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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 63 (1979)

Issue: 9. (September)

First Page: 1588

Last Page: 1588

Title: Paleozoic Disruptive Deformation in North American Continent and Its Relation to Formation and Development of Interior Basins and Deformation Within Orogenic Core: ABSTRACT

Author(s): Robert C. Shumaker

Article Type: Meeting abstract

Abstract:

The two major disruptive tectonic events during the Paleozoic which affected the North American craton seem to be associated with Appalachian-Ouachita orogenic events. The first Paleozoic cratonic disruption was tensional rifting, which occurred during the Avalonian intrusive-metamorphic event (± 560 m.y.). Evidence continues to mount that these Cambrian rifts of the Appalachian-Ouachita foreland, such as the Rome trough of Kentucky and West Virginia, are not Cambrian aulacogens. By time and position, the rifts seem to be incipient basins along a developing back-arc trough. However, this disruptive deformation was not restricted to the developing arc trough, but extended far into the craton where it commonly involved reactivation of older rift zones. These zones form d the axial portion of the subsequently developed Paleozoic basins. The Paleozoic basins developed by epeirogenic movement after a period of relative quiescence during Late Cambrian through Early Ordovician (pre-Taconic) time.

The second Paleozoic continental disruption created large upthrust blocks in the craton during the Pennsylvanian and early Permian, probably by compressional deformation. This event ties, both by time and position, to deformation within the Ouachita part of the orogenic core. Upthrust crustal blocks in the craton may be bounded by reactivated faults of precursor rifts. When they formed, the upthrusts often developed near the axial part on the middle Paleozoic basins to form the late Paleozoic yoked basins. The occurrence of axial rifts within interior and foreland basins, and of axial upthrusts in the craton-margin basins, suggests an interrelation among rifts, basin formation, and the late-forming yoked basins. The developing foreland trough (the Appalachian-Ouachita geosyncline) has a tectonic history similar to that of the cratonic basins but, along its trend, tensional bending of the basement predominated.

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