Regional tectonics and fracture patterns in the Fall River Formation (Lower Cretaceous) around the Black Hills foreland uplift, western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming

Abstract

The Fall River Formation around the Black Hills uplift is pervasively fractured by layer-perpendicular joints. Systematic joints in the formation maintain consistent orientations over large areas and are commonly abutted by later-formed fractures, resulting in an orthogonal pattern. There are two major systematic sets, trending northeast and northwest, and one minor set trending north-south. The first two sets define two major fracture domains in the study area. The northwest joint set occupies a southern domain where it is the sole systematic fracture set. The northeast joint set is pervasively established throughout the northern domain, where northwest and north-south fracture sets are also developed in well-defined sectors. There is no genetic or spatial relationship between joint sets and local Laramide monoclines or folds of the region. Instead, the stratigraphic record indicates that joint development originated early in the lithification history of Fall River sandstones. Jointing occurred in response to local and regional extensional stresses that pervaded the northern and southern domains as a result of recurrent movement on basement faults that parallel the regional lineament system and surface structural zones throughout the region. Major uplift of the Black Hills and local fold development during Laramide time merely resulted in passive rotation of the early formed systematic and non-systematic joints.

Extensional tectonic activity in the cratonward parts (peripheral bulge) of the Ganga Plain foreland basin, India

“…The entire peripheral bulge region is an area of extensional tectonics, which has also led to the downfaulting and preservation of sedimentary sequences. Wicks et al (2000) recorded similar fracture patterns around the Black Hills foreland uplifts in Cretaceous sequences of the western USA. It seems that down-flexing of the Indian lithosphere generated extensional stresses in the cratonward distal part of Ganga Plain foreland basin.…”

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

“…Reference [87] showed numerically that both fault-strike-normal and fault-strike-perpendicular tensile joints can develop during trishear as well as the conjugate shear orientations noted above. Fold-related joint orientations that cannot be explained by buckling in regions where basement faulting is common are typically thought to be related to flexure above basement lineaments (e.g., [88,89]). Thus, the principal joint and surface lineament sets shown in Table 3 are considered to result from flexure above the basement faults shown in Figure 14c.…”

Detection of Karst Features in the Black Hills Area in South Dakota/Wyoming, USA, Based on Evaluations of Remote Sensing Data

“…The geologic investigation of the Black Hills in Wyoming/South Dakota dates back to the 19th century [1][2][3]. Since the availability of satellite data, additional/new geologic knowledge-input was possible, especially since 2015, when satellite data such as Sentinel and Aster became free available like Landsat data.…”