American and Tethyan Fold-Thrust Belts
2009. VII , 168 pages, 123 figures, 25x18cm, 650 g
Language: English
(Beiträge zur regionalen Geologie der Erde, Band 31)
ISBN 978-3-443-11032-1, bound, price: 84.00 €
in stock and ready to ship
Print order form
Contents
Synopsis
Review: Oryktologika NEA - News on Minerals vol. 24 no. 140, March-April 2009
Analyse d'ouvrage: Géochronique n°111, 2009
Review: Zentralblatt Geo. Pal Teil II 2009 Heft 3/4
Bespr.: der Aufschluss Januar/Februar 2010 Ausg. 1
Table of Contents
Synopsis
Review: Oryktologika NEA - News on Minerals vol. 24 no. 140, March-April 2009
Analyse d'ouvrage: Géochronique n°111, 2009
Review: Zentralblatt Geo. Pal Teil II 2009 Heft 3/4
Bespr.: der Aufschluss Januar/Februar 2010 Ausg. 1
Table of Contents
Orogenic belts and their shallow-soled fringes, the fold-thrust belts, are
globally distributed in up to 20,000 km long mountain chains along the edges
of the continents. Their locations, their geological origin in a mobile
Earth, and their natural resources have drawn attention from the time
of the Spanish and Portuguese global explorers to modernage geologists such
as Emile Argand, Rein van Bemmelen, Albert Bally. Walter Bucher, Peter Coney,
Augusto Gansser, A.M. Spencer, Hans Stille, Eduard Suess, and many others.
Petroleum explorers have also accumulated and interpreted data from fold-thrust
belts, but their collections have largely remained unpublished.
The present book represents a modern account of onshore fold-thrust belts and their tectonics. The new accounts are based on data processed during petroleum exploration in the Andes, the North-American Cordillera, the Mediterranean, and in the South-Asian countries. Exploration of the planet's vast deep-water fold belts has begun in earnest, but it is not yet part of the present synthesis. The author is a petroleum geologist, a professor, and an illustrator, but he has not yet summarized and published his geological views developed during 50 years of petroleum exploration on five continents.
The book is of interest to all geologists, resources engineers, technical consultants, and of course to the academic readership from all fields of the geosciences.
Mountains generally are understood to be larger than hills, but the
term has no standardized geological meaning. Very rarely do mountains
occur individually. In most cases, they are found in elongated ranges
or chains. When a series of such ranges linked together, constitute a
mountain belt. The American and Tethyan Fold-Thrust Belts are very
typical examples of Geotectonic Belts. The word Tethys is
pre-pelasgian and means “narrow sea”. Fold-Thrust-Belt (FTB) is the
“tree” in a “wood” called orogenesis, a Greek word meaning genesis or
birth of a mountain.The author of this book –though the topic is vast
and inexhaustible - using plentity of diagrams , cross sections in
actual areas makes his writing accessible to Earth Scientists. The
book has an excellent organization with 13 chapters introducing
step-by-step the reader to the formation and the significance of FTB
in mineral and especially in petroleum exploration. Terms such as
sutures zones , megasutures ,forces of orogeny, plate tectonics,
mantle cooling , supercontinents, global orogenic systems,
lithosphere, plate-margin belts, back-arc spreading, ophiolite
emplacement , arc-trench gap, accretionary wedge, thrust , internide
and externide units, magmatic arcs and others, all related with Plate
Tectonics , are defined and make reading understandable and help to
answer the question if the economic feasibility of ore and energy
mineral resources exploration in FTB is predictable. There is a golden
rule in Geology saying that despite the use of advanced technology,
mathematical models etc in Geology , a good observation in the field
is still the main tool of the geologist. There is no doubt that only a
broad-minded Earth scientist with extensive experience in field work
in various parts in the world would offer such a book. The plentity of
sketches ,diagrams and cross sections along with extensive
bibliography make this book not only a reference book to historical
evolution of orogenesis but also a contribution in solving vital
problems related with the formation and economic importance of the FTB
in Global geotectonic system on the Earth. Earth is a dynamic system
and as all things flow, reading and understanding the content of this
book you, an earth scientist prepares him/herself for the next
thoughts in evolution of FTB and Plate tectonics.
