Influence of inherited structural domains and their particular strain distributions on the Roer Valley graben evolution from inversion to extension

Deckers, Jef; Rombaut, Bernd; Van Noten, Koen; Vanneste, Kris

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-345-2021

Articles | Volume 12, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-345-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Inversion tectonics – 30 years later

https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-345-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 2

Research article

|

09 Feb 2021

Research article |

| 09 Feb 2021

Influence of inherited structural domains and their particular strain distributions on the Roer Valley graben evolution from inversion to extension

Jef Deckers, Bernd Rombaut, Koen Van Noten, and Kris Vanneste

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Final revised paper (published on 09 Feb 2021)
Preprint (discussion started on 09 Mar 2020)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review of manuscript se-2020-23 - Christopher Jackson', Christopher Jackson, 14 Apr 2020
- AC1: 'Reply to review by Christopher Jackson', Jef Deckers, 15 Jun 2020
- AC3: 'Reply to review by Christopher Jackson: additional supplement', Jef Deckers, 15 Jun 2020
RC2: 'Review of manuscript se-2020-23', Alexander Malz, 22 Apr 2020
- AC2: 'Reply to review by Alexander Malz', Jef Deckers, 15 Jun 2020

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Jef Deckers on behalf of the Authors (15 Jun 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (22 Jun 2020) by Piotr Krzywiec

RR by Jonas Kley (14 Jul 2020)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Dear authors,

I really enjoyed reading your revised manuscript! Your observation that the fault systems behaved similarly during inversion and later normal reactivation is intriguing. My only suggestions regarding the content of your paper are these:

1. Could you elaborate a bit more on the role of the Carboniferous faults? You cite a literature source for the observation that "large" strike-slip faults are often associated with lithospheric strength contrasts. I guess that is because they juxtapose different types of lithosphere. The Gruitrode Lineament is probably not large enough to do that (or is it?). The fact that it is only present in the footwall of the FFS and abuts the NW-SE-striking faults would suggest to me that its displacement cannot be too large. Are these faults associated with substantial thickness variations of the Carboniferous strata? Or through what other process could they control mechanical strength?
2. I feel that your claim of similar strain but different mechanical strength for the two segments is somewhat contradictory. If strength or rheology somehow relates stress to strain rate, then a weaker region should deform faster and accumulate more strain, provided the stress is similar. Could we argue instead that the southern segment had fewer but weaker faults (and if so, understand why)? If there was a "speed limit" to faults in the northern segment, then more of them were needed to achieve the same strain rate.

I am aware that this amounts to an invitation to speculate, but I think that´s ok as long as it is presented as such.

Two technical things:

In Figs. 3 and 6, the right-hand side must be labeled ENE, not WNW.
l. 83 should read "...activity of synsedimentary normal faults with NW-SE to E-W strikes".

Best regards,

Jonas

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (14 Jul 2020) by Piotr Krzywiec

AR by Jef Deckers on behalf of the Authors (12 Aug 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (16 Sep 2020) by Piotr Krzywiec

RR by Christopher Jackson (26 Oct 2020)

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (05 Nov 2020) by Piotr Krzywiec

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (06 Nov 2020) by Susanne Buiter (Executive editor)

AR by Jef Deckers on behalf of the Authors (10 Nov 2020) Author's response Manuscript

Short summary

This study shows the presence of two structural domains in the western border fault system of the Roer Valley graben. These domains, dominated by NW–SE-striking faults, displayed distinctly different strain distributions during both Late Cretaceous compression and Cenozoic extension. The southern domain is characterized by narrow, localized faulting, while the northern domain is characterized by wide, distributed faulting. The non-colinear WNW–ESE Grote Brogel fault links both domains.