--> ABSTRACT: Late Orogenic Faulting of the Foreland Plate — An Important Component of Hydrocarbon Systems of Orogenic Belts and Their Forelands, by Picha, Frank; #90142 (2012)
[First Hit]

Datapages, Inc.Print this page

Late Orogenic Previous HitFaultingNext Hit of the Foreland Plate — An Important Component of Hydrocarbon Systems of Orogenic Belts and Their Forelands

Picha, Frank *1
(1) Consulting Geologist, formerly with Chevron, Walnut Creek, CA.

The foreland plates, both below and in front of thin-skinned orogenic belts, are often affected by normal, reverse, and strike-slip faults that occasionally extend into the overlying allochthonous belts. Typically, these faults are active during the late stages of convergent orogeny, when subduction driven thin-skinned thrusting ceases and the remaining convergence and geometrical adjustment take place mainly within the foreland plate. The distribution, character, and orientation of particular structures generated during this collisional event, however, is to a great extent determined by the geometries of crustal blocks and orientations of preexisting faults and other weak zones within the foreland plates. The frontal zones of thrust belts often rest on major crustal boundaries and hingelines with the history of former rifting, development of continental margins or intracratonic troughs. These are also places of accumulation of source rocks in restricted basins and deposition of reservoirs in transitional facies. Since massive petroleum generation and migration in both the thrust belt and in the foreland plate commonly occur later in the orogenic phase, late orogenic Previous HitfaultingNext Hit can critically affect the whole petroleum system, including generation, migration, and preservation of hydrocarbons. The deep faults may function as conduits as well as barriers during the migration of petroleum. The potential existence of late orogenic Previous HitfaultingNext Hit in the foreland plate may critically affect the petroleum potential of thrust belts and the underlying foreland plates.

This is demonstrated by three examples from the Vienna Basin, Eastern Carpathians, and Dinarides-Hellenides, all parts of the European Alpine system. Several other examples, including the Rocky Mountains Laramide uplifts, the Eastern Cordillera in Colombia, and the Timan-Pechora basin in Russia, are mentioned to document the common occurrence of late orogenic Previous HitfaultingTop in orogenic systems.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90142 © 2012 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, April 22-25, 2012, Long Beach, California