Lateral structural variation along the Kalabagh Fault Zone, NW Himalayan foreland fold-and-thrust belt, Pakistan

Abstract

The NW Himalayan fold-and-thrust belt in Pakistan is of gentler regional slope and wider extent than the other parts of the convergent plate boundary between India and the rest of Asia. Large scale structural re-entrants typify the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT) of the NW Himalayan fold-and-thrust belt in Pakistan. Understanding dynamics of the formation of these structural variations has been hampered by the lack of information about the lateral structures bounding the re-entrants. Our mapping of the Kalabagh Fault Zone, a lateral ramp linking the Salt and the Surghar Ranges, advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer (ASTER) data, field investigations and the interpreted reprocessed 2D seismic data. This integration of surface and subsurface geology provides new insights on the geometry and evolution of the Kalabagh Fault Zone, by showing that it forms an oblique ramp to the Main Frontal Thrust, and at north a lateral ramp with right-lateral strike slip movement. Our results indicate that the presence and areal extent of the evaporates is the dominant factor controlling lateral structural variation in the NW Himalayan fold-and-thrust belt of Pakistan. The Kalabagh Fault Zone acts as a zone that accommodates differential shortening and structural variation along the orogenic trend.