Dextral Movement through the Northwestern Part of the Safeen Anticline Using Fracture Analysis, Northeastern Iraq

Abstract

The north-south traverse line passes through the northwest plunge of the Safeen Anticline. Fieldwork was carried out during two periods, in which ten stations were chosen. Fractures were analyzed, which then joints and two main synchronous faults as a positive inversion listric fault (curved thrust fault) and a right-lateral strike-slip fault were found. These two faults had a significant impact on the structural model and tectonic history of the study area. Foreland listric fault was reactive positively after the deposition of the Pilaspi Formation, continuing to the Middle Miocene, which affects to rocks of the formation in the southwestern limb by increasing the dip of its layers. The strike-slip fault was approximately perpendicular to the hinge line, developed into two segments; each one behaved differently in response to the force acting on it. Dip of the beds of the Fatha Formation was much steeper on the northeastern limb than on the southwestern limb, due to the influence of the backthrust that formed during the Pliocene after the deposition of the Fatha and Injana formations. The phenomenon of variation in vergence within a single traverse of a structure is presented in the northwestern plunge of the Safeen Anticline within the folded and faulted Zagros belt.