Oryktologika NEA - News on Minerals vol. 24 no. 140, March-April 2009
Dietrich Roeder est un excellent géologue alpin, célèbre pour la
qualité inégalée de ses coupes équilibrées calligraphiées en noir et
blanc, au style à la fois souple et rigoureux. Dietrich a acquis son
expertise et développé son raient au cours d'une carrière de 50 ans
dans la plupart des chaînes plissées des Amériques ou celles issues de
la Téthys, d'abord comme enseignant, puis en collaboration et avec le
soutien de l'exploration pétrolière. Il nous offre aujourd'hui un
ouvrage remarquable, l'oeuvre d'une vie dédiée à la géologie.
Cet ouvrage de 168 pages, très bien illustré et agrèabie à iire, couvre un sujet très vaste, allant de l'échelle lithosphérique ou crustale (subduction, détachements de slab, orogènes), à celle du bassin et des foothills (contreforts montagneux), voire même de la structure individuelle et du prospect (zones triangles et duplex).
Les principaux styles structuraux sont ainsi représentés, tant pour les zones externes que les zones internes, ainsi que pour lei réactivations (inversion négative). La part belle est toutefois donnée à la tectonique de couverture, privilégiant les hypothèses d'isopacité des séries anté-orogéniques et des très longs décollements plats. Ce style cordillérain est de fait validé dans les Rocheuses canadiennes pour les séries paléozoïques, mais s'accorde mal aux chaînes téthysiennes qui sont d'ordinaire dominées par l'héritage structural et l'inversion des anciens blocs basculés jurassiques. Les processus d'inversion positive sont de fait les grands absents de cet ouvrage, ce qui est dommage lorsqu'on sait leur importance pour l'évaluation des risques et le calendrier des systèmes pétroliers. A noter aussi de grands absents dans la bibliographie, qui reste focalisée sur les travaux des grands anciens, ei Oui I L puiceliune ei par là forcément partiale. Curieusement, de nombreux auteurs ne sont cités que par leur résumé à la dernière conférence du Petroleum Club organisé à Londres en mai dernier par la Geological Society, alors qu'il eût été plus judicieux de citer aussi des articles postérieurs à 1990 et publiés dans des revues.
Bien qu'il soit dédié à l'ensemble de la communauté des géosciences, cet ouvrage intéressera surtout les lecteurs spécialisés, car même s'il reste très pédagogique et est subdivisé en plusieurs chapitres, chacun dédié à un mot clé important pour la compréhension des styles structuraux des chaînes plissées, sa lecture nécessite déjà un bon niveau de connaissances.
F. ROURE
Géochronique n°111, 2009, p. 43
A synthesis of data from many parts of the planet and further
interregional comparisons are the best ways to obtain a comprehensive
vision of the geological evolution. On the basis of his own field
work in various places, including the North Lehrbücher,
zusammenf. Darstellungen, Bibliographien 581 American Cordillera, the
Andes, the Alps, the Himalayas, etc. and a careful revision of a huge
number of literature sources, ROEDER has composed a general review of
knowledge on the tectonics of fold-thrust belts, which are impressive
scars on the Earth's surface. His fascinating book is concise, but
very comprehensive. It touches a lot of aspects of the structure and
the evolution of this type of active zones, whichare clarified in 13
chapters. The book starts with the general state of knowledge on the
fold-thrust belts and principles of their study. These belts are
further described in the terms of plate tectonics. Subduction on
continental margins is an essential process of their formation. The
Cordillera-styled tectonics and orogen growth enable the fold-thrust
belt evolution. ROEDER recognizes rift-fill/syn-rift, passive-margin,
foredeep, and successor basins and oceanic accretionary wedge as the
main depositional systems of orogens. The author extracts the best
from the geosyncline terminology and also mentions such a “new” tool
as sequence stratigraphy. Internides and externides are further
considered. It is stated that fold-thrust belts belong to
externides. Very interesting passages concern the stockwerk tectonics
of East Greenland. Four styles of the fold-thrust belts are described
in this book. They are the Dahlstromian style, the Biotian style, the
style of basement upthrusts, and the slate-belt style. Their
recognition seems to be intuitional, but well-describing the true
diversity of the discussed tectonic belts. The author’s definition of
the term “structural style” (p. 73) is very appropriate. Although this
term has a very wide use, a particular definition is very necessary,
especially for beginners in science. It is assumed that a mixture of
externide and internide styles is possible, and structures with such a
mixture are called the Mesonides. A representative example is a
discordant thrust fault. A special chapter gives a synopsis of
structural details of the externide fold-thrust belts, including
flexures and duplexes. The author of this book is absolutely right,
when emphasizes on an outstanding importance of major strikeslip
displacements in the evolution of fold-thrust belts. The same was
reported by RUBAN (2007), although the latter also concluded that some
lateral displacement systems were of global extent and, thus,
superposed orogenic structures.
