The role of transverse faults on extensional basins tectonic evolution

Abstract

This paper discusses the role of transverse faults in the tectonic evolution of ex tensional basins. Transverse faults act to compensate differential extension along a basin's strike. Serving to link contiguous normal faults displaying different movement rates, their main characteristic is oblique movement. The mechanics of transverse faults is characterized vis à vis their relation to a basin's normal (longitudinal) faults, showing that in quantitative terms, directional displacement along transverse faults is equal to the horizontal dip-slip of associated normal faults. This directional displacement is also a function of the geometry of normal faults (planar or listric). Comments are offered on real cases of transverse faults, those in the Recôncavo Basin serving as examples of diastrophic transverse faults and those in the Campos and Cuanza (Angola) Basins serving as examples of transverse faults associated with gravitational tectonics.