continental rift basins like the East African rift (Figure 2)
and West Siberian basin (Figure 3).
Strike-slip basins: basins formed by stretching
and flexure
Strike-slip basins formed in marine and nonmarine basins
may form by stretching as in the case of pull-apart basins
or can form by flexure in restraining bend settings where
thrust faulting and folding dominates. The California
strike-slip margin includes examples of both nonmarine
basin types in areas of elevated mountains along the controlling and central San Andreas strike-slip fault and deep
marine basins of pull-apart origin in the California borderlands offshore of southern California and in the pull-apart
basin province of the centerline of the Gulf of California
(Mann, 2007) (Figure 6).
Restraining bend tectonics in the Big Bend area of
southern California is dominated by thrusting and flexure
of adjacent basins beneath uplifted mountain blocks. For
this reason, the depth to basement is greater in the
restraining bend areas than in the more extensional areas
offshore (Figure 6). The line of deeper basins parallel to
the coast of California in the Pacific Ocean reflects the
trace of a relict subduction margin that preceded the current phase of strike-slip motion along the onland San
Andreas strike-slip fault zone (Mann, 2013) (Figure 6).
Basins produced by submarine bolide impacts
Bolide impacts into marine areas can produce deep marine
basins as illustrated in the 180–200 km-wide Chicxulub
impact crater of latest Cretaceous age in the offshore of
the Yucatan Peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico (Figure 7).
Cross sections of the crater show a multi-ringed structure
with a central structural uplift that is greater than 10 km
and a Moho displaced by 1–2 km (Gulick et al., 2013).
The outer rim produced during impact produced a belt of
large slump blocks. Impact deposits along with normal
marine sedimentation eventually filled the crater with
marine sedimentary rocks up to 3 km in thickness
(Figure 7).
Summary of marine sedimentary basins
Marine sedimentary basins form by a variety of tectonic
processes including lithospheric stretching in rift
(Figures 2 and 3), strike-slip (Figure 6), and subduction
(Figure 5) settings and by lithospheric flexure in collisional (Figure 4) and strike-slip (Figure 6) settings.
The sizes of marine sedimentary basins in foreland or
collisional settings are generally much larger than either
rift, strike-slip, or bolide impacts in marine settings
(Figure 7). The degree of marine fill of these basins is
directly related to the proximity of the basin to marine
waters. Marine waters can flow into the axis of a juvenile
rift or foreland basin during its earlier underfilled stage.
Non-marine fill can fill the basin to sea-level during its
later, overfilled stage.
Bibliography
Aitken, T., Mann, P., Escalona, A., and Christeson, G., 2011. Evolution of the Grenada and Tobago basins and implications for arc
migration. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 28, 235–258.
Bradley, D., 2008. Passive margins through earth history. EarthScience Reviews, 91, 1–26.
Escalona, A., and Mann, P., 2011. Tectonics, basin subsidence
mechanisms, and paleogeography of the Caribbean-South
American plate boundary zone. Marine and Petroleum Geology,
28, 8–39.
Gulick, S., Christeson, G., Barton, P., Grieve, R., Morgan, J., and
Urrutia-Fucugauchi, J., 2013. Geophysical characterization of
the Chicxulub impact crater. Reviews of Geophysics, 51, 31–52.
Laske, G., and Masters, G., 1997. A global digital map of sediment
thickness: EOS. Transactions of the American Geophysical
Union, 78, 483.
Mann, P., Gahagan, L., and Gordon, M., 2003. Tectonic setting of
the world’s giant oil and gas fields. In Halbouty, M. T. (ed),
Giant Oil and Gas Fields of the Decade, 1990–1999. AAPG
Memoir 78, Tulsa, Oklahoma, pp. 15–105.
Mann, P., 2007. Global catalogue, classification, and tectonic origins of restraining and releasing bends on active and ancient
strike-slip fault systems. In Cunningham, W., and Mann,
P. (eds), Tectonics of Strike-slip Restraining and Releasing
Bends. London: Geological Society. Special Publications,
Vol. 290, pp. 13–142.
Mann, P., 2013. Comparison of structural styles and giant hydrocarbon occurrences within four, active strike-slip regions: California, Southern Caribbean, Sumatra, and East China. In Gao,
D. (ed), Dynamic Interplay among Tectonics, Sedimentation,
and Petroleum Systems. AAPG Memoir 100, pp. 43–93.
Reichow, M., Saunders, A., White, R., Pringle, M.,
Al’Mukhamedov, A., Medvedev, A., and Kirda, N., 2002.
40 Ar/
39 Ar dates from the West Siberian basin: Siberian flood
basalt province doubled. Science, 296, 1846–1849.
Saria, E., Calais, E., Stamps, D., Delvaux, D., and Hartnady, C.,
2014. Present-day kinematics of the East African rift. Journal
of Geophysical Research, Solid Earth. 119, doi:10.1002/
2013JB010901.
Cross-references
Active Continental Margins
Energy Resources
Marine Impacts and Their Consequences
Morphology Across Convergent Plate Boundaries
Passive Plate Margins
Pull-apart Basins
Shelf
Subduction
Subsidence of Oceanic Crust
MARINE TRANSGRESSION
Jan Harff
Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, University of
Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland
Synonyms
Landward shoreline shift
MARINE TRANSGRESSION
489
and West Siberian basin (Figure 3).
Strike-slip basins: basins formed by stretching
and flexure
Strike-slip basins formed in marine and nonmarine basins
may form by stretching as in the case of pull-apart basins
or can form by flexure in restraining bend settings where
thrust faulting and folding dominates. The California
strike-slip margin includes examples of both nonmarine
basin types in areas of elevated mountains along the controlling and central San Andreas strike-slip fault and deep
marine basins of pull-apart origin in the California borderlands offshore of southern California and in the pull-apart
basin province of the centerline of the Gulf of California
(Mann, 2007) (Figure 6).
Restraining bend tectonics in the Big Bend area of
southern California is dominated by thrusting and flexure
of adjacent basins beneath uplifted mountain blocks. For
this reason, the depth to basement is greater in the
restraining bend areas than in the more extensional areas
offshore (Figure 6). The line of deeper basins parallel to
the coast of California in the Pacific Ocean reflects the
trace of a relict subduction margin that preceded the current phase of strike-slip motion along the onland San
Andreas strike-slip fault zone (Mann, 2013) (Figure 6).
Basins produced by submarine bolide impacts
Bolide impacts into marine areas can produce deep marine
basins as illustrated in the 180–200 km-wide Chicxulub
impact crater of latest Cretaceous age in the offshore of
the Yucatan Peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico (Figure 7).
Cross sections of the crater show a multi-ringed structure
with a central structural uplift that is greater than 10 km
and a Moho displaced by 1–2 km (Gulick et al., 2013).
The outer rim produced during impact produced a belt of
large slump blocks. Impact deposits along with normal
marine sedimentation eventually filled the crater with
marine sedimentary rocks up to 3 km in thickness
(Figure 7).
Summary of marine sedimentary basins
Marine sedimentary basins form by a variety of tectonic
processes including lithospheric stretching in rift
(Figures 2 and 3), strike-slip (Figure 6), and subduction
(Figure 5) settings and by lithospheric flexure in collisional (Figure 4) and strike-slip (Figure 6) settings.
The sizes of marine sedimentary basins in foreland or
collisional settings are generally much larger than either
rift, strike-slip, or bolide impacts in marine settings
(Figure 7). The degree of marine fill of these basins is
directly related to the proximity of the basin to marine
waters. Marine waters can flow into the axis of a juvenile
rift or foreland basin during its earlier underfilled stage.
Non-marine fill can fill the basin to sea-level during its
later, overfilled stage.
Bibliography
Aitken, T., Mann, P., Escalona, A., and Christeson, G., 2011. Evolution of the Grenada and Tobago basins and implications for arc
migration. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 28, 235–258.
Bradley, D., 2008. Passive margins through earth history. EarthScience Reviews, 91, 1–26.
Escalona, A., and Mann, P., 2011. Tectonics, basin subsidence
mechanisms, and paleogeography of the Caribbean-South
American plate boundary zone. Marine and Petroleum Geology,
28, 8–39.
Gulick, S., Christeson, G., Barton, P., Grieve, R., Morgan, J., and
Urrutia-Fucugauchi, J., 2013. Geophysical characterization of
the Chicxulub impact crater. Reviews of Geophysics, 51, 31–52.
Laske, G., and Masters, G., 1997. A global digital map of sediment
thickness: EOS. Transactions of the American Geophysical
Union, 78, 483.
Mann, P., Gahagan, L., and Gordon, M., 2003. Tectonic setting of
the world’s giant oil and gas fields. In Halbouty, M. T. (ed),
Giant Oil and Gas Fields of the Decade, 1990–1999. AAPG
Memoir 78, Tulsa, Oklahoma, pp. 15–105.
Mann, P., 2007. Global catalogue, classification, and tectonic origins of restraining and releasing bends on active and ancient
strike-slip fault systems. In Cunningham, W., and Mann,
P. (eds), Tectonics of Strike-slip Restraining and Releasing
Bends. London: Geological Society. Special Publications,
Vol. 290, pp. 13–142.
Mann, P., 2013. Comparison of structural styles and giant hydrocarbon occurrences within four, active strike-slip regions: California, Southern Caribbean, Sumatra, and East China. In Gao,
D. (ed), Dynamic Interplay among Tectonics, Sedimentation,
and Petroleum Systems. AAPG Memoir 100, pp. 43–93.
Reichow, M., Saunders, A., White, R., Pringle, M.,
Al’Mukhamedov, A., Medvedev, A., and Kirda, N., 2002.
40 Ar/
39 Ar dates from the West Siberian basin: Siberian flood
basalt province doubled. Science, 296, 1846–1849.
Saria, E., Calais, E., Stamps, D., Delvaux, D., and Hartnady, C.,
2014. Present-day kinematics of the East African rift. Journal
of Geophysical Research, Solid Earth. 119, doi:10.1002/
2013JB010901.
Cross-references
Active Continental Margins
Energy Resources
Marine Impacts and Their Consequences
Morphology Across Convergent Plate Boundaries
Passive Plate Margins
Pull-apart Basins
Shelf
Subduction
Subsidence of Oceanic Crust
MARINE TRANSGRESSION
Jan Harff
Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, University of
Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland
Synonyms
Landward shoreline shift
MARINE TRANSGRESSION
489