Exam Short answer questions Diagram interpretation Some multiple choice Material from discussion sections will be included Lab material will not be covered (although diagrams may be used) Powerpoint presentations at

TECTONIC BASINS The sedimentary record of tectonic processes

CONVERGENT SETTINGS Thrust belt typically propagates into foreland basin, moving depocenter in the direction of thrust motion Piggyback Basin: Piggyback Basin: basins that are on the hanging wall of a thrust fault and move with the hanging wall. Sediments evolve from fine-grained turbidites to shallow water continental seds over time

Foreland basins can accumulate exceptionally thick (~10 km) stratigraphic successions

Homewood et al. (1986)

CONVERGENT SETTINGS Intracratonic Basin: Intracratonic Basin: large-scale basins far from mountain belts that form very wide, gentle synclines. Commonly large but not very deep

Locations of intracratonic basins worldwide Characterized by basins separated by arches or domes. Generally middle Cambrian or younger seds deposited on Precambrian basement. Most seds marine, deposited by epeiric seas (i.e., where ocean transgressed on continent). Deepest parts of basins continued to receive sediments during marine regressions.

TRANSFORM SETTINGS Strike-slip fault = a fault on which the movement is parallel to fault’s strike Basins form where irregularities in fault system cause depocenters to form locally Distinctive in that they are not regional in extent Fill with material sourced locally and from plate that is ‘passing by’

Basin formation in strike-slip

TRANSFORM SETTINGS Pull-apart basins Pull-apart basins - caused by releasing step or dilational jog in fault system Strike-slip basins Strike-slip basins form in transtensional regimes and are usually relatively small but also deep; they are commonly filled with coarse facies (e.g., alluvial fans) adjacent to lacustrine or marine deposits Examples: Salton Sea, California; Ridge basin, California; Dead Sea, Israel

3 simple types of transform margin

San Andreas fault system Extends from Mendocino transform-transform-trench triple junction to Rivera ridge-trench-transform triple junction McDonald et al. (1979)

Alpine fault continental trench-trench transform Grindley (1974)

Ridge- convergence system transform: Dead Sea rift Garfunkel (1981)

BASINS AS TECTONIC MARKERS

Accretion Terranes are ‘fault- bounded blocks of crust that accrete to the ancient cores of the continents. The process makes the continents increase in extent and rewords them into what amounts to geologic collages’ - David G. Howell (1985)

X-section through Cordilleran Terranes Sutures bound accreted terranes Note that movement by which terranes were emplaced may be reverse or strike- slip

Present-day distribution of Tethyan fusilinids (red dots - ‘home territory’) M.W. McElhinney