Detachment levels in the Marathon fold and thrust belt, west Texas

Abstract

Surface and subsurface data are integrated to characterize the structural architecture of the Marathon fold and thrust belt in west Texas. Multiple detachment levels are present within the thrust belt and result in distinct structural domains. In addition to the basal décollement, whose stratigraphic position varies along strike, we recognize a regionally extensive detachment zone in the late Mississippian to early Pennsylvanian lower Tesnus Formation. The Lower Tesnus Detachment forms a structural domain boundary that can be observed along strike in the surface data and at depth in the subsurface. The stratigraphic intervals above and below this detachment exhibit characteristic patterns of deformation. The Lower Tesnus Detachment is folded by imbrication and the formation of duplexes in the early Mississippian to Ordovician section, suggesting that the detachment may have initially formed as a perched décollement in the foreland that was subsequently exploited as a roof thrust in a duplex system as deformation progressed in a break-forward sequence and older strata were incorporated into the toe of the allochthonous wedge. The structural model presented here for the Marathon region may be applicable across much of the Ouachita orogenic system.