CLASSIFICATION OF SEDIMENTARY BASINS

A sedimentary basin is a structurally controlled morpho-tectonic depression capable of

receiving and preserving sediments and having a geologic history. These are areas in the
earth’s surface where sediment accumulates to give rise a sedimentary succession.
Sedimentary basins possess the following characteristics.
a) These are localized zones of subsidence in which sediments exceeding 2 km thickness
are preserved.
b) It has a distinctive sediment fill.
c) It has a single or a multiple depositional environments,
d) Distinctive tectonic framework and basin architecture that defines the basin type.

The major control on the formation of sedimentary basins is plate tectonics and basins are
classified in relation to the plate tectonic processes that operate in any basin. Dickinson
(1974) originally provided the plate tectonic classification of sedimentary basins, which
is modified by several workers including Ingersoll (1988), Allen and Allen (1990) and
Busby and Ingersoll (1995). Before the advent of the plate tectonics basins were
considered as geosynclines. But, the geosynclinal theory failed to explain many aspects
of sedimentary basins including the causes of subsidence and its evolution. The concept
of geosynclines and the terms associated with this is now effectively substituted by the
plate tectonic terminology.
Primary aspects for basin classification and its evolution depends on a) nature of the
substratum where the basin is situated, oceanic or the continental crust, b) closeness of
the basin to a plate boundary and c) nature of the nearest plate boundary. Basins can form
in each of the plate tectonic setting, e.g. divergent, convergent, transform and hybrid
setting where the (Fig. 1, Miall).

Basins associated with divergent Settings

1.Terrestrial rift valleys: Terrestrial rift valleys are produced due to ‘active rifting’
(asthenospherically driven) or ‘passive rifting’(lithospherically driven). ‘Active rifting’
requires upwelling convective plume at the base of the lithosphere. This causes doming
and thinning of the crust from below and normal faulting. There is increased heat flow
associated with this type of rifting and creates and this results bimodal volcanism.

In passive rifting the stretching of the lithosphere produces rifts, which are structural
valleys bounded by normal faults. In such extensional setting down faulted blocks are
known as grabens and upfaulted blocks are known as horsts. The axis of the basin lies
more or less perpendicular to the direction of stress. Bounding faults may be planar or
listric and very frequently they form half grabens – the asymmetric rift basins bounded
between hanging wall dip slope and footwall scarp. Thinning of the continental crust
raises the geothermal gradient of the area by bringing hot material closer to the surface
and results into volcanic activity. Although it satisfies most of the observed properties of
the rift basins and particularly for continental margins the mechanism of extension is not
properly known.
2.Proto-Oceanic rift troughs: Continued extension in the continental crust leads to
thinning and ultimate rupturing. Basaltic magma used to rise at the axis of the rift and
oceanic crust begins to develop. Red sea is the only modern example of proto oceanic rift
trough acting as a narrow seaway in between the continental blocks.

Basins in intraplate settings

1. Continental rises and terraces:

2. Continental embankments:
3. Intracratonic basins:
4. Continental platforms:
5. Active ocean basins:
6. Oceanic islands, aseismic ridges and plateaus:
7. Dormant ocean basin:

Convergent Settings

1. Trench: These are elongate troughs upto 11km deep, formed where an oceanic
plate bends as it enters a subduction zone. These forms the deepest elongate
basins of the world and represents the surface expression of subduction
boundaries. They may be thousands of kms long, but often narrow, as little as 5
km. Trenches formed along margins flanked by continental crust tend to be filled
with sediment derived from adjacent highland. Mass flows, an especially
turbidity current brings coarse materials to the trench. Intraoceanic trenches
remain starved of sediments.
2. Trench-slope basins:

