Structural Geology Chapter 5: Reverse faults and thrusts

Chapter 5: Reverse faults and thrusts

Introduction

Reverse faults Reverse faults are faults where the hanging wall moves up relative to the footwall.
They cause a shortening of the crust in the horizontal direction. The maximum
compressive stress is therefore close to horizontal. Since Mohr-Coulomb failure occurs
at an angle <45° to the maximum compressive stress, reverse faults are expected to be
dipping <45° near the surface.

Reverse faults are often associated with detachment levels, which have a much
Thrusts shallower inclination. Such reverse faults with a low dip angle are thrusts (dip angle
<<45°). Just like normal faults they may have a listric shape with a steeper part at the
surface, which bends into a shallow dip at depth. The movement along a thrust and the
formation of multiple splays or imbricates can form complex systems, usually
Fold-and-thrust belts involving folding as well. These are fold-and-thrust belts. This chapter mostly deals
with such systems.

Fig. 5.1. Tectonic setting with a normal (right) and a back-

thrusting (left) fold-and-thrust belt. The back-thrusting typically
occurs behind an arc or micro-continental sliver.

Geodynamical settings of fold-and-thrust belts

Major fold-and-thrust belts are associated with subduction (Fig. 5.1). Normally the
Back-thrusting thrusting is in the opposite direction as subduction, but back-thrusting can also occur,
where thrusting is in the same direction as subduction (compare with synthetic and
antithetic normal faults in previous chapter).
Some examples of large fold-and-thrust belts are:
• Andes: subduction beneath a continent
• Taiwan: subduction beneath an arc
• Himalayans: underthrusting of continent (India) under a continent (Asia)
• Rocky Mountains: back thrusting away from the subduction

Fig. 5.2. (a) Fenster, klippe, salient and re-entrant in map view and in a vertical cross section. (b) A famous klippe at Crow's nest
Pass in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Crow's Nest Mountain is a remnant of a eastwards translated thrust sheet.

Nappe or thrust sheet A large body of rock that is translated by a flat-lying thrust is a nappe or thrust sheet.
Nappes can be transported over many tens of kilometres. The Alps are essentially
Allochtonous composed of a stack of such nappes. Material that is transported away from its origin is
Autochtonous called allochtonous. The counterpart is autochtonous (still in its original place).

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Because thrust are usually shallow dipping, their outcrop pattern may be complicated.
Some terms you need to know (Fig. 5.2a):
Salient & re-entrant • A salient is a part of the thrust that is ahead of the main thrust front. A re-entrant is
the opposite
Klippe • A klippe is a part of the thrust and overlying rocks that is completely isolated, i.e.
surrounded by its footwall (Fig. 5.2b).
Fenster • A fenster is an isolated area of footwall outcrop.

Main types of thrust-related structures

Three types of structures are common in fold-and-thrust belts:

Detachment folds • Detachment folds and pop-ups: These structures form to accommodate the space
& pop-ups problems that arise at the tip of a blind detachment.
Fault-propagation folds • Fault-propagation folds: These structures form to accommodate the space
problems at the tip of an upwards-propagating thrust or imbricate.
Fault-bend folds • Fault-bend folds: These structures form when a fault is not straight.

Detachment folds and pop-ups

If there is fault movement along a blind detachment, space problems at the tip
necessitate the formation of accommodation structures (Fig. 5.3). The accommodation
can be by propagation of the detachment fault, or by the formation of folds. An
anticlinal fold can form if material escapes upwards. This is usually possible, since the
surface of the Earth is a free surface.

Since detachments usually form in incompetent units, these units usually accommodate
the space problem by inhomogeneous deformation, including thickening of the units.
Kink bands Competent layers tend to only rotate in kink bands, while maintaining their original
thickness.

The detachment folds that form when an incompetent layer is missing and all layers
Pop-up structure can only fold by rotation of limbs are called pop-up structures. When they have flat
Box folds crests they are called box-folds.

Fig. 5.3. (a) Blind detachment. (b) Displacement along the detachment
without any accommodation would lead to an impossible overlap of the
moving and non-moving block. (c) Instead, an anticline may form above
the detachment tip. The uplifted excess area must be equal to the overlap
area in (b). This area depends on stratigraphic level relative to the
detachment. (d) Box folds are pop-up structures with a flat crest.

There are two end-member mechanisms for the formation of detachment folds (Fig.
5.4):
(1) Rotation of the limbs, making the fold ever taller and narrower. The kink in the
layers remains in the same point within the folding layers.
(2) Migration of the kink band. The fold limbs maintain a constant angle, but become
longer with progressive fault movement.
(3) In reality, one would often have a combination of these two end-member
mechanisms.

