Roof sequence response to emplacement of the Wills Mountain duplex: the roles of forethrusting and scales of deformation

Abstract

This paper focuses on the behavior of a roof sequence in the Appalachian Plateau of West Virginia, U.S.A., and emplacement of the Wills Mountain duplex with 17.5 km of displacement. Unlike the Plateau along strike in Pennsylvania and New York where forethrusting was previously documented, this roof sequence lacks an underlying salt-dominated roof décollement. Kinematic analyses reveal that the roof sequence in the West Virginian Plateau accommodated about two-thirds of the 17.5 km of shortening by the adjacent Wills Mountain duplex, as a forethrusting kinematic response. The remaining shortening imbalance of about 5 km between the duplexes and younger roof sequence rocks is accommodated by additional forethrusting further into the foreland and local compensation. This kinematic response matches that along strike in the central Appalachians despite the loss of the salt décollement. We interpret that an Ordovician shale-dominated formation was sufficiently weak to substitute for the salt horizon. Thus, a weak mechanical unit rather than specifically a salt décollement is a necessary prerequisite for forethrusting. A contributing factor to forethrusting may be the subvertical front of the Wills Mountain duplex, which inhibited other responses by the roof sequence. Mesoscale and smaller processes, including grain-to-grain pressure solution, twinning and cleavage formation account for over 75% of the shortening in the roof sequence, and, if ignored, would result in an erroneous interpretation of backthrusting or local compensation. This result suggests that failure to consider all deformation scales could lead to incorrect kinematic conclusions in other tectonic systems.