ABSTRACT

Growth faults are the structural manifestation of the inherent tensional stress regime that is focused at the upwardly convex margin of a prograding continental platform. Extension and faulting may be triggered by either gravitational gliding or spreading. Extensional faulting results in both lateral translation and subsidence of the down-faulted sediment mass. Consequently, outer platform and upper slope facies are expanded and disproportionately preserved relative to paralic or deep-water facies. Specific growth-fault geometries and patterns are related in part to the depositional history and style of the prograding margin. Unusually continuous and low-angle master faults are proposed to result from a history of rapid progradation of a deltaic depocenter onto an older retrograditional slope. Growth-fault zones function as major conduits for large-scale circulation of both ground waters and hydrocarbon fluids within the sedimentary prism.