Thrust Faulting and Hydrocarbon Generation: REPLY

Abstract

This paper is a rebuttal of an earlier paper trying to refute the claims of these authors. They believe this reply illustrates that the simplifications used by Warner and Royse (1987) in their model are generally inappropriate to describe the thermal history of units in the Western Overthrust belt, as well as other overthrust regions. Although their shortcuts produce results that are generally consistent with measured maturity values for some specific modeling sites, the differences in maturation history and the mismatch for the general thrust case make their model a less effective predictive tool. At this stage in the understanding of overthrust thermal processes, you cannot predict a priori when the thermal effects of thrusting will be significant and when they will be minimal. Defining the exact relationship between thrusting and hydrocarbon accumulations in overthrust areas requires additional work and data collection. In particular, workers must consider case histories where the hanging wall contains thick sequences of resistant strata. By incorporating additional constraints, instead of returning to the simplified assumption of constant thermal gradients in tectonic regions, the understanding of the evolution and maturation history of thrust belts is improved.