The inversion history of the northeastern margin of the Broad Fourteens Basin

Abstract

Abstract The Broad Fourteens Basin experienced a long and complicated developmental history, involving extension, salt tectonics, inversion and subsidence, that began in the Triassic and continued into the middle Tertiary. Inversion in our study area on the northeast margin of the basin was accommodated not only by backward expulsion of the basin-fill (creating a series of northeast-vergent thrusts and related lobate folds) but also reactivation of basement faults. Restorations indicate that the basin-fill did not behave independently of the basement during inversion. At least 2200 m of inversion-related basement uplift must have occurred at the basin margin in addition to backward expulsion of the basin-fill. The most important factors controlling the final ‘inversion style’ appear to be the pre-inversion structural configuration of the margin and the resolved inversion direction.