Abstract: Thrust Displacement Transfer Zone, Southern Oklahoma

Christopher Paul Saxon

The southern Oklahoma foreland is comprised of numerous northeast-vergent asymmetric uplifts and basins which show a progressive south-to-north sequence of formation. Layer-parallel anisotropies in the "basement" including volcanic/volcaniclastic layering and pre-existing listric normal faults are believed to control the mechanical response to southwest-northeast regional stress. This paper proposes that several uplifts (the Arbuckle, Sholem Alechem, Doyle, and Carter-Knox) are related to a single regional sole thrust plane and are a product of dominantly northeast-directed reverse dip-slip motion. The style and sequence of deformation in the Arbuckles is reflected in the location of synorogenic conglomerates and by the progressive rotation of unconformities. Decreased shortening of t e Arbuckle thrust is accompanied by northwest plunge of the Arbuckle uplift. This decrease in shortening is compensated by the progressive northwestward increase of shortening along the Doyle thrust and accompanying changes in hanging wall geometry between Sholem Alechem and Doyle Fields, forming a thrust displacement transfer zone. The northwest plunge of the Arbuckle uplift is believed to die out into a fault propagation fold which forms Carter-Knox Field. Such an interpretation would make the presence of a previously postulated regional strike-slip fault highly unlikely. This reinterpretation of the regional structural geometry provides for the development of numerous deep structures which are either untested or under-explored.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90986©1994 AAPG Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado, June 12-15, 1994