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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 40 (1956)

Issue: 2. (February)

First Page: 423

Last Page: 424

Title: Tectonic Framework of Oklahoma: ABSTRACT

Author(s): J. Kaspar Arbenz

Article Type: Meeting abstract

Abstract:

Oklahoma can be divided into the following major tectonic units:

The Oklahoma salient of the Ouachita Mountain orogen with the McAlester-Arkansas basin as foredeep.

The Arbuckle Mountain-Criner Hills-Wichita orogenic system with the Anadarko basin as foredeep.

The cratonic foreland of the two above systems consisting of the Oklahoma lobe of the Ozark

End_Page 423------------------------------

dome, the Central Oklahoma platform, and the Northern Oklahoma platform with the buried Nemaha ridge marking the western boundary of the Central Oklahoma platform.

A small marginal part of the Gulf Coast geosyncline.

With the possible exception of the structures of the Ouachita Mountains with their foredeep and the deep Anadarko basin, most of the tectonic units of Oklahoma show structural features which by their direction or alignment rather strikingly reflect deformational trends of the basement complex established in pre-Cambrian time and rejuvenated in later diastrophic events.

The first of these trends strikes northeast with variations from east-northeast to almost north-south ("Ozark strike") and can be recognized in the following features:

a. The tensional faulting of the Ozark region of Oklahoma.
b. The alignment of the echelon fault belts of the Central Oklahoma platform.
c. The faulting and general strike of the northern Nemaha ridge of Oklahoma.
d. The northeast striking fault pattern of the Arbuckle-Wichita system, particularly evident in the eastern Arbuckle Mountains and in the pre-Cambrian of the Wichita Mountains.
e. Transverse disturbances in the fold pattern of the Ouachita Mountains and the McAlester region.
f. Geophysical anomalies west of the Nemaha ridge crossing the Anadarko basin.

The second trend strikes normally west-northwest but varies from northwest to east-west ("Arbuckle strike") and is most typically represented in the following structures:

a. Major faults and folds of the Arbuckle-Criner Wichita system outlining the horst-graben block pattern of this tectonic unit.
b. Numerous subsurface faults of the Central Oklahoma platform.
c. Gentle folds in the Cretaceous of Southern Oklahoma.

A third, less distinct trend of structures striking north-northwest ("Anadarko strike") can be observed in:

a. The pre-Cambrian of the Wichita Mountains.
b. Fault and fold patterns of the Wichita-Criner system in the subsurface of central southern Oklahoma.
c. The southeastern portion of the Anadarko basin with the flanking south end of the Nemaha ridge.

The basement character and pre-Cambrian age of these trends can be best deducted from the dike, fault, and joint systems exposed in the pre-Cambrian cores of the Wichita and Arbuckle Mountains. The present state of knowledge of the mid-continental pre-Cambrian would not allow any precise conclusions as to the tectonic meaning of these trends in terms of pre-Cambrian structural history.

In contrast to these basement controlled structures the tectonic character of the Ouachita Mountains represents a typical compressive orogen with thick geosynclinal sediments that tend to eliminate or obscure any basement influence by disharmonic folding or decollement. Asymmetric and tight folding as well as high-angle thrust faulting are the dominant features of this province. Observable low-angle thrusts are restricted and the orogen appears to be principally an autochthonous system.

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Copyright 1997 American Association of Petroleum Geologists