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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
AAPG Bulletin
Abstract
AAPG Bulletin, V.
2008. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.
DOI:10.1306/10290707066
Fault
zone deformation controlled by carbonate mechanical stratigraphy, Balcones
fault
system, Texas
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David A. Ferrill,1 Alan P. Morris2
1Geosciences and Engineering Division, Department of Earth, Material, and Planetary Sciences, Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, Texas 78238; [email protected]
2Geosciences and Engineering Division, Department of Earth, Material, and Planetary Sciences, Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, Texas 78238; [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Normal faults in Cretaceous carbonates in the Balcones fault
system provide important analogs for
fault
zone architecture and deformation in carbonate reservoirs worldwide. Mechanical layering is a fundamental control on carbonate
fault
zones. Relatively planar faults with low-displacement gradients develop in massive, strong, clay-poor limestones and dolomites. In less competent clay-rich strata, shale beds impede
fault
propagation, resulting in
fault
-related folding, and locally steep bedding dips. Faults in clay-poor massive limestones and dolomites tend to be steep (70
or more), whereas weaker, clay-rich limestones develop faults with shallower dips (60
or less).
Fault
zone rocks show evidence of cataclasis, cementation, deformation of cement by mechanical twinning and pressure solution, and multiple generations of cement with differing degrees of deformation, indicating contemporaneous cementation and
fault
slip. In stratigraphic sequences consisting of both competent and incompetent strata, the ratio of incompetent to competent strata by thickness is a useful guide for inferring the relative rates of
fault
displacement and propagation. Low displacement-to-propagation ratios associated with competent strata generate low-displacement gradients, inhibiting
fault
-related folding. Conversely, high displacement-to-propagation ratios associated with incompetent strata promote high-displacement gradients and
fault
-related folding.
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