Origin of the En Echelon Faults in North-Central Oklahoma

Abstract

That lateral slipping movements along buried faults, as postulated by Fath and accepted, with modifications, by others, are in reality the explanation of the en echelon faults of north-central Oklahoma seems improbable. It is difficult to accept the Ouachita thrust as the source of the stress necessary to cause such movements. Other sources of stress may be assumed, but the lack of continuity of the surface fault zones and the manner in which their trend swings with the strike of the Pennsylvanian formations make it difficult to believe that all of them follow pre-Pennsylvanian buried faults. Torsion, augmented by a slight uplift, will give such en echelon faults, and by this combination of stresses such faults were formed experimentally. The field relations in north-central Oklahoma show that these stresses were active in a considerable part of the faulted area.