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Structural evolution of the Ardmore Basin, Oklahoma: Progressive deformation in the foreland of the Ouachita Collision
Author(s) -
Granath James W.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
tectonics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.465
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1944-9194
pISSN - 0278-7407
DOI - 10.1029/tc008i005p01015
Subject(s) - pennsylvanian , geology , foreland basin , transpression , paleontology , structural basin , craton , transtension , fault (geology) , geomorphology , seismology , tectonics , sinistral and dextral
Synthesis of oil field studies, seismic reflection data, and surface geology has resulted in a reconstruction of the Pennsylvanian evolution of the structural style of fault systems bordering and within the Ardmore Basin in south central Oklahoma. Faults bounding the margins of the basin were part of a broader left‐lateral shear belt that affected southern Oklahoma during the early Pennsylvanian. The mid‐Pennsylvanian and later zone of deformation contracted in southern Oklahoma to concentrate on the Washita Valley‐Eola Robberson fault systems along the northern edge of the basin, and on the Criner Uplift‐Healdton‐Stephens County fault systems along the southern and western side of the basin. Deformation on the floor of the basin was amplified, with left‐lateral strike‐slip faults slicing the basin into a system of rhombohedral blocks. Deformation continued at least into Virgil time (late Pennsylvanian). A two‐dimensional displacement field derived for the middle to late Pennsylvanian deformation reveals that a strong component of transpression affected both the basin‐bounding faults and, by reason of the geometry of their connections to the west, the Wichita Mountain front as well. Broadly spread left‐lateral shear evolved into crustal scale transpression during the Pennsylvanian Period. That progressive contraction of deformation and the change in style correlate with mid‐Pennsylvanian approach and passage of the Ouachita collision along the Ouachita embayment (Thomas, 1983) on the southern margin of the North American craton. Inasmuch as the Ardmore Basin was located at the sharp internal corner of the embay ment, the coincidence suggests that the style of evolution records (1) early far‐field influence of the approaching Ouachita collision during early Pennsylvanian, (2) passage of the suture during mid‐Pennsylvanian, and (3) concentration of foreland deformation at the corner of the embayment as the Arkoma and Fort Worth flexural basins evolved to the south and east during late Pennsylvanian.