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Reverse faults[edit]

Thrust faults are a special class of "reverse faulting" that typically have low dip
angles.[1] It is often hard to recognize thrusts because their deformation and
dislocation can be difficult to detect when they occur within the same rocks
without appreciable offset of lithological contacts.

If the angle of the fault plane is low (generally less than 20 degrees from the
horizontal) and the displacement of the overlying block is large (often in the
kilometer range) the fault is called an overthrust. Erosion can remove part of the
overlying block, creating a fenster (or window) when the underlying block is only
exposed in a relatively small area. When erosion removes most of the overlying
block, leaving only island-like remnants resting on the lower block, the remnants
are called klippen (singular klippe).

Blind thrust faults[edit]


If the fault plane terminates before it reaches the Earth's surface, it is referred
to as a blind thrust fault. Because of the lack of surface evidence, blind thrust
faults are difficult to detect until they rupture. The destructive 1994 quake in
Northridge, California was caused by a previously-undiscovered blind thrust fault.

Because of their low dip, thrusts are also difficult to appreciate in mapping,
where lithological offsets are generally subtle and stratigraphic repetition
difficult to detect especially in peneplanated areas.

Fault-bend folds[edit]
Thrust faults, particularly those involved in thin-skinned style of deformation,
have a so-called ramp-flat geometry. Thrusts mostly propagate along zones of
weakness within a sedimentary sequence, such as mudstones or salt layers, these
parts of the thrust are called decollements. If the effectiveness of the
decollement becomes reduced, the thrust will tend to cut up the section to a higher
stratigraphic level until it reaches another effective decollement where it can
continue as bedding parallel flat. The part of the thrust linking the two flats is
known as a ramp and typically forms at an angle of about 15-30 to the bedding.
Continued displacement on a thrust over a ramp produces a characteristic fold
geometry known as a ramp anticline or, more generally, as a fault-bend fold.

Fault-propagation folds[edit]
Fault-propagation folds form at the tip of a thrust fault where propagation along
the decollement has ceased but displacement on the thrust behind the fault tip is
continuing. The continuing displacement is accommodated by formation of an
asymmetric anticline-syncline fold pair. As displacement continues the thrust tip
starts to propagate along the axis of the syncline. Such structures are also known
as tip-line folds. Eventually the propagating thrust tip may reach another
effective decollement layer and a composite fold structure will develop with
characteristics of both fault-bend and fault-propagation folds.

Thrust duplex[edit]
Duplexes occur where there are two decollement levels close to each other within a
sedimentary sequence, such as the top and base of a relatively strong sandstone
layer bounded by two relatively weak mudstone layers. When a thrust that has
propagated along the lower detachment, known as the floor thrust, cuts up to the
upper detachment, known as the roof thrust, it forms a ramp within the stronger
layer. With continued displacement on the thrust, higher stresses are developed in
the footwall of the ramp due to the bend on the fault. This may cause renewed
propagation along the floor thrust until it again cuts up to join the roof thrust.
Further displacement then takes place via the newly created ramp. This process may
repeat many times, forming a series of fault bounded thrust slices known as
imbricates or horses, each with the geometry of a fault-bend fold of small
displacement. The final result is typically a lozenge shaped duplex.
Most duplexes have only small displacements on the bounding faults between the
horses and these dip away from the foreland. Occasionally the displacement on the
individual horses is greater, such that each horse lies more or less vertically
above the other, this is known as an antiformal stack or imbricate stack. If the
individual displacements are greater still, then the horses have a foreland dip.

Duplexing is a very efficient mechanism of accommodating shortening of the crust by


thickening the section rather than by folding and deformation.[2]

Tectonic environment[edit]
Main article: Thrust tectonics

An example of thin-skinned deformation (thrusting) in Montana. Note that the white


Madison Limestone is repeated, with one example in the foreground and another at a
higher level to the upper right corner and top of the picture.
Large overthrust faults occur in areas that have undergone great compressional
forces.

These conditions exist in the orogenic belts that result from either two
continental tectonic collisions or from subduction zone accretion.

The resultant compressional forces produce mountain ranges. The Himalayas, the
Alps, and the Appalachians are prominent examples of compressional orogenies with
numerous overthrust faults.

Thrust faults occur in the foreland basin which occur marginal to orogenic belts.
Here, compression does not result in appreciable mountain building, which is mostly
accommodated by folding and stacking of thrusts. Instead thrust faults generally
cause a thickening of the stratigraphic section.

Foreland basin thrusts also usually observe the ramp-flat geometry, with thrusts
propagating within units at a very low angle "flats" (at 15 degrees) and then
moving up-section in steeper ramps (at 520 degrees) where they offset
stratigraphic units. Identifying ramps where they occur within units is usually
problematic.

Thrusts and duplexes are also found in accretionary wedges in the ocean trench
margin of subduction zones, where oceanic sediments are scraped off the subducted
plate and accumulate. Here, the accretionary wedge must thicken by up to 200% and
this is achieved by stacking thrust fault upon thrust fault in a melange of
disrupted rock, often with chaotic folding. Here, ramp flat geometries are not
usually observed because the compressional force is at a steep angle to the
sedimentary layering.

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