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Fig. 5.4. Main mechanisms of the formation of detachment folds. From Shaw, Connors & Suppe (2005) Seismic interpretation of
contractional fault-related faults. An AAPG Seismic Atlas. Studies in Geology 53.

General characteristics of detachment folds

• There is usually an incompetent layer at the detachment. This layer is thickened in

the core of the fold.
• The frontal axial plane or kink band ends at the tip of the detachment.
• Detachment folds are usually upright and symmetric to moderately asymmetric,
with the steep limb facing the thrusting direction.
• Competent layers usually maintain their original thickness.
• The fold becomes smaller towards the tip of the detachment (axial planes
converge), because the excess area (A) enclosed by the fold is equal to the
stratigraphic level above the detachment (H) and the offset (F), with A = H ! F.

Fig. 5.5. Example of a detachment

fold in a mountain face at Opal
Mountain, Canadian Rocky
Mountains. The fold axial planes
converge to the lower left, where
the tip of the detachment is inferred.
Layers in the core of the fold are
more strongly deformed.

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Structural Geology
Fault-propagation folds
Imbricate fans
Leading imbricate fan
Trailing imbricate fan
Fig. 5.7. (a) Leading imbricate fan. The youngest imbricate is at the front and the older imbricates get progressively steepened. (b)
Trailing imbricate fan, with the youngest imbricate at the back. #1 is the oldest imbricate, #3 the youngest
Chapter 5: Reverse faults and thrusts
Faults can propagate. The detachment can propagate in its own plane, but often it
splays upwards towards the surface. As long as the splay does not reach the surface,
folding must accommodate the absence of fault movement in front of the tip.
Characteristic fault-propagation folds form. A typical aspect is that the fault tip
progressively shifts forward and upward, as the fold structure develops (Fig. 5.6).
Fault-propagation folds are characterised by:
• A distinct asymmetry with a steep forelimb and a shallow back limb.
• The frontal synclinal axial plane ends at the fault tip.
• Folds get tighter downwards.
• Slip on the fold decreases towards the fault tip.
• Upward (listric) curvature of the fault produces a syncline at the back of the system
(a fault-bend fold, see next section)
Fig. 5.6. Development of a fault propagation fold. (a)
Beginning situation. (b) After some slip along the fault, a fold
starts to develop. Slip is accommodated in front of the tip by
upward escape of material. (c) Situation after another
increment of slip and fault propagation.
An upward splay rarely comes alone. Usually splays form sequentially at the tip of a
detachment, with each splay forming a fault-propagation fold. Such a system we call an
imbricate fan.
In a leading imbricate fan the youngest imbricate is in the front, carrying the older
imbricates "on its back", which is sometimes called "piggy-backing". This is the most
common situation. The older imbricates are rotated to a steeper position (Fig. 5.7a)
In a trailing imbricate fan, the youngest imbricate is at the rear, thrusting over older
imbricates (Fig. 5.7b).
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Fault-bend folds
Active axial plane
Passive axial plane
Thrusts have ramps and flats, just like normal faults can have. The bends in the faults
produce accommodation folds: fault-bend folds.
Two types of axial planes develop (Fig. 5.8):
• Active axial planes: These are fixed relative to the fault ramps and flats. Each bend
in the fault is associated with an active axial plane.
• Passive axial planes: These are fixed relative to the layers they bend. They move
together with the material along the fault.
Figure 5.9 shows an example of a ramp-flat system in a small-scale thrust.

Fig. 5.8. Progressive development of a thrust with a ramp and two flats. A = active axial planes, through which materials
moves. P = passive axial planes that move with the material.

Fig. 5.9. Example of a small-scale ramp-flat system in sedimentary rocks from Sestri Levante in Italy. The fault has stepped up
from the bottom (left) to the top (right) of the competent layer. The distance between the two axial planes indicate the offset along
this fault. Compass for scale

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Compressional duplex
Duplexes also form under compression. As with extensional duplexes, they consist of a
number of lenses or horses, bounded by a fault on both sides. One of the most famous
textbook examples comes from Crow's Nest Pass in the Canadian Rocky Mountains
(Fig. 5.10). The duplex consists of many small horses, that make a progressively bigger
angle with the roof- and floor-fault from left to right. This means that the youngest
horses are at the leading end in the front (left).

Fig. 5.10. Small-scale duplex structure with 23 horses. The oldest horses on the right have been steepened by riding piggy-back on
the younger horses on the left. Crow's Nest Pass. Canadian Rocky Mountains. Original structure dipping about 40° to the right.

As with imbricate fans, you can have different types of duplexes, depending on when
the new horses are formed relative to the displacement of the older horses.
a) If new horses are formed at the front (in the slip direction), the older horses are
Hinterland-dipping duplex tilted to the back and you get a hinterland-dipping duplex (Figs 5.10 and 5.11a).
This is the most common of the two types.
Foreland-dipping duplex b) However, if the new horse only forms after the older horses have moved over it,
one gets a foreland-dipping duplex. (Fig. 5.11b).

