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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
AAPG Bulletin
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With the application of plate tectonic concepts to southern Oklahoma, the structural style has more recently been characterized as a wrench fault system. In particular, the Washita Valley fault (WVF) is generally considered by many geologists to be a major left-lateral strike-slip fault with an offset of approximately 40 mi (64 km).
The map most commonly used to demonstrate this magnitude of lateral offset is the basal Oil Creek sand distribution map. The zero edge of the basal Oil Creek sand provides the necessary piercing point to judge lateral offset along the WVF. However, the published basal Oil Creek map depicts the present-day distribution of the sand which is the result of cumulative movements since the deposition of the basal Oil Creek sand. Individual orogenic episodes must be sorted to determine what contribution possible strike-slip movements have made toward the present-day basal Oil Creek sand distribution.
To unravel these various orogenic episodes a palinspastic restoration must be made. In such a sequential restoration, the last movement should be restored first or the known movements restored first to determine the unknown movements. In this presentation, the observable folds along the WVF have been "unfolded" and the known reverse faults have been restored to a pre-fault position. When this has been accomplished the partly restored basal Oil Creek sand map may be used to determine the amount of lateral offset on the WVF.
The resulting restoration indicates that the commonly quoted figure of 40 mi (64 km) of lateral offset is too large. Surface and subsurface data demonstrate that the crustal shortening represented by folds and reverse faults alone can account for the present-day basal Oil Creek sand distribution and thus very little strike-slip movement is needed along the Washita Valley fault system.
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