Inversion tectonics – 30 years later
Inversion tectonics – 30 years later
Editor(s): Piotr Krzywiec, Jonas Kley, and Susanne Buiter
This special issue looks at inversion tectonics 3 decades after a late 1980s peak in interest that is documented, for instance, by a 1987 Tectonophysics special issue and a 1989 Geol. Soc. London book that soon became classics. Today inversion tectonics is well established as a basic concept, but by far not all aspects of it are well understood. Even the enormous variety of associated structures has probably not been exhaustively described and explained. The kinematics of inversion structures is particularly complex, and their mechanics a matter of debate. The special issue is meant to illustrate the advances made over the past 30 years but also to point out open questions. It has its roots in a session on inversion tectonics at the 2019 EGU General Assembly. Announced contributions already cover many aspects including the importance of inversion concepts in petroleum exploration, the role of plate-wide stress changes and plate rigidity, improved kinematic and timing constraints for well-studied examples, inversion interfering with regional uplift, and inversion of salt-bearing basins. Case studies, often based on high-resolution seismic data, cover diverse areas from Australia to Scandinavia and inversion events from the Paleoproterozoic to the Paleogene. We invite additional contributions dealing with all aspects of inversion tectonics from architecture over kinematics to dynamics and from field- or seismics-based case studies to analogue and numerical simulations, also including responses of depositional systems to active inversion tectonics. The focus will be on "positive inversion", i.e. a change from normal faulting to thrusting or transpression. However, papers on other cases of fault reactivation would also fit our envisaged frame. We particularly welcome new hypotheses challenging common wisdom!

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04 Aug 2022
Late Cretaceous–early Palaeogene inversion-related tectonic structures at the northeastern margin of the Bohemian Massif (southwestern Poland and northern Czechia)
Andrzej Głuszyński and Paweł Aleksandrowski
Solid Earth, 13, 1219–1242, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-13-1219-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-13-1219-2022, 2022
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21 Mar 2022
Deep vs. shallow – two contrasting theories? A tectonically activated Late Cretaceous deltaic system in the axial part of the Mid-Polish Trough: a case study from southeast Poland
Zbyszek Remin, Michał Cyglicki, and Mariusz Niechwedowicz
Solid Earth, 13, 681–703, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-13-681-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-13-681-2022, 2022
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18 Mar 2022
Together but separate: decoupled Variscan (late Carboniferous) and Alpine (Late Cretaceous–Paleogene) inversion tectonics in NW Poland
Piotr Krzywiec, Mateusz Kufrasa, Paweł Poprawa, Stanisław Mazur, Małgorzata Koperska, and Piotr Ślemp
Solid Earth, 13, 639–658, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-13-639-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-13-639-2022, 2022
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27 Oct 2021
| Highlight paper
The Subhercynian Basin: an example of an intraplate foreland basin due to a broken plate
David Hindle and Jonas Kley
Solid Earth, 12, 2425–2438, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-2425-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-2425-2021, 2021
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04 Aug 2021
Thick- and thin-skinned basin inversion in the Danish Central Graben, North Sea – the role of deep evaporites and basement kinematics
Torsten Hundebøl Hansen, Ole Rønø Clausen, and Katrine Juul Andresen
Solid Earth, 12, 1719–1747, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-1719-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-1719-2021, 2021
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29 Jun 2021
Dawn and dusk of Late Cretaceous basin inversion in central Europe
Thomas Voigt, Jonas Kley, and Silke Voigt
Solid Earth, 12, 1443–1471, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-1443-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-1443-2021, 2021
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30 Apr 2021
Emplacement of “exotic” Zechstein slivers along the inverted Sontra Graben (northern Hessen, Germany): clues from balanced cross sections and geometrical forward modeling
Jakob Bolz and Jonas Kley
Solid Earth, 12, 1005–1024, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-1005-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-1005-2021, 2021
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23 Apr 2021
Late Cretaceous to Paleogene exhumation in central Europe – localized inversion vs. large-scale domal uplift
Hilmar von Eynatten, Jonas Kley, István Dunkl, Veit-Enno Hoffmann, and Annemarie Simon
Solid Earth, 12, 935–958, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-935-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-935-2021, 2021
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
Solid Earth, 12, 345–361, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-345-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-345-2021, 2021
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14 Jan 2021
Hydrocarbon accumulation in basins with multiple phases of extension and inversion: examples from the Western Desert (Egypt) and the western Black Sea
William Bosworth and Gábor Tari
Solid Earth, 12, 59–77, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-59-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-59-2021, 2021
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14 Dec 2020
Birth and closure of the Kallipetra Basin: Late Cretaceous reworking of the Jurassic Pelagonian–Axios/Vardar contact (northern Greece)
Lydia R. Bailey, Filippo L. Schenker, Maria Giuditta Fellin, Miriam Cobianchi, Thierry Adatte, and Vincenzo Picotti
Solid Earth, 11, 2463–2485, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-11-2463-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-11-2463-2020, 2020
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21 Oct 2020
Inversion tectonics: a brief petroleum industry perspective
Gábor Tari, Didier Arbouille, Zsolt Schléder, and Tamás Tóth
Solid Earth, 11, 1865–1889, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-11-1865-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-11-1865-2020, 2020
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11 Aug 2020
Pre-inversion normal fault geometry controls inversion style and magnitude, Farsund Basin, offshore southern Norway
Thomas B. Phillips, Christopher A.-L. Jackson, and James R. Norcliffe
Solid Earth, 11, 1489–1510, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-11-1489-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-11-1489-2020, 2020
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07 Jul 2020
Basin inversion and structural architecture as constraints on fluid flow and Pb–Zn mineralization in the Paleo–Mesoproterozoic sedimentary sequences of northern Australia
George M. Gibson and Sally Edwards
Solid Earth, 11, 1205–1226, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-11-1205-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-11-1205-2020, 2020
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06 Jul 2020
Extension and inversion of salt-bearing rift systems
Tim P. Dooley and Michael R. Hudec
Solid Earth, 11, 1187–1204, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-11-1187-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-11-1187-2020, 2020
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