Fig. 108 (p. 124) indicates that left-lateral displacements are
preserved in the Hercynian chains of eastern North America and Western
Europe. This is a true, but perhaps it would be necessary to add that
sinistral motions followed even more impressive dextral motions in the
same region (see review in RUBAN 2007). A collage of tectonic sketch
maps depicting strike-slip structures in the fold-thrust belts
(Figs. 105-108, pp. 122-124) is a powerful evidence of an efficacy
furtherinterregional comparisons. Well, even in such a particular
case, ROEDER did a great deal. A significance of gravitational forces
in the evolution of the fold-thrust belts is also stressed and
deserves to be discussed in the special chapter. The book ends with
some notes on petroleum exploration. Although little or moderate in
size, new oilfields remain to be discovered in the world fold-thrust
belts. However, drilling within the latters encounters pitfalls,
particularly because of an inadequate interpretation of complicated
geological structure.
ROEDER is a really talented writer. In some other publications,
structural geological explanations are often too obvious and too
discouraging. Fortunately, this is a not a true in the reviewing book,
where lengthy and unnecessary physical explana582 Paläontologie
allgem. tions and redundant theoretical examples are avoided and
replaced with simple remarks and examples from the real fold-thrust
belts. The author’s writing is very personal and
stimulating. Meantime, ROEDER reviews the problems comprehensively and
a logical order of explanations stretches throughout the book. In
other words, his personal style is feeling, but it does not coordinate
the book. The latter is richly-illustrated. Figures are very numerous
and very detailed. Their uniform style strengthens the author’s
explanations and permits the readers to attempt some intriguing
comparisons themselves. Similarly-drawn cross sections of the
foldthrust belts (e.g., Fig. 83, p. 93 and Fig. 97, p. 109) underline
the common patterns of the latters. The subject index, although it is
extended, requires to be justified. Some important terms like
“geosyncline” are omitted, whereas only one page is referred to
“Moho”.
ROEDER has written an outstanding book. It joins the best traditions
of structural geological analysis (most probably, rooted into the
European tectonic schools of thoughts) with the newest achievements of
geology. Undoubtedly, it should stay on a shelf of every geologist, if
even he is not a structural geologist. This is an outstanding review
of the fold-thrust belts tectonics, which shares all features of the
classic never-outdating geological literature. Besides trained
scholars, it will also be appreciated by students. The reviewer, who
judges this book as one of his favourites, is waiting impatiently for
a publication of another volume by ROEDERannounced in the preface of
the current edition. Both books, i.e., reviewing and forthcoming, are
together a quintessence of the author’s career, which, however, does
not mean its decline pointed by the author himself. Further books from
ROEDER will be very welcomed by the broad geoscience community!
References RUBAN, D. A. (2007): The southwestern margin of Baltica in
the Paleozoic-early Mesozoic: Its global context and North American
analogue. – Natura Nascosta, 35: 24–35; Monfalcone, Italy.
