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Science 21 December 1990:
Vol. 250. no. 4988, pp. 1702 - 1705
DOI: 10.1126/science.250.4988.1702
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Articles

Kinematics of Late Paleozoic Continental Collision Between Laurentia and Gondwana

Paul E. Sacks 1 and Donald T. Secor Jr. 1

1 Department of Geological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208

In the Appalachians, late Paleozoic Alleghanian orogenesis is widely regarded as resulting from dextral oblique collision between irregular margins of Gondwana and Laurentia. However, this relative plate motion cannot account for coeval convergence in the Ouachitas and Variscides and is incompatible with some tectonic transport indicators in the Appalachians. An alternative kinematic model is proposed in which early sinistral transpression in the Appalachians is followed by counterclockwise rotation of Gondwana and the development of a system of dextral strike-slip faults extending from southern Europe to Alabama.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Linking late Paleozoic sedimentary provenance in the Appalachian Basin to the history of Alleghanian deformation.
T. P. Becker, T. P. Becker, W. A. Thomas, and G. E. Gehrels (2006)
Am J Sci 306, 777-798
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Anatomy and evolution of a pull-apart basin, Stellarton, Nova Scotia.
J. W.F. Waldron (2004)
GSA Bulletin 116, 109-127
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Alleghanian deformation in the eastern Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec, Canada.
P. Jutras, G. Prichonnet, and S. McCutcheon (2003)
GSA Bulletin 115, 1538-1551
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)