The idea of a simple linear boundary between continental and oceanic crust at extended continental margins is widely recognised to be an oversimplification. Despite this, such boundaries continue to be mapped because of their perceived utility in palinspastic and plate kinematic reconstructions. To examine whether this perception is justified, we review the data and models on which basis continent ocean boundaries are interpreted, and map a set of such interpretations worldwide from more than 150 publications. The maps show that the location of the continent ocean boundary is rarely consistently estimated within the ~10-100 km observational uncertainty that might be expected of the geophysical data used for doing so, that this is the case regardless of whether the transition zone behind the boundary is classified as magma rich or magma poor, and that the geographical separation of estimates exceeds the width of single-study continent ocean transition zones. The average of global maximum separations across sets of three or more estimates is large (167 km) and mostly a consequence of interpretations published over the last decade. We interpret this to indicate an extra component of uncertainty that is related to authors' understanding of the range of features that are interpretable at extended continental margins. We go on to discuss the implications of this uncertainty for palinspastic and plate kinematic modelling using examples from the literature and from the South Atlantic ocean.We conclude that a precise continent ocean boundary concept with locational uncertainty defined from the ensembles is of limited value for palinspastic reconstructions because the reconstruction process tends to bunch the ensemble within a region that is (i) of similar width to the observational uncertainties associated with continent ocean boundary estimates, (ii) narrower than the regions of uncertainty about rotated features implied by the propagation of uncertainties from plate rotation parameters, and (iii) coincident, within all the above uncertainties, with the more-easily mapped continental shelf gravity anomaly.Secondly, we conclude that estimated continent ocean boundaries are of limited use in developing or testing plate kinematic reconstructions because (i) reconstructions built using them as markers do not, within uncertainty limits defined from the ensembles, differ greatly from those using more-easily determined bathymetric or gravity anomaly contours, and (ii) because it is impossible to segment and date them with useful precision to use as markers of the edges of rigid oceanic lithosphere outside of the constraints of a pre-existing plate kinematic model.

Latest Triassic–earliest Late Jurassic domino-style extensional faulting in the central Exmouth Plateau, North West Shelf of Australia, exhibits footwall degradation scarps with up to 1.8 km of scarp retreat of the Upper Triassic Mungaroo Formation. Extensional fault-propagation folding, rotation and uplift produced gravitationally driven scarp collapse of the incompetent and mudstone-dominated uppermost Mungaroo Formation. Scarp degradation occurred along the entire extent of the footwalls of three major faults within the research area. Individual segments display listric fault surfaces in cross-section and scoop-shaped scars in three dimensions. The listric collapse faults dip towards the erosional scarp and sole out at different levels within the upper Triassic Mungaroo Formation. Footwall crestal collapse formed coalesced, scoop-shaped degradation scarps with Mungaroo Formation debris deposited as wedges within the adjacent hanging-wall synclines. Maximum scarp degradation occurred at the fault centres and decreased towards the fault tips. This study proposes new three-dimensional evolutionary structural models for the fault-scarp degradation in the central Exmouth Plateau.

This article reports a stratigraphic and structural analysis of the Neogene‐Quaternary Valdelsa Basin (Central Italy), filled with up to 1000 m of uppermost Miocene to lower Pleistocene strata. The succession is subdivided into seven unconformity‐bounded stratigraphic units (synthems, or large‐scale depositional sequences) that include fluvio‐deltaic and shallow‐marine deposits. Structures related to basin shoulders and internal boundaries controlled the Neogene location and geometry of different depocentres. During the Tortonian‐Messinian, a buried NE‐trending high related to regional, basin‐transverse lineaments separated two adjacent sub‐basins. During the lower Pliocene, compressional displacement along NW‐trending, thrust‐related highs controlled the distribution of depocentres and dispersal of sediment. Extensional tectonics, although previously considered the dominant deformation style affecting the rear of the Northern Apennines since the late Miocene, is no longer considered a dominant control on tectono‐sedimentary development of the Valdelsa basin. Instead, the Valdelsa Basin shares features with continental hinterland basins of orogenic belts where compression, extension, and transcurrent stress fields determine a complex spatial and temporal record of accommodation and sediment supply. In the Valdelsa Basin tectonics and eustatic sea‐level fluctuations were dominant in forcing the deposition of sedimentary cycles at several scales. Zanclean and Gelasian large‐scale depositional sequences were mainly controlled by crustal shortening, whereas a eustatic signal was preferentially recorded during the Piacenzian. Smaller scale depositional sequences, common to most synthems, were controlled by orbitally forced glacio‐eustatic cycles.

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Understanding the scaling relation of damage zone width with displacement of faults is important for predicting subsurface faulting mechanisms and fluid flow processes. The understanding of this scaling relationship is influenced by the accuracy of the methods and types of data utilized to investigate faults. In this study, seismic reflection data are used to investigate the throw and damage zone width of five strike-slip faults affecting Ordovician carbonates of the Tarim intracraton basin, NW China. The results indicate that fault slips with a throw less than 200 m had formed wide damage zones up to 3000 m in width. Also, damage zone width is found to have both a positive correlation and a power-law relation with throw of two orders of magnitude, with a ratio of these values varying in a range of 2-15. The relationship between throw and damage zone width is not a simple power-law and changes its slope from small to larger size faults. The results indicate that throw scales well with damage zone width for the studied faults, and hence these can be used to predict fault geometries in the Tarim Basin. The study of the wide carbonate damage zones presented here provides new insights into scaling of large-size faults, which involve multiple faulting stages.

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