D. A. RUBAN
Zentralblatt Geo. Pal Teil II 2009 Heft 3/4
Der Autor legt ein mit 123 schwarz-grau-weißen, detaillierten
Abbildungen versehenes Buch zu Falten- und Überschiebungsgürteln
vor. Diese wurden in den letzten Jahren intensiv, auch hinsichtlich
ihrer Kohlenwasserstoff-Höffigkeit untersucht. Vor allem
geophysikalische Methoden erlaubten die Entschlüsselung auch des
tieferen Untergrundes und damit des internen Aufbaus der
Strukturen. Inzwischen ist Literatur zum Thema weit gestreut. Das Buch
präsentiert nun in einer umfassenden Zusammenschau die generellen
geowissenschaftlichen Zusammenhänge zwischen Subduktionsprozessen,
Bildung von Orogenen, Beckenentwicklung in Orogenen und der Bildung
von Falten- und Überschiebungsgürteln in strukturell unterschiedlichen
plattentektonischen Szenarien. Beispiele stammen aus allen Teilen der
Erde und werden im Fokus der unterschiedlichen Konzepte und Modelle
ihrer Bildungsbedingungen beleuchtet. Die Abbildungen, zumeist als
Profilschnitte angelegt, verdeutlichen eindrucksvoll die
unterschiedlichen tektonischen Strukturen und Stile.
Ein wissenschaftlich anspruchsvolles, zwar teureres Buch, prall gefüllt mit Informationen, die in ihrer Kombination mit den zahlreichen Beispielen eine umfassende und anregende Zusammenschau und Reflektion des Themas garantieren.
Dorothee MERTMANN, Halle (Saale)
der Aufschluss Januar/Februar 2010 Ausg. 1, S. 26
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Fold-thrust belts, definition, significance 1
1.2 Books about FTB 1
1.3 Inventories of FTB data 2
1.4 Cross sections 3
1.5 About the present book 3
1.6 Acknowledgments 5
2 Orogenic belts, fold-thrust belts, global tectonics 6
2.1 Diagnosis 6
2.2 Subduction: word and concept 6
2.3 Orogeny is linked to subduction 7
2.4 Early views of plate-margin belts 8
2.5 Some terms defi ned 10
2.6 Mathematics in Geological Inventories 11
2.7 Mantle cooling, supercontinents, global orogenic systems 12
2.8 Lithosphere 13
2.9 Plate tectonics, precision, and imprecision 14
2.10 Forces of orogeny, defi ned verbally 16
2.11 Sutures and Megasutures 18
3 Cordilleran tectonics 20
3.1 Four Cordilleran plate settings 20
3.2 Back-arc spreading and Cordilleran ophiolite emplacement 21
3.3 Cordilleran tectonics: building a complex model 22
3.4 Arc-trench gap, accretionary wedge, synthetic FTB 22
3.5 Cordilleran response to two ranges of slab dips 24
3.6 Cordillera: a cradle of Coulomb wedges 25
3.7 Cordilleran main-thrust tectonics 26
3.8 Two documented examples 28
4 Basins, sediments, geosynclines 31
4.1 Basin types in orogens 31
4.2 Using stratigraphic data for building cross sections 36
4.3 Geodynamics of sedimentary basins 36
4.4 Collision orogens and their sedimentary basins 42
4.5 Extremely thin crystalline thrust sheets 43
4.6 Internide and externide units 44
4.7 Contact between Internides and Externides 44
5 Internides: location, dimensions, composition 46
5.1 Different plate tectonic settings 46
5.2 Arc magmatism and magmatic arcs 46
5.3 Accreted, exotic, docked terranes, collages 47
5.4 Ophiolite belts and oceanic lithosphere 48
5.5 Ophiolite emplacement and ophiolitic melanges 50
5.6 Metamorphism: concepts and methods 51
5.7 Central-Alpine PT path 52
5.8 Diaphthoresis or retrograde metamorphism 53
5.9 Structural styles of metamorphic terranes 54
5.10 Eclogites and high-pressure tectonics 54
5.11 Stockwerk Tectonics in East Greenland 57
5.12 Low end of the P/T field: the hydrocarbon kitchens 59
6 Externide fold-thrust belt 61
6.1 Diagnosis: a moving and thickening wedge 61
6.2 Wedge dynamics 62
6.3 Wedge thickening 65
