Evidence for Phanerozoic Reactivation of the Najd Fault System in AVHRR, TM, and SPOT Images of Central Arabia
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Evidence for Phanerozoic Reactivation of the Najd Fault System in AVHRR, TM, and SPOT Images of Central Arabia Constance G. Andre Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560 ABSTRACT: SPOT stereoscopic and TM multispectral images support evidence in AVHRR thermal-IR images of a major unmapped shear zone in Phanerozoic cover rocks southeast of the ancient Najd Fault System in the Arabian Shield. This shear zone and faults of the Najd share a common alignment, orientation, and sinistral sense of movement. These similarities suggest a 200-km extension of the Najd Fault System and reactivation since it formed in the late Precambrian. Topographic and lithologic features in the TM and SPOT data along one of three faults inferred from the AVHRR data indicate sinistral offsets up to 2.5 km, en echelon folds and secondary faults like those predicted by models of left-lateral strike-slip faulting. The age of the affected outcrops indicates reactivation of Najd faults in the Cretaceous, judging from TM and SPOT data or in the Tertiary, based on AVHRR data. The total length of the system visible at the surface measures 1300 km. If the Najd Fault System is extrapolated beneath sands of the Empty Quarter to faults of a similar trend in South Yemen, the shear zone would span the Arabian Plate. Furthermore, if extensions into the Arabian Sea bed and into Egypt proposed by others are considered, it would exceed 3,000 km. 50' INTRODUCTION 36' NE APPROACH to studying transcurrent faults in inacces 30' O sible areas has three phases: (1) get an integrated view of the whole system from AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) thermal-IR space images with low spatial resolu tion; (2) use high-resolution TM multispectral and SPOT stereo scopic space images to refine the location and extent and determine the timing, sense of motion, and offset; and (3) select critical locations for field work to test the hypotheses evolving from Phases 1 and 2. 22' This paper is a report of Phase 2 of a study to test the hy pothesis of Andre and Blodget (1984) that an unmapped shear zone in the Arabian platform is an extension of the Precambrian Najd Fault System and was reactivated since the Paleozoic. The Arabian Peninsula is a small plate bounded by the Ara bian Sea and Gulf of Aden on the south; the Red Sea spreading ",.- center, Gulf of Aqaba, and Dead Sea rift zone on the west; the 14' Zagros thrust zone on the north and northeast; and the Oman I 500km I obduction zone on the southeast. The net effect of the stresses is counterclockwise rotation away from Africa (Quennell, 1958). The plate is estimated to have been displaced 105 km to the north along the Dead Sea Fault: 60 km before the Miocene and FIG. 1. Structural provinces of the Arabian Plate simplified from Powers 45 km since then, a rate of 0.4 to 0.6 cm per year during the et a/. (1966). A, Arabian Shield; B, Interior Homocline and Hadramawt last 7 to 10 million years ( Freund et aI., 1970). The most active Plateau; C, Interior Platform; D, Rub al Khali Basin; E, Oman Mountains; spreading in the Red Sea is in the south at a rate of about 1 cm F, Zagros Mountains; general outline of the Najd Fault System between per year for the last four or five million years (Gettings et aI., dashed lines. 1986). The core of the Plate, the Arabian Shield, is exposed from the Red Sea coast to more than 500 km inland (A on Figure 1). The Shield is marked by subparallel and braided faults with orien AI-Shanti, 1979). But, some Tertiary reactivation has been noted tations of N45°W to N55°W that comprise the Najd Fault System (Moore, 1979). (Figure 2). The fault system is a complex set of left-lateral strike The Shield is progressively overlain to the east by Permian, slip faults and ductile shear zones that form a band 400 km Mesozoic, and Cenozoic limestones and sandstones that dip wide with an exposed length of 1100 km (Moore and Al Shanti, eastward at less than 3 degrees (Powers et aI., 1966). These 1979). Local left-lateral displacements of 2 to 25 km have been sedimentary formations have a cumulative thickness of more mapped along the main fault (Brown, 1972). The cumulative than 2000 m and are well exposed along numerous west-facing displacement has offset the northern part of the craton 250 km erosional scarps (cuestas) of the Interior Homocline (B on Figure to the northwest (Stoesser and Camp, 1985). Most of the dis 1). These cuestas strike approximately north and extend for placements along faults of the Najd occurred between 620 and hundreds of kilometres. It has long been suspected that faults 540 Ma (Stern, 1985) on four or five main strands (Moore and of the Najd extend beyond the