Fig. 5.11. Hinterland-dipping (a) or foreland-dipping (b) duplexes form depending on the timing of the formation of new
horses, relative to the movement of older horses. Active fold is the thick line, de-activated faults are drawn with a medium-
thick line.

Fig. 5.12. Example of a "mini" fold-and-thrust belt on

Santorini Island, Greece. The structure was formed by
slumping of still soft volcanic sediments.

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Fig. 5.13. Fold-and-thrust structure in Mesozoic sediments at Molinos, NE Spain. The trace of the frontal thrust that breached
the surface is shown on the left. Several fault-propagation folds to the right are the result of the propagation of blind faults
that did not breach the surface. Tectonic transport to the left (north).

Fold and thrust belts Fold and thrust belts (Fig. 5.12-13) are found in many places in the world, usually
associated with subduction. In general there is the situation that a substrate moves
relative to the overlying thrusting rocks. The two are separated by a detachment. The
geometry is similar to a bulldozer pushing a pile of sand.

Fig. 5.14. Section through a

fold-and-thrust belt (eastern
front of Rocky Mountains).

Such belts are normally wedge shaped or tapered (like in an accretionary wedge). They
are thin in the front and thicker at the back (Fig. 5.14). These wedge-shaped or tapered
fold and thrust belt characteristically have:
• Shallow dipping thrusts in the front, and steeper ones in the rear. The latter
steepened by the younger imbricates in the front of the belt
• Stratigraphically deeper units outcropping in the rear, and youngest strata in the
front.
• Metamorphic grade increasing from front to rear, as deeper rocks are exposed in
the rear of the belt.

Angle of taper What determines the wedge shape and the angle of taper (" )? Consider a wedge as
shown in figure 5.12 or a bulldozer pushing a layer of sand. The base of the wedge is
the detachment and to get sliding, the critical shear stress must be reached at this
detachment.

The force applied from the rear is balanced by the friction of the material sliding over
the detachment. The differential stress (!#) thus decreases from the rear of the wedge
to the front of the wedge. The size of the Mohr circle for stress is equal to the
differential stress. The size of the circle thus decreases from rear to front.

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The position of the circle along the normal stress axis is determined by the pressure.
The pressure is proportional to depth. The pressure at the detachment is therefore
highest at the rear, where the detachment is deepest. The vertical stress at the
detachment is proportional to depth. The horizontal stress is added by the push from the
rear, so we can take the vertical stress (#yy) as the minimum principal stress.

Consider three points A, B, and C on the detachment at the base of a wedge (Fig. 5.15).
(" = 0°)
Case 1. The angle of taper is zero (" = 0°) (Fig. 5.15a). The depth to the detachment
is the same everywhere, and therefore #yy is constant. The minimum stress for
all Mohr circles is the same, so they are all left-aligned. !# is highest for
point C and smallest for point A. If failure occurs, it will first occur at point C
at the rear of the wedge. If the back of the wedge gets thicker by thrusting, but
the front remains undeformed, the taper increases: " gets bigger.
(" = "crit) Case 2. The angle of taper is equal to the critical taper (" = "crit) (Fig. 5.15b). The size
of the Mohr circle at C is larger than that at A, but because C is deeper, its
Critical angle of taper circle is shifted to the right. At the critical angle of taper, all Mohr circles
simultaneously touch the failure envelope. The whole detachment is activated.
(" > "crit) Case 3. The angle of taper is larger than the critical taper (" > " crit) (Fig. 5.15c). Now
the pressure increase from point A to C is so large that the Mohr circle for C
does not touch the failure envelope, even though it has the largest differential
stress. In this case the detachment only fails at the front (point A). Movement
at the front and not at the rear means the wedge gets stretched and the angle of
taper decreases.

We see that the wedge develops towards the critical angle of taper. If the wedge is too
shallow, thrusting at the rear thickens the wedge at the rear and increases the taper. If
the wedge is to steep, thrusting at the front will decrease the taper. The wedge is in
balance at the critical angle of taper. This angle is clearly related to the failure
properties of the material and the friction along the detachment.

Erosion effect Erosion can change the angle of taper, and thus influence thrusting in a wedge.

Fig. 5.15. Explanation of the concept of a critical angle of taper. (a) Taper is zero, so thrusting only occurs at the rear of the
wedge at point C. (b) Wedge at the critical angle of taper, with thrusting along the whole detachment, as the Mohr circles for
all points touch the failure envelope. (c) Wedge at a taper larger than the critical angle of taper. Now point A at the front of
the wedge is the first to reach failure.

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