6.4 Plastic flow and style zonation 67
6.5 Stratigraphic location of the wedge sole 68
6.6 Wedge growth 68
6.7 Size and Spacing of sledrunner thrust sheets 69
6.8 Thin wedges and Disturbed Belts 69
6.9 Tectonic setting of FTB wedges 71
7 Four structural styles of Fold-Thrust Belts 73
7.1 Styles in rock, in concept, in illustration 73
7.2 Dahlstromian style 74
7.3 Impact of the work by Shell, Dahlstrom and Suppe 79
7.4 About tectonic and graphic styles 80
7.5 Biotian style: detached coherent buckle folds 80
7.6 Runaway fold belts, incomplete support 81
7.7 Biotian fold belts: seismicity and geological aspects 85
7.8 Style of basement upthrusts (basement-cored folds) 86
7.9 Slate-belt style 90
7.10 Sites of slate-belt tectonics 92
7.11 Dealing graphically with basement upthrusts 93
7.12 Dealing graphically with bed-parallel detachments 94
8 Style mixtures 95
8.1 Mesonides: a transitional belt 95
8.2 Style mixtures and remnant bodies 95
8.3 Discordant thrust faults are significant style mixtures 97
9 Selected details of externide FTB 100
9.1 Uniformity and Diversity 100
9.2 Foreland fl exure, practical approximations 100
9.3 Strike ends of FTB and their style changes 101
9.4 Strain rates and style changes 103
9.5 Foothills and orogenic fronts 104
9.6 Shallow thrust fronts 104
9.7 Deep detached folds 104
9.8 Blind front with backthrust, triangle zone 105
9.9 Duplexes 109
10 Retrocharriage, steep zones, rotation zones 111
10.1 Location and wedge dynamics 111
10.2 Fan-shaped steep zone: transported internide assemblage 113
10.3 Kinked steep zone: post-collisional wedge compression 114
10.4 An FTB cross section, inventory-style 114
11 Further aspects of orogenic belts 118
11.1 Orogenic belts and extensional tectonics 118
11.2 Orogenic belts and strike-slip tectonics 121
11.3 Orogenic plateaus 125
11.4 Oceanic orogenic belts 125
11.5 Gravity-driven fold-thrust belts 126
12 Gravity Spreading and Gravity Collapse Revisited 128
12.1 A change of mind 128
12.2 Composite detached wedges 129
12.3 South-Tibetan Extensional Detachment 131
12.4 Central Brooks Range: site of a decayed polyphase Moho root 133
12.5 Gravity spreading above Moho roots: many uncharted sites 135
13 Fold-thrust belts and petroleum exploration 137
13.1 Merits of industry, surveys, academia 137
13.2 Present state of petroleum exploration 137
13.3 Global resources of petroleum in fold-thrust belts 139
13.4 Commercial petroleum deposits: geological checklist 139
13.5 Drilling in fold-thrust belts: successes and failures 141
References 146
1.1 Fold-thrust belts, definition, significance 1
1.2 Books about FTB 1
1.3 Inventories of FTB data 2
1.4 Cross sections 3
1.5 About the present book 3
1.6 Acknowledgments 5
2 Orogenic belts, fold-thrust belts, global tectonics 6
2.1 Diagnosis 6
2.2 Subduction: word and concept 6
2.3 Orogeny is linked to subduction 7
2.4 Early views of plate-margin belts 8
2.5 Some terms defi ned 10
2.6 Mathematics in Geological Inventories 11
2.7 Mantle cooling, supercontinents, global orogenic systems 12
2.8 Lithosphere 13
2.9 Plate tectonics, precision, and imprecision 14
2.10 Forces of orogeny, defi ned verbally 16
2.11 Sutures and Megasutures 18
3 Cordilleran tectonics 20
3.1 Four Cordilleran plate settings 20
3.2 Back-arc spreading and Cordilleran ophiolite emplacement 21
3.3 Cordilleran tectonics: building a complex model 22
3.4 Arc-trench gap, accretionary wedge, synthetic FTB 22
3.5 Cordilleran response to two ranges of slab dips 24
3.6 Cordillera: a cradle of Coulomb wedges 25
3.7 Cordilleran main-thrust tectonics 26
3.8 Two documented examples 28
4 Basins, sediments, geosynclines 31