southeast termination of the exposed Shield into Phanerozoic cover. Fault extensions have PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING AND REMOTE SENSING, 0099-1112/89/5508-1129$02.25/0 Vol. 55, No.8, August 1989, pp. 1129-1136 ©1989 American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 1130 PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING, 1989 LEGEND _36' 42' 48' lOOOkm the Crystalline Shield southeast of the exposed Shield, based Phanerozoic cover on drill records, show discontinuities that coincide with Najd volcanic and sedimentary Upper Proterozoic sediments fault extensions plotted from Gemini and Apollo photographs and volcanics (Jibalah Group) (Brown, 1972). It will be shown that in AVHRR, TM, and SPOT Proterozoic Shield data, there is surface evidence of faulting to a distance of 200 Master fault 'strands' krn into the Phanerozoic cover. 200km In Phase 1 of this study, AVHRR thermal-IR images indicated several subparallel unmapped faults that extend the trend of the Najd zone into the sedimentary cover (Andre and Blodget, 1984; Andre, 1987). They found that a color image (covering the southeast quadrant of Figure 2) combining three thermal-IR bands from day and night data shows the Najd faults in the Shield as "cool" at night, perhaps due to evaporative cooling along fault breccia seams. Pairs of day/night thermal-IR images were used to accentuate differences in physical properties of surface ma terial, e.g., density, porosity, moisture content, fragment size, or thermal conductivity. The three thermal bands were used to separate different sedimentary rock types, thus allowing map ping of lithologic contacts and their displacements. The exten sion of the master Najd fault, tentatively mapped by Brown (1972) and Moore (1979), can be traced for 200 krn (an additional 75 krn) into the interior homocline. It crosses eight north northeast-striking cuestas at nearly right angles (Figure 3a). The cuestas have uppermost strata that range in age from Triassic to Tertiary (Figures 3a, b, and c). Andre and Blodget (1984) suggested that Tertiary reactivation of Najd faults in the base ment beneath the cover was related to tectonic activity associ ated with formation of the Red Sea. The TM and SPOT images used in this study cover one of three unmapped faults inter FIG. 2. Index map of the Najd fault system of the Arabian Peninsula before preted from low-resolution AVHRR data (Andre and Blodget, the Red Sea opened, and map of the main faults in this zone in the Shield 1984). The approximate trace of this fault zone from AVHRR data (Moore, 1983). The AVHRR thermal-IR image of the southeast quadrant of the map showed faults in the Shield and three main extensions into Pha is shown on a simplified geologic map (Figure 3a) of the area nerozoic sedimentary cover east of the Shield. SPOT stereoscopic data outlined in Figure 3c. and TM multispectral data have been used to study one of these exten DATA SOURCES sions within the area marked Figure 3. It is parallel to and south of the one seen in the northwest corner of this square. The combination of TM multispectral and SPOT stereoscopic images is particularly valuable for mapping lithologic and top ographiC offsets of faults in areas that are difficult to access, like been tentatively mapped on tectonic maps of Brown (1972) and the central Arabian Peninsula. Each instrument provides some Moore (1979). thing unique: TM bands 1, 5, 7, and 6 measure the response in To the east of the homocline, these formations form the Rub visible, near-IR, and thermal-IR wavelengths. The SPOT instru al Khali Basin (0 on Figure 1) that contains extensive sands and ment has the highest spatial resolution of the three, 10 m in the gravels of the Empty Quarter, where the crystalline basement panchromatic mode, and stereoscopic coverage (Table 1). The is estimated to lie more han 9000 m below sea level (Brown, TM and SPOT subscenes (Figure 3) cover a large segment of the 1972). This deep basin has been subsiding since the Tertiary as fault inferred from AVHRR thermal-IR data. They are outlined the basement has buckled in response to collision of the Arabian and numbered on a simplified geologic map of the area (Figure and Eurasian Plates (Powers et aI., 1966). 3a) that also shows a cross-section of the cuestas (Figure 3b) intersected by the inferred fault at an angle of 65° to 85°. The PREVIOUS STUDIES arid environment, sparse vegetation, and broad outcrops of Permian through Tertiary strata are optimum conditions for use Moore (1979) compared aeromagnetic maps of the Shield to of these data. early satellite images and aerial photos of the Najd Transcurrent Fault System and concluded that it is broader and the structures INTERPRETIVE FRAMEWORK: STRIKE-SLIP FAULT more continuous at depth than indicated by faults at the sur GEOMETRY face.