First Break - Volume 8, Issue 1, 1990

In an important series of papers produced by geoscientists from British Coal and Liverpool University, it has been shown that the displacements on fault surfaces vary in a systematic and predictable manner and these variations can be mapped as displacement contour diagrams for any chosen component of the displacement vector (Rippon 1985, Barnett et al. 1987, Walsh and Watterson 1989). Furthermore, Barnett et al. (1987) have shown that the vertical component of displacement, measured in two-way time from seismic sections, when plotted on to a vertical fault projection can impose additional constraints on seismic interpretations.

Present day observations in sedimentary basins of structural, geochemical, thermal and other geological and geophysical data reflect, in a complicated way, the history of basin evolution. Unravelling this history is a multidisciplinary task involving several earth science disciplines. In this article we consider the use of geodynamic and basin modelling in the study of various aspects of sedimentary basins formed by extension. Special emphasis is given to the