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AAPG Bulletin

Abstract

AAPG Bulletin, V. 98, No. 3 (March 2014), P. 465482.

Copyright copy2014. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

DOI:10.1306/06251311013

Geometry, kinematics, and displacement characteristics of tear-fault systems: An example from the deep-water Niger Delta

Nathan P. Benesh, 1 Andreas Plesch, 2 John H. Shaw 3

1Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138; present address: ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, Houston, Texas; [email protected]
2Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts; [email protected]
3Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts; [email protected]

ABSTRACT

We use three-dimensional seismic reflection data and new map-based structural restoration methods to define the displacement history and characteristics of a series of tear faults in the deep-water Niger Delta. Deformation in the deep-water Niger Delta is focused mostly within two fold-and-thrust belts that accommodate downdip shortening produced by updip extension on the continental shelf. This shortening is accommodated by a series of thrust sheets that are locally cut by strike-slip faults. Through seismic mapping and interpretation, we resolve these strike-slip faults to be tear faults that share a common detachment level with the thrust faults. Acting in conjunction, these structures have accommodated a north –south gradient in westward-directed shortening. We apply a map-based restoration technique implemented in Gocad to restore an upper stratigraphic horizon of the late Oligocene and use this analysis to calculate slip profiles along the strike-slip faults. The slip magnitudes and directions change abruptly along the lengths of the tear faults as they interact with numerous thrust sheets. The discontinuous nature of these slip profiles reflects the manner in which they have accommodated differential movement between the footwall and hanging-wall blocks of the thrust sheets. In cases for which the relationship between a strike-slip fault and multiple thrust faults is unclear, the recognition of this type of slip profile may distinguish thin-skinned tear faults from more conventional deep-seated, throughgoing strike-slip faults.

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