Growth of folds in a deep-water setting

Abstract

Regional 3D seismic data of the deep-water area offshore NW Borneo provide a detailed picture of the interaction between sedimentary processes on a continental slope and the growth of major folds over a time period of ca. 3.5–5 Ma. In the deep-water area, the estimated rates of fold propagation of tens of mm/yr−1, shortening rates of mm/yr−1, and fold segment lengths of tens of kilometers indicate the studied folds are similar in scale and deformation rate to folds in orogenic belts such as the Zagros Mountains and Himalayas. Feedbacks between sediment dispersal patterns, anticline growth, and structural style are manifested in many ways, and are enhanced by the presence of weak, poorly lithified, synkinematic sediments at fold crests that undergo mass wasting as the fold grows. As folds tighten they range in geometry through simple folds—folds affected by crestal normal faults, folds with crestal normal faults and rotational slides, and folds with forelimb degradation complexes and pronounced erosional unconformities. The unconformity surfaces are either elongate parallel to the fold axes (related to local mass wasting) or perpendicular (related to flows crossing the anticlines). Mass wasting processes in the study area that are large in scale compared with folds (i.e., giant landslides) have modified anticline shape by erosion, and are little affected by anticline topography. More commonly, gravity flows are relatively small compared with the anticlines, and transport pathways are influenced by anticline surface topography. The factors influencing sediment pathway changes during anticline growth include: proximal to distal propagation of folds, lateral propagation of folds, and changing locations of fold growth with time. Assuming an overall consistency in sediment supply, local relative changes in sediment supply to individual piggyback basins are defined by relative changes in sediment supply (generally increasing with time) with respect to growth in anticline amplitude. Such changes may be due to sediment infilling of depressions farther updip and prograding downslope with time or to changes in rate of deformation with time. Initial sediment pathways were predominantly subparallel to growing faults. As folds matured, canyons and channels exploited low points (e.g., fold linkage or intersection points) or weak points (e.g., mud pipes) on folds to initiate transverse channel systems. At a late stage, transverse channels carved up the once long and linear surface ridges into isolated segments.