Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-pnlb5 Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2025-10-31T12:09:58.344Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Geometry, kinematics and fracture pattern of the Bangestan anticline, Zagros, SW Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2011

STEFANO TAVANI ,
FABRIZIO STORTI ,
BAHMAN SOLEIMANY ,
MOHAMMAD FALLAH ,
JOSEP A. MUÑOZ  and
ROBERTO GAMBINI
STEFANO TAVANI*
Affiliation:
Departament de Geodinamica i Geofisica, Facultat de Geologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
FABRIZIO STORTI
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche, Universitá Roma Tre, Rome, Italy
BAHMAN SOLEIMANY
Affiliation:
National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Exploration Directorate, Tehran, Iran
MOHAMMAD FALLAH
Affiliation:
OMV, Trabrennstrasse 6–8, 1020 Vienna, Austria
JOSEP A. MUÑOZ
Affiliation:
Departament de Geodinamica i Geofisica, Facultat de Geologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
ROBERTO GAMBINI
Affiliation:
ENEL, Rome, Italy
*
†Author for correspondence: stefano.tavani@ub.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Thrust-related anticlines in the Zagros Simply Folded Belt provide excellent exposed analogue structures for fractured reservoirs located in the more external sectors of the belt. In these structures it is possible to study the fracture network attributes and understand their relationships to the folding process, thus gathering fundamental information for fracture modelling in reservoirs. In this work we analyse the mesoscopic deformation pattern of the NW–SE-trending Bangestan anticline (SW Zagros, Iran) and discuss its relationship to the kinematic evolution of the hosting structure. The deformation pattern mostly includes extensional structures and pressure solution cleavages striking parallel to the fold axial trend (i.e. longitudinal), transversal extensional structures, and N–S- and E–W-striking extensional structures (oriented oblique to the fold axis). With the aid of deep wells and a transversal reflection seismic profile, we constructed a balanced cross-section of the anticline and propose a kinematic evolution pathway constrained by the mesoscopic deformation pattern. Longitudinal and transversal deformation structures developed before and/or in the very early stages of fold growth. During this stage, the Bangestan anticline grew as a set of unconnected décollement anticlines involving the Cambrian to Pliocenic sedimentary cover. In a later stage, inherited basement faults were reactivated with a right-lateral strike-slip component and the previously developed anticlines propagated laterally up to their complete linkage and thrust breakthrough. This produced the right-lateral strike-slip reactivation of longitudinal joints and the development of N–S- and E–W-striking extensional structures, which were also frequently reworked as strike-slip faults.

