RIFT-BASIN STRUCTURE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON SEDIMENTARY SYSTEMS

Abstract

Knowledge of continental rifting has increased steadily during the past several decades. Field geologists have more precisely defined the timing and style of deformation in many exposed rift basins (e.g., the Newark basin of eastern North America, the Upper Rhine rift basin of central Europe, and Kenya basin of East Africa). Simultaneously, seismic interpreters, using 2D and 3D data acquired during hydrocarbon exploration and production activities, have identified and mapped many of the world’s subsurface rift basins (e.g., the Viking and Central rift basins of the North Sea, the Jeanne d’Arc rift basin of the Canadian Grand Banks, and the Dampier rift basin on the Northwest Shelf of Australia). Additionally, experimentalists have used scaled laboratory models to simulate rift-basin development under a variety of geologic conditions. Together, these field, seismic, and experimental approaches have yielded valuable information about the structural styles and depositional patterns of rift basins. Most previous reviews of rift-basin structures have focused on one particular rift system using one, or possibly two, of the above approaches (e.g., Rosendahl, 1987; Schlische, 1993; Morley, 1995, 1999b). In this paper, we examine rift systems from around the world, using information provided by field, seismic, and experimental approaches. This broad perspective allows us to describe the variety of structures associated with continental rifting and to infer the influence of these structural styles on the depositional patterns within them. Because of space limitations, we have left out or abbreviated many important topics related to continental rifting. Readers interested in tectonic-scale aspects of rifting and continental extension should consult the review papers by Roberts and Yielding (1994), Leeder (1995), and Ruppel (1995). Also, Peacock et al. (2000) presented a useful compilation of the voluminous nomenclature related to normal faults, rift basins, and extensional tectonics.