Late Pliocene and Quaternary deformation of the Reelfoot rift

Abstract

The Reelfoot rift is a N45°E-trending Cambrian rift that has controlled late Pliocene and Quaternary deformation and current seismicity beneath the central Mississippi River Valley. Analysis of 557 well logs between 35°N and 37°N latitude reveals that the Pliocene Upland Complex of western Kentucky and Tennessee and the Upland Complex in Crowley’s Ridge of eastern Arkansas have been displaced by east-striking normal faults that extend across the Eastern Lowlands of the Mississippi River Valley. The normal faults extend east and west of the margins of the Reelfoot rift, thus indicating that the region between the Commerce fault and the Big Creek–Ellendale fault has been subjected to right-lateral simple shear since the Pliocene.