattern at southern part and combination between left lateral strike slip with thrust fault pattern at northern part.

scholarly journals Revealing the earthquake history during the last 200 ka on a large submarine strike-slip fault: The Yusuf Fault System (Alboran Sea)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hector Perea ◽  
Eulàlia Gràcia ◽  
Stefanie Almeida ◽  
Laura Gómez de la Peña ◽  
Sara Martínez-Loriente ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Complex Structure ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Strike Slip Fault ◽  
Fault System ◽  
Alboran Sea ◽  
North African ◽  
The South ◽  
Active Structures ◽  
The North ◽  
Alborán Sea

<p>The NW-SE convergence (4-5 mm/yr) between the African and Eurasian plates controls the present-day crustal deformation in the Alboran Sea (westernmost Mediterranean). Although seismic activity is mainly characterized by low to moderate magnitude events, large and destructive earthquakes (I > IX) have occurred in this region (i.e., 1522 Almeria, 1790 Oran, 1910 Adra, 1994 and 2004 Al-Hoceima or 2016 Al-Idrissi earthquakes). The identification and the seismogenic characterization of the active structures in the Alboran Sea using ultra high-resolution (UHR) geophysical data is essential to evaluate better the exposure of the South Iberian Peninsula and North African coasts to related natural hazards (i.e., large earthquakes and related tsunamis and triggered landslides). During the SHAKE cruise, the Asterx and Idefx AUVs (Ifremer, france) were used to acquire UHR bathymetric (1m grid) and seismic (cm vertical resolution) data across the main active faults systems in the Alboran Sea with the aim to carry out sub-aqueous paleoseismological studies. One of the studied active structures has been the Yusuf Fault System (YFS), a dextral strike-slip system that is one of the largest structures in the Alboran Sea and a lithospheric boundary between different crustal domains: the East Alboran Basin to the north and the North African Margin to the south. It trends WNW-ESE, is ~150 km-long and can be divided into two main segments (W and E), producing the formation of a pull-apart basin where both overlap. The analysis of the UHR geophysical dataset reveals that in the imaged area this system is a complex structure composed by an array of strike-slip faults. Most of them reach up and offset the seafloor and the upper Pleistocene to Holocene sedimentary units. The results of the on-fault paleoseismological analyses reveal that the YFS may have generated at least 8 earthquakes in recent times. Although a detailed on-site geochronology is not available, a regional chronostratigraphic correlation have allowed estimating that the events have occurred during the last 200 ka, then providing an average recurrence interval of 27.5 ka. The estimated average vertical offset is about 0.64 m while the vertical slip-rate would be around 0.03 mm/yr. However, this value needs to be considered as a minimum since YFS is predominantly a strike-slip fault and the lateral slip will be much larger than the vertical one. According to different empirical relationships, the YFS could produce earthquakes above magnitude M<sub>w </sub>7.0. Finally, our results demonstrate that detailed geomorphological, active tectonic and paleoseismological studies are essential to reveal the present-day activity and to characterize the seismic behavior of the YFS, with crucial implications for seismic (and tsunami) hazard assessment in the surrounding coastal areas.</p>

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document