Abstract: Strike-slip/transpressional Structures in the Outer Carpathians of the Czech and Slovak Republics

HOUGHTON, JACQUELINE, J., MICHAL NEMCOK*, and MIKE P. COWARD

This paper looks at the Outer Carpathians in the Czech and Slovak Republics, from northeast of the Vienna Basin to near the Polish border. A series of eight traverses were mapped across the area. The traverses are roughly perpendicular to the main geological trends in the region and stretch from the contact between the Magura Nappe and the Pieniny Klippen Belt to the foreland.

The traverses show that, in this region, the Outer Carpathian fold and thrust belt has been modified by strike-slip movements. The main strike-slip faults are: the Pieniny Klippen Belt; the Magura thrust which has splay faults off it indicating an element of strike-slip movement; the large series of faults which splay off the Magura thrust and cut across the Silesian and Subsilesian Nappes; and possibly some of the faults within the Magura Nappe itself, which may extend from the strike-slip faults of the Vienna Basin and are probably thrust faults which have been reactivated by strike-slip movements.

Overall, there is a decrease in transpressional/strike-slip movements across the Outer Carpathians from the Pieniny Klippen Belt to the Foreland. This is consistent with the Pieniny Klippen Belt and Magura units becoming progressively steeper as they move backward in the piggy-back thrust sequence until they are near vertical and can no longer accommodate the northwest-directed shortening. Therefore, to accommodate shortening, strike-slip faults develop, reactivating the preexisting thrust faults.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90942©1997 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Vienna, Austria