Abstract
The structure of the Newport-Inglewood producing trend of the Los Angeles basin, California, is a subsurface structural-style example of a relatively small-displacement wrench zone. A variety of data substantiates strike-slip displacements and, together with the similarities to experimentally produced deformation patterns, supports the use of this feature as a wrench model. The structural style consists of a single alignment of anticlinal culminations, arranged in a right-handed en échelon pattern, which are offset along the trend’s median line by right-lateral en échelon strike-slip faults. Fold axes and other structural elements are displaced laterally 600–2,500 ft. In this deformation the operation of both extension and compression, and the overlap pattern of the en échelon strike-slip faults caused complex secondary faulting. Terminal horsting, en échelon thrusts, en échelon normal faults, steeply dipping horst and graben slices, and coexisting normal- and reverse-separation faults augment the basic style. These structural patterns are proposed as a model to depict and interpret wrenchrelated structuring in other areas with similar deformation.
