The interplay between eustacy, tectonics and surface processes during the growth of a fault-related structure as derived from sequence stratigraphy: The Govora – Ocnele Mari antiform, South Carpathians

Orogenic collision represents a moment when typical rules of thin-skinned development are at odds with the generalized interaction between the upper and buoyant lower plate. Deriving the kinematics of these collisional features is usually difficult because of the large amounts of subsequent erosion. Study areas such as those that exist along the South Carpathians foredeep, where the syn- and post-collisional sediments are still preserved, are important places to identify, record and quantify out-of-sequence deformation. Here, sequence stratigraphic techniques may be used in order to detect tectonic movements which are an order of magnitude higher resolution than those routinely identified by either standard structural analysis or isotope geochronology. This study proves that what has been previously interpreted as a one stage growing anticline situated at the contact with the core of the orogen is, in fact, a gradually evolving antiform structure with at least four quantifiable pulses of vertical movements associated with various amounts of orogenic uplift. During collision, the interplay between the orogenic core and the anticline uplift controls the depositional area, the effects of sea-level variations being subordinated. Transversal shear zones, such as strike-slip faults, are used as transport corridors by the progressive infill of large quantities of sediments from the source area towards the larger basins situated more to the foreland. © 2009 Elsevier B.V.