Tectonic style of the late Mesozoic to early Cenozoic(?) Sevier orogenic belt in Utah was greatly affected by preexisting structural trends that date from late Precambrian rifting and fragmentation of the North American continent. The frontal zone of the thrust belt was superimposed on the edge of the late Precambrian craton (Cordilleran hingeline) that was marked by a system of prominent faults and structural highs, such as the Fillmore arch, the north-south-trending ancestral Wasatch and Ancient Ephraim faults, and the northeast-trending Leamington, Scipio, Cove Fort, and Paragonah lineaments. The renewed activity of these structures affected the geometries of the late Paleozoic Ancestral Rocky Mountain uplifts and basins, the extent of the Jurassic evaporitic Arapien b sin, and the sedimentary pattern of the Cretaceous foreland basin. During the compressional Sevier tectonism, some of these fault zones were reactivated as tectonic ramps (e.g., the Ancient Ephraim fault) and tear faults (e.g., the Leamington fault). The Fillmore arch and other structural highs along the edge of the late Precambrian craton caused ramping of the inner Keystone, Pavant, Canyon, Paris, and Willard thrust sheets and telescoping of the frontal thrust sheets.

During the Basin and Range extension, a major low-angle, normal fault (the Sevier Desert detachment) developed at the western side of the uplifted Fillmore arch. The northeast-trending Leamington, Cove Fort, and Paragonah lineaments were reactivated as left-lateral strike-slip faults. Mobilization of major fault zones that were inherited from late Precambrian rifting may account for some crustal shortening during the compressional Sevier orogeny and, conversely, for some crustal extension during the Basin and Range extensional event.