Detailed mapping (1:6,000) of Lower Ordovician through Lower Pennsylvanian strata, exposed in the vicinity of the Sunshine Springs thrust fault, shows that the thrust ramps up-section twice in a direction parallel or subparallel with the thrusting, and that the geometry of folds can be attributed to their proximity to the two closely spaced ramps. The lower ramp is a frontal ramp which originated as a forelimb thrust through the overturned limb of a tight anticline-syncline fold couplet. The upper ramp cuts up-section through a thin, upper Paleozoic flysch sequence where the Sunshine Springs thrust becomes imbricated. Directly above the lower ramp, in the upper plate, is a broad symmetrical anticline which has a geometry similar to a fault-bend fold. Forward of the lower ramp is a large wavelength, flat-bottomed syncline, and behind the lower ramp is a series of tight to isoclinal overturned folds. As a result of fault-bend folding and continued shortening of the ramp region, upper plate folds characteristically have a larger amplitude than folds of the lower plate. Just forward of the lower ramp in the footwall is the tightly folded and truncated syncline of the syncline-anticline fold couplet. The rest of the lower plate section is only mildly deformed. A composite, down-structure cross section drawn parallel with the direction of thrusting shows that the Peña Colorada synclinorium has been transported along the Sunshine Springs thrust approximately 3.8 km. Shortening, as deduced from folding in this study alone, is 20 percent, and when the shortening by the thrust is also considered, the total amount of shortening equals 52 percent. A major left-lateral strike-slip system, trending WNW, approximately parallel with the thrusting direction, offsets the Sunshine Springs thrust fault. Strike-slip and dip-slip displacements can be calculated from a displaced fold axis of the lower plate syncline, and are 335 m and 90 m, respectively. In the vicinity of this strike-slip system, the axial traces of folds change from a dominantly southwesterly trend to a more southerly trend. The regional extent of the fault system within the Marathon Basin, and its correspondence with the change in major fold axes orientations suggests that the fault zone is a regional tear which formed in response to the impingement of the Marathon thrust front against the Diablo Platform during the Pennsylvanian Period. / text
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTEXAS/oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/11612 |
| Date | 09 June 2011 |
| Creators | Kraft, Jennifer Lucille |
| Source Sets | University of Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | electronic |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the Libraries' web site by University Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works. |
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