Evolution of fractures in a fold-and-thrust belt and the associated deformed foreland basin: an example from the northeastern Brooks Range and the eastern Colville Basin, Alaska - Abstract

Rocks exposed at the surface of a fold-and-thrust belt record a complex fracture history that reflects a wide range of structural environments. These rocks provide a record of fracture formation during several stages of the advance of the fold-and-thrust belt into the basin: while flat-lying in the foreland, during fold-and-thrust deformation, and during lateto post-deformational uplift and unroofing. The proposed study focuses on Pre-Mississippian to Lower Cretaceous sedimentary rocks exposed along a N-S transect across the front of the northeastern Brooks Range fold-and-thrust belt into the adjacent Colville Basin. This project has important implications for basin evolution because it will provide information about how fractures vary as a result of changing stratigraphic and structural position.