4.1 Basin types in orogens 31
4.2 Using stratigraphic data for building cross sections 36
4.3 Geodynamics of sedimentary basins 36
4.4 Collision orogens and their sedimentary basins 42
4.5 Extremely thin crystalline thrust sheets 43
4.6 Internide and externide units 44
4.7 Contact between Internides and Externides 44
5 Internides: location, dimensions, composition 46
5.1 Different plate tectonic settings 46
5.2 Arc magmatism and magmatic arcs 46
5.3 Accreted, exotic, docked terranes, collages 47
5.4 Ophiolite belts and oceanic lithosphere 48
5.5 Ophiolite emplacement and ophiolitic melanges 50
5.6 Metamorphism: concepts and methods 51
5.7 Central-Alpine PT path 52
5.8 Diaphthoresis or retrograde metamorphism 53
5.9 Structural styles of metamorphic terranes 54
5.10 Eclogites and high-pressure tectonics 54
5.11 Stockwerk Tectonics in East Greenland 57
5.12 Low end of the P/T field: the hydrocarbon kitchens 59
6 Externide fold-thrust belt 61
6.1 Diagnosis: a moving and thickening wedge 61
6.2 Wedge dynamics 62
6.3 Wedge thickening 65
6.4 Plastic flow and style zonation 67
6.5 Stratigraphic location of the wedge sole 68
6.6 Wedge growth 68
6.7 Size and Spacing of sledrunner thrust sheets 69
6.8 Thin wedges and Disturbed Belts 69
6.9 Tectonic setting of FTB wedges 71
7 Four structural styles of Fold-Thrust Belts 73
7.1 Styles in rock, in concept, in illustration 73
7.2 Dahlstromian style 74
7.3 Impact of the work by Shell, Dahlstrom and Suppe 79
7.4 About tectonic and graphic styles 80
7.5 Biotian style: detached coherent buckle folds 80
7.6 Runaway fold belts, incomplete support 81
7.7 Biotian fold belts: seismicity and geological aspects 85
7.8 Style of basement upthrusts (basement-cored folds) 86
7.9 Slate-belt style 90
7.10 Sites of slate-belt tectonics 92
7.11 Dealing graphically with basement upthrusts 93
7.12 Dealing graphically with bed-parallel detachments 94
8 Style mixtures 95
8.1 Mesonides: a transitional belt 95
8.2 Style mixtures and remnant bodies 95
8.3 Discordant thrust faults are significant style mixtures 97
9 Selected details of externide FTB 100
9.1 Uniformity and Diversity 100
9.2 Foreland fl exure, practical approximations 100
9.3 Strike ends of FTB and their style changes 101
9.4 Strain rates and style changes 103
9.5 Foothills and orogenic fronts 104
9.6 Shallow thrust fronts 104
9.7 Deep detached folds 104
9.8 Blind front with backthrust, triangle zone 105
9.9 Duplexes 109
10 Retrocharriage, steep zones, rotation zones 111
10.1 Location and wedge dynamics 111
10.2 Fan-shaped steep zone: transported internide assemblage 113
10.3 Kinked steep zone: post-collisional wedge compression 114
10.4 An FTB cross section, inventory-style 114
11 Further aspects of orogenic belts 118
11.1 Orogenic belts and extensional tectonics 118
11.2 Orogenic belts and strike-slip tectonics 121
11.3 Orogenic plateaus 125
11.4 Oceanic orogenic belts 125
11.5 Gravity-driven fold-thrust belts 126
12 Gravity Spreading and Gravity Collapse Revisited 128
12.1 A change of mind 128
12.2 Composite detached wedges 129
12.3 South-Tibetan Extensional Detachment 131
12.4 Central Brooks Range: site of a decayed polyphase Moho root 133
12.5 Gravity spreading above Moho roots: many uncharted sites 135
13 Fold-thrust belts and petroleum exploration 137
13.1 Merits of industry, surveys, academia 137
13.2 Present state of petroleum exploration 137
13.3 Global resources of petroleum in fold-thrust belts 139
13.4 Commercial petroleum deposits: geological checklist 139
13.5 Drilling in fold-thrust belts: successes and failures 141
References 146