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Abstract

(Begin page 233)

AAPG Bulletin, V. 85, No. 2 (February 2001), P. 233-260.

Copyright ©2001. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

Analog models of restraining stepovers in strike-slip fault systems

Ken McClay,1 Massimo Bonora2

1Fault Dynamics Research Group, Geology Department, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 OEX, United Kingdom; email: [email protected]
2Midland Valley, 14 Park Circus, Glasgow, G3 6AX, Scotland, United Kingdom

AUTHORS

Ken McClay comes from Adelaide, Australia. He has a B.Sc. (honors) degree from Adelaide University and an M.Sc. degree and Ph.D. in structural geology from Imperial College, London. He lectured at Goldsmiths College and is now at Royal Holloway University of London. He has been professor of structural geology since 1991 and is director of the Fault Dynamics Research Group. He was AAPG distinguished lecturer in North America 1994-1995 and AAPG International distinguished lecturer 1998-1999. His research involves extension, thrust, strike-slip, and inversion terranes and their applications to hydrocarbon exploration. He publishes widely, consults, and gives short courses to industry.

Massimo Bonora comes from Ferrara, Italy. He received his degree in geological sciences from Ferrara University and his M.Sc. degree in basin evolution and dynamics from Royal Holloway University of London. Between 1995 and 1998 Massimo worked as a research assistant in the Fault Dynamics Research Group at Royal Holloway. Massimo is now working as a structural geologist within the Latin America team at Midland Valley Ltd. in Glasgow, Scotland.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The research for this article has been supported by the Fault Dynamics Project (sponsored by ARCO British Limited, Petrobrás U.K. Ltd., BP Exploration, Conoco (U.K.) Limited, Mobil North Sea Limited, and Sun Oil Britain). Ken McClay also gratefully acknowledges funding from ARCO British Limited and BP Exploration. We thank J. Reijs for the data for Figure 21. Critical reviews by A. Sylvester, D. Stone, and J. Sheridan were greatly appreciated. We thank Tim Dooley for many fruitful discussions and assistance with drafting diagrams. Howard Moore constructed the deformation apparatus. Fault Dynamics Publication No. 74.

ABSTRACT

Scaled sandbox models have successfully simulated the geometries and progressive evolution of antiformal pop-up structures developed in a weak sedimentary cover above restraining stepovers in offset sinistral strike-slip fault systems in rigid basement. Models were run both with and without synkinematic sedimentation, which was added incrementally to cover the growing antiformal structures. Vertical and horizontal sections of the completed models permit the full three-dimensional (3-D) structure of the pop-ups to be analyzed in detail. Three representative end-member experiments are described: 30° underlapping restraining stepovers; 90° neutral restraining stepovers; and 150° overlapping restraining stepovers.

The experimental pop-ups are typically sigmoidal to lozenge-shaped, antiformal structures having geometries that are dependent on both the stepover angle and stepover width in the underlying basement faults. Underlapping restraining stepovers typically form elongate lozenge-shaped pop-ups; 90° neutral restraining stepovers produce shorter, squat rhomboidal pop-ups; and overlapping restraining stepovers produce sigmoidal antiformal pop-ups. Trans pop-up cross fault systems are characteristic at large displacements on the basement fault system. Above the offset principal displacement zones, the pop-ups are commonly small, narrow, positive flower structures, whereas in the stepover region, they widen out and become markedly asymmetric. This pop-up asymmetry switches across the center of the stepover, where the pop-ups are largely symmetical. Maximum rotations measured within the central highly uplifted region of the pop-ups increase from 7° counterclockwise for the underlapping (30°) stepovers, to 14° counterclockwise for the neutral (90°) stepovers, to 16° counterclockwise for the overlapping (150°) stepovers.

In models where no synkinematic sediments were added during deformation, the pop-up structures are bound by convex, flattening-upward, oblique-slip reverse fault systems that link downward to the offsets in the basement fault system. In contrast, in the (Begin page 234) experiments where synkinematic sediments were added incrementally during deformation, the pop-ups are formed by oblique-slip reverse faults that steepen upward into the synkinematic strata with the formation of fault-propagation growth folds.

The analog models are compared with natural examples of pop-up structures and show strong similarities in structural geometries and stratal architectures. These models may provide structural templates for seismic interpretation of complex contractional structures in offset strike-slip fault systems.

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