Basement-influenced deformation in the Marathon fold-thrust belt, West Texas
The Marathon Basin of West Texas is a window into the southwestern end of the Ouachita system and formed as a response to north-to-northwest-directed late Paleozoic thrust faulting. Folds in the basin are elongate, trend northeast, and are highly non-cylindrical. Thickness and facies changes within the flysch sediments of the basin are coincident with the plunge of major anticlinoria. These features are superimposed on a pre-existing structural framework inherited from earlier deformation and modified by pre-, syn-, and post-tectonic sedimentation. Field, seismic, aeromagnetic, and deep well data indicate the presence of both northeast-trending frontal ramps and northwest-trending transverse ramps beneath the allochthonous rocks of the Marathon Basin. Evidence for reactivated northwest-trending features includes: (1) changes in plunge of first- and second-order folds; (2) large offsets in Devonian carbonate/top of basement seismic reflectors; (3) structure contours on Cretaceous rocks surrounding the basin; (4) dramatic changes in elevation of top of Ellenburger along strike; (5) variable tectonic stratigraphy and flysch thickness along strike; (6) a northwest-trending magnetic low through the middle of the basin; and (7) outcrop and well data for large-scale vertical movements along colinear northwest-trending features both north and south of the basin proper. These basement structural features (high-angle faults.) were inherited from Late Precambrian rifting and reactivated during Ouachita, Laramide, and Basin and Range events. Basement-influenced transverse structures affect the sedimentological and subsequent deformational histories of this and other fold-thrust belts around the world.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Texas, Austin (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6860428
- Journal Information:
- J. Geol.; (United States), Journal Name: J. Geol.; (United States) Vol. 96:5; ISSN JGEOA
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
580201* -- Geophysics-- Seismology & Tectonics-- (1980-1989)
BASEMENT ROCK
DEFORMATION
DIMENSIONS
FEDERAL REGION VI
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGY
GROUND UPLIFT
NORTH AMERICA
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
STRATA MOVEMENT
STRATIGRAPHY
TECTONICS
TEXAS
THICKNESS
USA