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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
AAPG Bulletin
Abstract
AAPG Bulletin, V.
2014. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.
DOI: 10.1306/10311312204
Fault
displacement gradients on normal faults and associated deformation
Fault
displacement gradients on normal faults and associated deformation
Alan P. Morris,1 Ronald N. McGinnis,2 and David A. Ferrill3
1Department of Earth, Material, and Planetary Sciences, Southwest Research Institute®, San Antonio, Texas 78238; [email protected]
2Department of Earth, Material, and Planetary Sciences, Southwest Research Institute®, San Antonio, Texas 78238; [email protected]
3Department of Earth, Material, and Planetary Sciences, Southwest Research Institute®, San Antonio, Texas 78238; [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Faults are important components of hydrocarbon and other reservoirs; they can affect trapping of fluids, flow pathways, compartmentalization, production rates, and through these, production strategies and economic outcomes. Displacement gradients on faults are associated with off-
fault
deformation, which can be manifest as faulting, extension fracturing, or folding. In this work, displacement gradients—both in the slip direction and laterally—on a well-exposed large-displacement (seismic-scale) normal
fault
within the Balcones
fault
system of south-central Texas are correlated with anomalous deformation patterns adjacent to the
fault
. This anomalous deformation consists of two superimposed small-displacement
fault
systems, including (1) an earlier set that formed in response to a displacement gradient in the slip direction, and (2) a later set of oblique faults that formed in a perturbed stress-and-strain field in response to a lateral displacement gradient on the
fault
. Bed dip,
fault
-cutoff relationships, and small-displacement
fault
patterns in the adjacent rock volume inform strain and paleostress estimates. Results indicate that seismically resolvable displacement gradients on and bed dips adjacent to the seismic-scale
fault
provide a means by which the smaller (subseismic-scale and off-
fault
) deformation features can be predicted both in terms of orientation and intensity. Specifically, lateral displacement gradients on a normal
fault
with dip-slip displacement will generate
fault
-strike-parallel extension, causing anomalously oriented (in the far-field stress context) deformation features adjacent to the
fault
. Displacement gradient analysis can be used to help predict the characteristics of subseismic-scale deformation within a reservoir adjacent to a seismic-scale normal
fault
.
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