Tectonics of Strike-Slip Restraining and Releasing Bends

Restraining and releasing bends are common, but enigmatic features of strike-slip fault systems occurring in all crustal environments and at regional to microscopic scales of observation. Regional-scale restraining bends are sites of mountain building, transpressional deformation and basement exhumation, whereas releasing bends are sites of topographic subsidence, transtensional deformation, basin sedimentation and possible volcanism and economic mineralization. Because restraining and releasing bends often occur as singular self-contained domains of complex deformation, they are appealing natural laboratories for Earth scientists to study fault processes, earthquake seismology, active faulting and sedimentation, fault and fluid-flow relationships, links between tectonics and topography, tectonic and erosional controls on exhumation, and tectonic geomorphology.
This volume addresses the tectonic complexity and diversity of strike-slip restraining and releasing bends with 18 contributions divided into four thematic sections: (1) a topical review of fault bends and their global distribution; (2) bends, sedimentary basins and earthquake hazards; (3) restraining bends, transpressional deformation and basement controls on development; (4) releasing bends, transtensional deformation and fluid flow.
Structural and topographic characteristics of restraining bend mountain ranges of the Altai, Gobi Altai and easternmost Tien Shan
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Published:January 01, 2007
Abstract
Restraining bend mountain ranges are fundamental orogenic elements in the Altai, Gobi Altai and eastern Tien Shan. In this paper, 12 separate restraining bends are reviewed to identify common structural and topographic characteristics. The 12 restraining bends occur in one of three different tectonic settings: (1) strike-slip fault termination zones; (2) at a major strike-slip fault bend where the individual strike-slip fault can be traced continuously from one end of the range to the other; and (3) where two separate strike-slip fault segments converge and overlap. Fault maps of the 12 separate bends reveal that they are all flower...