American and Tethyan Inventories: Cross sections of Fold-Thrust Belts

This book is a global review and collection of structural cross-sections of fold and thrust belts from around the world.

Part One American and Tethyan Fold-Thrust Belts (Beiträge zur regionalen Geologie der Erde, Band 31, 2009) of the two-book publication presents a survey of modern geology and geodynamics along convergent continental margins with observations, theories, scientific models and conclusions on tectonic style zonation.

This, Part Two is an inventory of these thick wedges of tectonic compression, along the edges of orogenic mountain belts worldwide and their shallow fringes, the fold-thrust belts. Their mobile nature has created thermodynamic conditions and structural traps for some of the world’s largest hydrocarbon accumulations, poorly understood until the pioneering integration of reflection-seismic profiles by petroleum explorers, like the author, which are rarely published. Graphic restorations are balanced to pre-tectonic state, using concepts of wedge dynamics and structural styles, together with thermal evolution of internal fluids. New production from on-shore fold-thrust belts will likely come from re-exploring earlier failed or abandoned ventures, using new and improved technology.

Evolved from field sketches, photography and remote sensing by satellite and aircraft, together with modern reflection-seismic profiles and a significant amount of drilled oil wells, this book presents data from about as many sites and cross sections, as a single geologist can possibly visit in a lifetime, can get travel funded, can understand and ultimately get published. It represents the results of an over 50 year career of an extraordinary petroleum geologist, professor and illustrator, with access to an unparalleled body of data about global fold-thrust belts.

The book is of interest to all geologists, resources engineers, technical consultants, and of course to the academic readership from all fields of the geosciences. It is recommended to readers with the two volumes together.