Seismotectonics of Reelfoot rift basement structures
- Geological Survey, Denver, CO (United States)
Contour maps of the Precambrian basement surface show major northwest-trending structural features within the boundaries of the northeast-oriented Reelfoot rift. These northwest-trending features, southeast of New Madrid, Missouri, consist of a trough flanked on the northeast by a 2-km-high ridge. These features correlate with similar features on an updated depth-to-magnetic basement map. The boundary between the trough and the ridge slopes gently to the southwest. The upward projection of this boundary into the overlying Paleozoic strata may be expressed on a structure-contour map of the Cambrian rocks. The vertical relief of this boundary on the younger datum is inferred to be about 1 km. This Precambrian trough-ridge structure may correlate with a southwest dipping, west-northwest-striking normal fault inferred by Schwalb (1982) to offset rocks of the Cambrian-Ordovician Knox Megagroup that subcrop at the Paleozoic surface. Schwalb (1982) inferred 1.22 km of vertical relief on this fault near the bootheel of Missouri. The nature and significance of this tectonic-structural boundary is unclear, but at the top of the Precambrian basement rocks, it coincides with the southwestern terminus of the New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ) near the end of the Blytheville arch in northeastern Arkansas. Since the mid-1970's, when instrumental recording began, some of the earthquakes in the NMSZ having the largest magnitudes occurred in this area. The authors working hypothesis is that this trough-ridge structural boundary may concentrate stress and/or may be a barrier that defines the southwestern limit of the seismically active axial fault zone in the rift. Future study will concentrate on improving the understanding of the influence of rift-bounding faults on the lateral extent of this structure, as well as constructing a tectonic stress model of seismically active rift faults and this trough-ridge structure.
- OSTI ID:
- 5011696
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9303210-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 25:3; Conference: 27. annual Geological Society of America (GSA) North-Central Section meeting, Rolla, MO (United States), 29-30 Mar 1993; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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