Microstructures, deformation mechanisms and strain patterns in a vertical profile, inner Appalachian fold-thrust belt, Alabama

Abstract A core from the American Anniston No. 1 well, drilled in the Pell City thrust sheet, Calhoun County, Alabama, provides an excellent scientific opportunity to study in a vertical profile the deformation mechanisms and strain patterns associated with large-scale structures. The core contains stratigraphic units from Cambrian to Mississippian in age and two major thrust faults. A detailed structural analysis revealed two deformation episodes, a pre-orogenic deformation and Alleghanian orogenic deformation. In the pre-orogenic deformation, synsedimentary folds and growth faults are the characteristic early structures, and normal faults formed in lithifield rocks later. During Alleghanian deformation, earlier fractures are overprinted by later S 1 penetrative structures. In limestone, shale and siltstone within thrust sheets, S 1 is solution cleavage. Dolomites in the thrust sheets were deformed by fracturing, and no penetrative cleavages formed. In major fault zones, S 1 mylonitic foliation formed in limestone, shale and siltstone. Fault-related dolomites were deformed cataclastically and no S surfaces formed. Strain magnitude increases towards major thrust faults in both the hanging walls and footwalls. For the typical fault configuration in the core with limestone-dolomite in the hanging wall and shale-siltstone in the footwall, strain is mainly caused by pressure solution and cataclasis in the hanging wall and by plastic deformation in the footwall.