Thrust faults (continued)

Cross sections

Importance to oil exploration

Cross-sections

• Thrust faults cut up-section only! (or section-parallel)

• Every flat or ramp in the FW should correspond to an equivalent flat or ramp in the WH

• Bed thickness is preserved (conservation of volume and mass)

Other than that - it’s all interpretation!

A trip along the Athabasca River

Roche Ronde

More Canadian Cordillera

Boulle Range

Roche RondeBoulleRange

Other types of shortening-high angle; typical reactivate older structures (“inversion tectonics”)

QuickTime™ and aAnimation decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Thrust belts contain a significant fraction of the Earth’s oil deposits- typically form in anticlinal traps