INTERACTIONS BETWEEN STRUCTURES IN THE APPALACHIAN AND OUACHITA FORELAND BENEATH THE GULF COASTAL PLAIN

Author

Donald Matthew Surles, University of KentuckyFollow

Date Available

12-14-2011

Year of Publication

2007

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Document Type

Dissertation

College

Arts and Sciences

Department

Geology

First Advisor

Dr. William A. Thomas

Abstract

In Alabama, the Paleozoic Appalachian thrust belt plunges southwest beneath the Mesozoic-Cenozoic Gulf Coastal Plain. In Arkansas, the Paleozoic Ouachita thrust belt plunges southeast beneath the Coastal Plain. The strikes of the exposed thrust belts suggest an intersection beneath the Coastal Plain. Well data and seismic reflection profiles confirm the strike and intersection of the thrust belts, and provide information to determine the structure and general stratigraphy of each thrust belt. In east-central Mississippi, the Appalachian thrust belt curves from the regional northeast trace to westward at the intersection with the southeastern terminus of the Ouachita thrust belt, to northwest where Ouachita thrust sheets are in the Appalachian footwall, and farther west, to a west-southwest orientation. At the intersection, the frontal Appalachian fault truncates the Appalachian thrust sheets. The Appalachian thrust sheets are detached in Lower Cambrian strata and contain a distinctive Cambrian-Ordovician passive-margin carbonate succession. The Ouachita thrust sheets are detached above the carbonate succession and contain a thick Carboniferous clastic succession. The Appalachian thrust sheets east of the intersection rest on an autochthonous footwall with a thin Lower Cambrian sedimentary cover above Precambrian crystalline basement. To the west, the Appalachian thrust sheets rest on an allochthonous footwall of thick Ouachita thrust sheets. The top of Precambrian crystalline basement rocks dips southwestward beneath the Ouachita thrust belt; large-magnitude down-to-southwest basement faults enhance the deepening. Appalachian thrust sheets on the northeast are detached above relatively shallow basement, but to the west, are detached above thick Ouachita thrust sheets, which overlie deeper basement. The structure of the basement reflects the Iapetan rifted margin, where the northwest-striking Alabama-Oklahoma transform bounds the southwest side of the Alabama promontory. The trends of basement structures and subsidence toward the Ouachita thrust belt parallel the Alabama-Oklahoma transform. Shallower basement and synrift basement grabens underlie the northeast-striking Appalachian thrust belt. The curves in strike and along-strike change in footwall structure of the Appalachian thrust belt reflect controls by basement structure and by the structure of the Ouachita thrust belt.

Recommended Citation

Surles, Donald Matthew, "INTERACTIONS BETWEEN STRUCTURES IN THE APPALACHIAN AND OUACHITA FORELAND BENEATH THE GULF COASTAL PLAIN" (2007). University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations. 554.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/gradschool_diss/554