Keywords

fracturefoldZagrosinversion tectonicsstrike-slip

Information

Type
THE ZAGROS FOLD-THRUST BELT: FOLDS AND FRACTURES
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 148 , Issue 5-6: THEMATIC ISSUE: Geodynamic evolution of the Zagros , November 2011 , pp. 964 - 979
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ahmadhadi, F., Daniel, J. M., Azzizadeh, M. & Lacombe, O. 2008. Evidence for pre-folding vein development in the Oligo-Miocene Asmari Formation in the Central Zagros Fold Belt, Iran, Tectonics 27, TC1016, doi:10.1029/2006TC001978, 22 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amrouch, K., Lacombe, O., Bellahsen, N., Daniel, J.-M. & Callot, J.-P. 2010. Stress and strain patterns, kinematics and deformation mechanisms in a basement-cored anticline: Sheep Mountain Anticline, Wyoming. Tectonics 29, TC1005, doi:10.1029/2009TC002525, 27 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Antonellini, M. & Mollema, P. N. 2000. A natural analog for a fractured and faulted reservoir in dolomite; Triassic Sella Group, northern Italy. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 84, 314–44.Google Scholar
Aydin, A. 2000. Fractures, faults, and hydrocarbon entrapment, migration, and flow. Marine and Petroleum Geology 17, 797–814.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bai, T., Maerten, L., Gross, M. R. & Aydin, A. 2002. Orthogonal cross joints: do they imply a regional stress rotation? Journal of Structural Geology 24, 77–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berberian, M. 1995. Master ‘blind’ thrust faults hidden under the Zagros folds: active basement tectonics and surface morphotectonics. Tectonophysics 241, 193–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergbauer, S. & Pollard, D. D. 2004. A new conceptual fold-fracture model including prefolding joints, based on the Emigrant Gap Anticline, Wyoming. Geological Society of America Bulletin 116, 294–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanc, E. J. P., Allen, M. B., Inger, S. & Hassani, H. 2003. Structural styles in the Zagros simple folded zone, Iran. Journal of the Geological Society, London 160, 401–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, M. 1992. The analysis of fracture systems in surface thrust structures from the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. In Thrust Tectonics (ed. McClay, K. R.), pp. 391–405. London: Chapman & Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dercourt, J., Zonenshain, L. P., Ricou, L. E., Kazmin, V. G., Le Pichon, X., Knipper, A. L., Grandjacquet, C., Sbortshikov, I. M., Geyssant, J., Lepvrier, C., Pechersky, D. H., Boulin, J., Sibuet, J.-C., Savostin, L. A., Sorokhtin, O., Westphal, M., Bazhenov, M. L., Lauer, J. P. & Biju-Duval, B. 1986. Geological evolution of the Tethys belt from the Atlantic to the Pamirs since the Lias. Tectonophysics 123, 241–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewey, J. F., Pitman, W. C. III, Ryan, W. B. F. & Bonnin, J. 1973. Plate tectonics and the evolution of the Alpine System. Geological Society of America Bulletin 84, 3137–80.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engelder, T. & Peacock, D. C. P. 2001. Joint development normal to regional compression during flexural-flow folding: the Lilstock buttress anticline, Somerset, England. Journal of Structural Geology 23, 259–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falcon, N. L. 1969. Problems of the relationship between surface structure and deep displacements illustrated by the Zagros range. In Time and Place in Orogeny (ed. Kent, P. E.), pp. 9–22. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 3.Google Scholar
Fischer, M. P., Woodward, N. B. & Mitchell, M. M., 1992. The kinematics of break-thrust folds. Journal of Structural Geology 16, 451–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gholipur, A. M. 1994. Patterns and structural positions of productive fractures in the Asmari Reservoirs, Southwest Iran. Proceedings of the Canadian SPE/CIM/CANMET Conference, Recent Advances in Horizontal Well Applications, Calgary, Paper HWC94-43, doi:10.2118/HWC-94-43, 10 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gross, M. R. 1993. The origin and spacing of cross joints: examples from the Monterey Formation, Santa Barbara Coastline, California. Journal of Structural Geology 15, 737–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hessami, K., Koyi, H. A. & Talbot, C. J. 2001. The significance of strike-slip faulting in the basement of the Zagros fold and thrust belt. Journal of Petroleum Geology 24, 5–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inger, S., Blanc, E. & Hassani, H. 2002. Structural observations from Kuh-e Meymand (Naura) and Kuh-e Sefidar, Northern Fars, Zagros, Iran. Cambridge Arctic Shelf Programme (CASP) report, Zagros Series, Report 3.Google Scholar
Jackson, J. & Fitch, T. 1981. Basement faulting and the focal depths of the larger earthquakes in the Zagros Mountains (Iran).Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 64, 561–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, J. A. & McKenzie, D. 1984. Active tectonics of the Alpine-Himalayan Belt between western Turkey and Pakistan. Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 77, 185–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lacombe, O., Bellahsen, N. & Mouthereau, F. 2011. Fracture patterns in the Zagros Simply Folded Belt (Fars, Iran): constraints on early collisional tectonic history and role of basement faults. Geological Magazine 148, 940–63 Published online 14 April 2011. doi:10.1017/S001675681100029X.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lash, G. G. & Engelder, T. 2009. Tracking the burial and tectonic history of Devonian shale of the Appalachian Basin by analysis of joint intersection style. Geological Society of America Bulletin 121, 265–77.Google Scholar
