Seismic fabric and 3-D structure of the southwestern intracontinental Palmyride fold belt, Syria

Journal Article · Wed Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 1993 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States)

OSTI ID:5665385

Chaimov, T A; Barazangi, M ^[1]; Al-Saad, D; Sawaf, T; Khaddour, M ^[2]

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1. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
2. Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Damascus (Syrian Arab Republic)

The Palmyride fold belt, a 400 x 100 km transpressive belt in central Syria that is the northeastern arm of the Syrian arc, is the result of late Mesozoic and Cenozoic inversion of a late Paleozoic and Mesozoic, northeast-trending, linear intracontinental basin located within the northern Arabian platform. The southwestern Palmyrides, near the Dead Sea transform fault system and the Anti-Lebanon mountains, are characterized by short wavelength (5--10 km) en echelon folds separated by small intermontane basins that developed mainly in the Neogene to Holocene. A new three-dimensional data cube, 60 x 70 x 10 km, generated on a Landmark Graphics workstation and based on approximately 700 km of two-dimensional seismic reflection profiles, elucidates the structure of the upper 10 km of the crust in the southwestern Palmyrides. Visualization of the subsurface structure, which is represented by a prominent Upper Cretaceous reflection surface in the data cube, is augmented by topographical and Bouguer gravity data of the same region. Preexisting discontinuities, probable normal fault relicts of the Mesozoic Palmyride rift, likely controlled the development of individual Neogene thrusts. The new subsurface image shows important structural features not identified in outcrop. Short, west-northwest-trending transcurrent (or transfer) faults like the short, en echelon northeast-trending thrust faults and blind thrusts of the Palmyrides. A pervasive regional decollment is not observed, even though Triassic evaporites host local detachments. Unlike topographic relief, which only roughly resembles subsurface structures, the Bouguer gravity signature of the southwestern Palmyrides closely mimics underlying shallow geologic structures both on a large ([approximately]50 km wavelength) and a small ([approximately]5--10 km wavelength) scale. The structural analysis and many other recent studies of the region indicate minor right-lateral shear coupled with compression in the Palmyrides.

• OSTI ID: 5665385
• Journal Information: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States), Vol. 77:12; ISSN 0149-1423
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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