Joint and Lineament Patterns across the Midcontinent Indicate Repeated Reactivation of Basement-Involved Faults

Abstract

Joint networks hosted in successively younger rocks, developing as a result of forced (trishear) folding of a rock mass above a deep-seated fault, can be used to infer the reactivation history of that deep-seated fault. This study aims to use joint networks in Pennsylvanian, Permian and Cretaceous rocks to document evidence of reactivation on basement faults during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic of Nebraska and Kansas. The most prominent basement features in southeast Nebraska and northeast Kansas are oriented NE-SW, likely related to the Midcontinent Rift System and Nemaha Uplift, and oriented NW-SE, likely related to fabrics from the Central Plains Orogeny. These features are well defined in the potential fields data. Joint patterns in the study area show an E-W oriented trend, as well as clearly discernable NE-SW and subsidiary N-S and NW-SE trends. The E-W trend is interpreted to be related to far-field stresses from Laramide and Ancestral Rocky Mountain orogenic events, whilst the NE-SW trend is interpreted to be related to subtle reactivation on the Mid-continent rift and related faults, observed in basement data. These movements produced stresses of sufficient magnitude to produce joints in the post-rift rock units, but not sufficient to generate shear fractures. Similarly, the~N-S and NW-SE joint trends are taken as evidence of subtle reactivation on the Nemaha Uplift and Central Plains Orogeny systems, generating joints by the formation of forced folds. This contribution therefore provides a convincing case study of the value of coupled potential fields and surface feature studies in discerning buried tectonic trends and subtle reactivation thereon.

Geochronology of calcite‐filled joints, southeast Canada: Insight into Late Cretaceous deformation of eastern North America

“…In continental North America, ENE‐WSW trending joints are reported to extend to the mid‐continent (e.g. Burberry, Swiatlowski, Searls, & Filina, 2018), and are compatible with the current stress field with an extensional mode of opening (Figure 6; Engelder, 1982; Heidbach, Rajabi, Reiter, & Ziegler, 2016). Joint orientation deviation from this dominate trend may be the result of basement structures that locally deflect the stress field (Baird & McKinnon, 2007).…”

Comment on: Geochronology of calcite‐filled joints, southeast Canada: Insight into Late Cretaceous deformation of eastern North America – Jennifer Spalding, David A. Schneider and Julie Brown

“…As pointed out in Davis et al (2020), distinguishing between hotspot related and purely plate stress-related origins for joint formation could be most reliably done by determining ages and structures for joints well outside the area of the proposed hot-spot track. The study of fractures in Nebraska and Kansas by Burberry et al (2018) cited by Spalding et al (2020) would require geochronological control of calcite infill for regional structures to be related to a specific tectonic event. Until such data become available, we suggest that the Great Meteor hot-spot had a major role in sculpting the present day geological exposure of southern Ontario.…”

“…The study of fractures in Nebraska and Kansas by Burberry et al. (2018) cited by Spalding et al. (2020) would require geochronological control of calcite infill for regional structures to be related to a specific tectonic event.…”