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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 68 (1984)

Issue: 4. (April)

First Page: 513

Last Page: 513

Title: Comparison of Tectonic Framework and Depositional Patterns of Hornelen Strike-Slip Basin in Norway and Ridge and Little Sulphur Creek Strike-Slip Basins of California: ABSTRACT

Author(s): Tor H. Nilsen, Robert J. McLaughlin

Abstract:

Deposition in basins that develop adjacent to strike-slip faults can yield thick nonmarine sequences with similar facies and geometry. In this paper, we compare 3 basins of different age and size whose tectonic and depositional characteristics suggest a similar origin and history.

The Hornelen basin developed during the Middle Devonian in western Norway. The basin is bounded on the north and south by east-west trending faults; the northern fault is considered to have been a zone of major right-slip movement. The basin is 60-70 km (38-43 mi) long, 15-25 km (9-16 mi) wide, and about 1,250 km2 (480 mi2) in areal extent; its 25,000 m (82,000 ft) of fill accumulated at an estimated rate of 2.5 m/1,000 yr (8 ft/1,000 yr). The Ridge basin developed during the Miocene and Pliocene between the right-lateral San Gabriel and San Andreas faults in southern California. The basin is 30-40 km (20-25 mi) long, 6-15 km (4-10 mi) wide, and about 200 km2 (80 mi2) in areal extent; its 7,000-11,000 m (23,000-36,000 ft) of fill accumulated at an estimated rate of about 3 m/1,000 yr (10 ft/1,000 yr). The 3 Little Sulphur Creek basins probably developed 4-2 m.y.B.P. along the east side of the right-lateral Maacama fault zone in northern California. These basins cumulatively are about 12 km (7 mi) long, 1.5-2 km (0.9-1.2 mi) wide, and about 15 km2 (6 mi2) in areal extent; their 5,000 m (16,000 ft) of fill accumulated at an estimated rate of about 2.5 m/1,000 yr (8 ft/1,000 yr).

Coarse angular sedimentary breccia, which constitute a relatively small volume of the basin fill, was deposited in each of these basins along the active right-slip-fault margins as talus, landslide, and small but steep debris-flow-dominated alluvial fans. Along other margins of the basin, a much larger volume of the fill accumulated as larger streamflow-dominated alluvial fans, braided-stream, meandering-stream, fan-delta, and deltaic deposits. Lacustrine deposits that include turbidites and local chemical precipitates accumulated in the centers of the basins. The basin floors are generally tilted toward the active right-slip-fault margins so that the basin axes and the depocenters are subparallel to and shifted toward this margin. Sediment was transported toward the basin axis from s rrounding highlands and then longitudinally down the basin axis. The basin fills were syndepositionally folded and faulted, and postdepositionally folded into large plunging synclines. The basins lengthened over time and contain thicknesses of sediment that are comparable to or greater than their widths.

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Copyright 1997 American Association of Petroleum Geologists