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Abstract

K. R. McClay, 2004, Thrust tectonics and hydrocarbon systems: AAPG Memoir 82, p. 276-301.

Copyright copy2004. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

3-D Analog Modeling of Inversion Thrust Structures

Yasuhiro Yamada,1 Ken McClay2

1Fault Dynamics Research Group, Geology Department, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey, United Kingdom; Present address: Dept. of Civil and Earth Resources Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
2Fault Dynamics Research Group, Geology Department, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey, United Kingdom

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work is based on Y. Yamada's Ph.D. research, which was supported by the Fault Dynamics Project sponsored by ARCO British Limited, PETROBRAS U.K. Ltd., BP Exploration, Conoco (U.K.) Limited, Mobil North Sea Limited, and Sun Oil Britain. Y. Yamada also acknowledges funding from JNOC and JAPEX. K. McClay gratefully acknowledges support from BP Exploration. Brian Adams and Howard Moore are thanked for constructing and maintaining the deformation apparatus. T. Dooley and P. Whitehouse are thanked for constructive reviews. Fault Dynamics Publication No. 113.

ABSTRACT

The geometries and kinematic evolution of 3-D inversion thrust structures have been modeled using 3-D sandbox analogs of hanging-wall deformation above footwall blocks with both concave-up and convex-up listric geometries. Extension over 3-D concave-up listric detachments produced characteristic rollover anticlines and crestal-collapse graben systems that parallel the along-strike, sinusoidal or cuspate plan geometries of the detachment breakaways. Three-dimensional inversion by horizontal contraction produced asymmetric, thrust-fault-bounded, hanging-wall inversion anticlines with curved axial traces that also follow the plan-view shape of the extensional breakaways. The main detachments were reactivated during the inversion, and new, steep thrust segments propagated upward from the detachment breakaways. Shallow to moderately dipping hanging-wall back thrusts also propagated outward from the crestal-collapse graben systems. The periclinal inversion anticlines exhibited two plunge culminations above the most concave sections of the main detachment surface. Extension above a 3-D convex-up, listric detachment surface produced a hanging-wall syncline together with a narrow, complex crestal-collapse graben system. In plan view, the axes of the hanging-wall syncline and the crestal-collapse graben formed parallel to the sinusoidal detachment breakaway. Inversion of this system produced a broad, thrust-fault-bounded anticline that shows along-strike plunge culminations. The main detachment surface was reactivated, and a moderately dipping thrust propagated upward through the syninversion strata. Segmented, hanging-wall back thrusts formed subparallel to the main detachment breakaway. Vertical and horizontal sections through the completed models were used to construct 3-D synoptic models for these inversion systems. The results of the analog experiments compare well with published examples of 3-D inversion structures from petroleum basins in the North Sea, Indonesia, and Argentina.

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