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Basin-Forming Tectonics
Basin Classification
BASIN EVOLUTION
• Key factors for basin evolution include,
• Basin configuration,
• Nature of sedimentary fill in space and
time,
• Type of structural features,
• Position in the geotectonic framework
SEDIMENTARY BASINS: EVOLUTION
AND
CATEGORISATION
•A basin is born from the meting of a sedimentary deposit and a
more or less pronounced concavity in the basement.
Modern Ideas
Many (if not the majority) of steeply dipping normal faults are actually curved (concave-upward) and
become shallow-dipping and sub-horizontal at depth. These are now known as listric faults. As the
lithosphere is stretched during continental extension, the ductile deeper crust thins by pure shear, while
the upper crust is broken up and pulled apart by listric faults which 'bottom out' in the ductile layer. At
the surface of course these have the appearance of graben. This is the essence of McKenzie-type and
other recent models of basin formation. As the sub-continental (i.e. mantle) lithosphere is thinned by
stretching it is of course partly replaced by hotter asthenosphere. This will gradually cool on a time scale
of the order of 50 - 100 m.y., and as it cools it becomes denser and the shallow basin above gradually
subsides and is progressively filled with shallow-water sediment. The amount of subsidence will depend
on the initial amount of stretching. This can usually be estimated and is known as the stretching factor,
or "beta factor". The parameter b is defined quite simpy as b/a where a was the initial width and b is the
stretched width. A b factor of 1.2 will give ca. 3 km subsidence. With complete rifting (to form ocean crust
and an ocean basin) then b approaches infinity.
The important difference is in the recognition of low-angle detachments (superficially like thrusts,
but with movement sense as in normal fault), first proposed for the Basin & Range province in the
western USA.
These may bottom out in the lower crust or the upper mantle. The main effect is to introduce
asymmetry compared with the pure shear uniform-stretching McKenzie-type model, so that basins
associated with the thermal subsidence phase may be offset from the thin-skinned basins
associated with the initial rifting.
Magmatic effects (melting resulting from the uprising asthenosphere) may be offset from the main
sedimentary basins. Because of the asymmetry, the continental margins on the two sides of an
opening ocean may have very different profiles.
Stages in the evolution of a rift basin. (a) Early rifting
associated with several minor, relatively isolated normal
faults. (b) Mature rifting with through-going boundary
fault zone, widespread deposition, and footwall uplift
and erosion.
Idealized rift basin showing unconformity-bounded
tectonostratigraphic packages. Thin black lines represent
stratal truncation beneath unconformities; red half-
arrows represent onlaps.
Geometry of a simple half graben.
(a) Map-view geometry.
(b) Geometry along a cross section oriented perpendicular to the
boundary fault, showing wedge-shaped basin in which synrift
strata exhibit a fanning geometry, thicken toward the boundary
fault, and onlap prerift rocks.
(c) Geometry along a cross section oriented parallel to the boundary
fault, showing syncline-shaped basin in which synrift strata thin
away from the center of the basin and onlap prerift rocks.
Simple filling model for a growing half-graben basin shown in map view (stages 1-4), longitudinal cross section
(stages 1-5), and transverse cross section (stages 1-4). Dashed line represents lake level. The relationship between
capacity and sediment supply determines whether sedimentation is fluvial or lacustrine.
This block model shows the subsurface configuration found at an axial
margin delta system in a tropical rift valley lake. Such settings are
typically major entry points for clastic material introduced into rift
basins. Principal elements in the model include stacked progradational
deltas, subaqueous fault controlled channels, and deep-water, organic-
rich, hemipelagic sediments. Most subsidence in this part of the rift
valley is accommodated by displacement on the main basin border fault.
Rift Basin Inversion
Experimental models of inversion structures. Cross sections through three clay models showing
development of inversion structures (after Eisenstadt and Withjack, 1995). In each model, a clay layer (with
colored sub-layers) covered two overlapping metal plates. Movement of the lower plate created extension
or shortening. Thin clay layers are prerift; thick clay layers are synrift; top-most layer is postrift and pre-
inversion.
.
Examples of positive inversion structures. a) Cross section across part of Sunda arc. During
inversion, normal faults became reverse faults, producing synclines and anticlines with harpoon
geometries (after Letouzey, 1990). b) Interpreted line drawings (with 3:1 and 1:1 vertical
exaggeration) of AGSO Line 110-12 from Exmouth sub-basin, NW Shelf Australia (after
Withjack & Eisenstadt, 1999). During Miocene inversion, deep-seated normal faults became
reverse faults. In response, gentle monoclines formed in the shallow, postrift strata.
Schematic NW-SE cross sections showing development, chronologically from bottom
to top, of the southwestern intraplate Palmyride fold belt, with a list of related major
Arabian plate boundary tectonic events.
Red sea Gulf of Aden
East African
rift
Thermal hypothesis of Sleep. This was the first to recognise that
heating up the mantle (by a plume or whatever) could produce
substantial crustal uplift (and erosion), followed by thermal
subsidence. Compare the models by McKenzie and Wernicke later . .
The area looked like just before 760 m.y. At 760 m.y. ago, rifting of the crust resulted in
the creation of a rift valley.
At 570 m.y., the Blue Ridge was caught up in the rifting that opened
Iapetus ocean.
Passive (Atlantic-Type) Margins:
The first two are thought to have formed by back-arc spreading, either still
active (1), or recently active (2). The third may represent basins formed by
even older back-arc spreading, or normal ocean crust that has been "trapped"
behind a recently developed oceanic island arc.
Marginal basins are a common feature of the Western Pacific. Examples
(north to south) are the Sea of Japan, the West Philippine Basin, the Parace
Vela & Shikoku Basins, the Mariana Trough, the Woodlark Basin, the Fiji and
Lau Basins. By contrast marginal basins are rarer in the Eastern Pacific. The
two examples in the Atlantic are the Caribbean and the Scotia Sea.
Uprising Harzburgite Diapir:
This model (Oxburgh & Parmentier 1978) depends on the fact that refractory lithosphere
(which has lost its basalt component at mid-ocean ridges) is less dense and inherently more
buoyant than normal fertile mantle. Thus it would rise if heated to same temperature as
surrounding mantle. Such diapirs could in theory be derived from subducting lithosphere,
although it is doubtful that subducting lithosphere could be heated within 10 my; more likely
it takes 1000 - 2000 my according to megalith concepts of Ringwood (1982):
Convection-driven:
This model proposed by Toksoz & Bird (1978), and requires
that subsidiary convection cells are driven by the downward
drag of the downgoing slab. Calculations suggest that
spreading would occur about 10 my after the start of
subduction. This might explain why back-arc spreading is
more common in oceanic regions, the lithosphere is thinner
and thus more easily disrupted than under continents:
Passive Diapirism:
Foreland basins subside as a result of the load. The crust beneath the
thrust load is depressed as a result of isostacy and the adjacent crust is
depressed via flexure since it is attached.
Schematic diagrams comparing patterns of uplift and
subsidence in foreland and extensional basins during times
of active deformation (A) and quiescence (B).
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• Basin classification scheme comparison: plate tectonics scheme vs. Mohriak, Hobbs
and Dewey (1990).