Burial and temperature evolution in thrust belt systems: Sedimentary and thrust sheet loading in the SE Canadian Cordillera

Abstract

The southern Canadian foreland fold‐and‐thrust belt (FFTB) (SW Alberta–SE British Columbia) records the interplay between foreland basin evolution with the deforming wedge and thus controls the regional‐scale overburden and exhumation history. Overburden estimates are typically based on the assumption that peak burials were reached by sedimentary burial prior to the emplacement of thrust sheets. This study combines organic maturity ranks from a newly compiled catalog with forward thermokinematic modeling to examine this assumption. The organic maturity rank trends correlate not only to sedimentary but also to tectonic burial histories. The forward thermokinematic modeling builds on this combined burial history scenario and shows how required peak burial and temperatures can be achieved with reduced sedimentary overburden when combined with tectonic loading. We thus consider that the overburden was reached during instead of prior to the contraction of the FFTB as result of an integrated sedimentary and tectonic burial history. Thermokinematic modeling also suggests that first‐order steady state temperature conditions prevail during the development of the FFTB. Differently from earlier findings that considered a drop in paleotemperature gradient during the belts growth, steady state conditions reduce the amount of regional overburden required and, consequently, of eroded sediments. Besides tracing the regional evolution, organic maturity ranks are also affected by more local phenomena such as thrust‐scale denudation patterns and fluid flow.