McQuarrie, N. 2004. Crustal scale geometry of the Zagros fold–thrust belt, Iran. Journal of Structural Geology 26, 519–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McQuillan, H. 1973. Small-scale fracture density in Asmari Formation of SW Iran and its relation to bed thickness and structural setting. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 57, 2367–85.Google Scholar
McQuillan, H. 1974. Fracture patterns on Kuh-e Asmari Anticline, Southwest Iran. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 58, 236–46.Google Scholar
McQuillan, H. 1985. Fracture-controlled production from the Oligo-Miocene Asmari Formation in Gachsaran and Bibi Hakimeh Fields, SW Iran. In Carbonate Petroleum Reservoirs (eds Roehl, P. O. & Choquette, P. W.), pp. 513–23. Springer.Google Scholar
Molinaro, M., Leturmy, P., Guezou, J.-C., Frizon de Lamotte, D. & Eshraghi, S. A. 2005. The structure and kinematics of the southeastern Zagros fold-thrust belt, Iran: from thin-skinned to thick-skinned tectonics. Tectonics 24, TC3007, doi:10.1029/2004TC001633, 19 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mouthereau, F., Lacombe, O. & Meyer, B. 2006. The Zagros folded belt (Fars, Iran): constraints from topography and critical wedge modelling. Geophysical Journal International 165, 336–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mouthereau, F., Tensi, J., Bellahsen, N., Lacombe, O., De Boisgrollier, T. & Kargar, S. 2007. Tertiary sequence of deformation in a thin-skinned/thick-skinned collision belt: The Zagros Folded Belt (Fars, Iran). Tectonics 26, TC5006, doi:10.1029/2007TC002098, 28 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, R. A. 1985. Geological Analysis of Naturally Fractured Reservoirs. Houston, Texas: Gulf Publishing Company, 320 pp.Google Scholar
Oldow, J. S., Bally, A. W. & Avé Lallemant, H. G. 1990. Transpression, orogenic float, and lithospheric balance. Geology 18, 991–4.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, N. J. & Cosgrove, J. W. 1990. Analysis of Geological Structures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 502 pp.Google Scholar
Sella, G. F., Dixon, T. H. & Mao, A. 2002. REVEL: a model for Recent plate velocities from space geodesy. Journal of Geophysical Research 107 (B4), 2081, doi:10.1029/2000JB000033, 30 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherkati, S. & Letouzey, J. 2004. Variation of structural style and basin evolution in the central Zagros (Izeh zone and Dezful Embayment), Iran. Marine and Petroleum Geology 21, 535–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stearns, D. W. 1968. Certain aspects of fractures in naturally deformed rocks. In Rock Mechanics Seminar (ed. Riecker, R. E.), pp. 97–118, Bedford, Massachusetts: Terrestrial Sciences Laboratory.Google Scholar
Stephenson, B. J., Koopman, A., Hillgartner, H., McQuillan, H., Bourne, S., Noad, J. J. & Rawnsley, K. 2007. Structural and stratigraphic controls on fold-related fracturing in the Zagros Mountains, Iran: implications for reservoir development. In Fractured Reservoirs (eds Lonergan, L., Jolly, R. J., Rawnsley, K. & Sanderson, D. J.), pp. 1–21. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 270.Google Scholar
Storti, F. & Salvini, F. 1996. Progressive rollover fault-propagation folding: a possible kinematic mechanism to generate regional-scale recumbent folds in shallow foreland belts. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 80, 174–93.Google Scholar
Sylvester, A. G. 1988. Strike-slip faults. Geological Society of America Bulletin 100, 1666–703.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Talbot, C. J. & Alavi, M. 1996. The past of a future syntaxis across the Zagros. In Salt Tectonics (eds Blundell, D. J., Davison, I. & Alsop, G. I.), pp. 89–110. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 100.Google Scholar
Talebian, M. & Jackson, J. 2002. Offset on Main Recent Fault of NW Iran and implication for the late Cenozoic tectonics of the Arabia–Eurasia collision zone. Geophysical Journal International 150, 422–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tavani, S., Storti, F., Fernandez, O., Munoz, J. A. & Salvini, F. 2006. 3-D deformation pattern analysis and evolution of the Anisclo anticline, southern Pyrenees. Journal of Structural Geology 28, 695–712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tavani, S., Storti, F., Salvini, F. & Toscano, C. 2008. Stratigraphic versus structural control on the deformation pattern associated with the evolution of the Mt. Catria anticline, Italy. Journal of Structural Geology 30, 664–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorbjornsen, K. L. & Dunne, W. M. 1997. Origin of a thrust-related fold; geometric vs kinematic tests. Journal of Structural Geology 19, 303–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wennberg, O. P., Svånå, T., Azizzadeh, M., Aqrawi, A. M. M., Brockbank, P., Lyslo, K. B. & Ogilvie, S. 2006. Fracture intensity vs. mechanical stratigraphy in platform top carbonates: the Aquitanian of the Asmari Formation, Khaviz Anticline, Zagros, SW Iran. Petroleum Geoscience 12, 235–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar