Abstract
A series of basement-weakness zones, represented at the surface as lineaments, trend northeasterly and northwesterly, and define a framework of possible basement blocks in the Williston–Blood Creek basin of North Dakota and Montana. These basement blocks and bounding weakness zones appear to have influenced the development of structural features in that the basement-weakness zones apparently have adjusted laterally in response to regional compressive forces, thereby coupling the blocks and the overlying sediments. This simple-shear block coupling during the Laramide orogeny has resulted in such drag folds as Nesson anticline. Cedar Creek anticline, and the Big Snowy Mountains uplift, among others. In influencing the stratigraphic and structural conditions the basement-block framework has affected directly the localization of oil and gas in the area.