3. Fore-arc basin: Fore-arc basins occur in between the axis of the trenches, which
mark the subduction zones and the parallel magmatic arcs where volcanism is
induced by the descent of oceanic crust into the underlying mantle. The width of
the fore-arc basin depends on the arc-trench gap, which is in turn dependent on
the angle of subduction. The basin may be underlain by oceanic crust or a
continental margin. The main source of sediments are from magmatic arcs.
4. Intra-arc basin: These are basins located within or including the magmatic arc
platform where thick accumulations of volcano-sedimentary deposits. Intra- arc
basins are associated with both intraoceanic and continental margin arcs.
5. Back-arc basin: are defined as a) Continental basins behind continental-margin
arcs that lack foreland fold thrust belts, b) Oceanic basins behind intraoceanic
magmatic arcs.
6. Retro-arc foreland basin: Foreland basin is a plate tectonic term used to describe
a basin in between an orogenic belt and a craton. Dickinson (1974) used the term
to describe the foreland basins formed behind compressional arcs, in contrast to
peripheral foreland basins formed on subducting plates during continental
collision. Thus, although the ‘back-arc basin’ and ‘retro-arc basin’ becomes same
in literary sense, the former is associated with the extensional and neutral arc
trench system and the latter is used for compressional arc-trench system. The
 overriding continental plate shortens by the development of mountain belts.
Thickening of the crust results in the upward and outward movement of masses of
rocks along thrust sheets and as nappes. Loading of the lithosphere by the thrust
sheets cause it to bend. Main source of detrituts in the basin are the mountain
belts and the volcanic arc.
7. Remnant ocean basin:
8. peripheral foreland basins
9. piggy back basin:
10. Foreland intermontanne basin

Transform and Transcurrent-Fault Settings

1. Transtensional basins: These are basins formed by extension along strike-slip

fault systems. Thermally driven subsidence is minor in these basins
2. Transpressional basins: These basins are formed by compression along strike-slip
fault systems. Thermally driven subsidence is lacking totally in these basins.
3. Transrotational basins: These basins are formed by rotation of the crustal blocks
along vertical axes within strike-slip fault system.

Hybrid settings:

1. Intra continental wrench basins:

2. Aulacogens:
3. Impactogens:
4. Successor basin:

Description of Basins

1. Basins related to the crustal extension

Horizontal stresses associated with plate movements create extension along lines of
weakness in the lithosphere. These lines may lie within continental crust and may extend
into oceanic crust where they are zones of formation of new crust at spreading centers.
They terminate at triple junctions where three zones of extension meet. The triple
junction is normally associated with a “hot spot”, an area of increased heat flow in the
crust generated by thermal plumes in the mantle. This association suggests that there may
be a relationship between the formation of extensional plate boundaries and the location
of hot mantle plumes.

1.1 Rift basins

In regions of extension continental crust features to produce rifts which are structural
valleys bounded by extensional (normal) faults. In extensional regimes the down faulted
blocks are referred to as graben and the up faulted areas are as horsts. The bounding
faults may be planner or listric and they form asymmetric valleys referred to as half
graben, which are basins deeper on one side than on the other. The axis of the rift lies
more or less perpendicular to the direction of stress. The structural weakness in the crust
may allow magmas to rise from deeper levels and volcanic activity is commonly
associated with rifting of continental crust. Thinning of the continental crust raises the
geothermal gradient in the area by bringing hot mantle closer to the surface.
Sediments shed from the adjacent uplifted areas is deposited in terrestrial rift valleys by
aeolian, fluvial, alluvial and lacustrine processes.

EXAMPLE OF A RIFT BASIN:

The Gulf of Suez in Egypt is the north-western arm of the Red Sea. It is a rift basin which
started to form in mid tertiary times due to extension between the Arabian plate and north
Africa.

1.2 Intracratonic basins

After the cessation of rifting within the continental crust there is a change in the thermal
regime in the area. When continental crust is extended it is thinned and this brings hotter
mantle material closer to the surface. Rifts are therefore areas of high heat flow, a high
geothermal gradient. When rifting stops the geothermal gradient is reduced and the crust
in the region of the rift starts to cool and thicken. Cold rock is denser than hot rock so as
the continental crust cools it contracts and sinks, resulting in thermal subsidence. The
area around the rift, which had formerly been heated, develops into a broad area of
subsidence within the continental block (craton) and becomes an intracratonic basin.
Although the precursor rift can be recognized under most intracratonic basins, others
appear to lack evidence for the rift stage and their origin is more enigmatic.
Intracratonic basins are typically broad but not very deep and the rate of subsidence due
to the cooling of the lithosphere is slow. Fluvial and lacustrine sediments are commonly
encountered in these basins although flooding from an adjacent ocean may result in a
broad epicontinental sea. Intracratonic basins in wholly continental settings are very
sensitive to climate fluctuations as increased temperatures may raise rates of evaporation
in lakes and reduce the water level over a wide area.

EXAMPLE OF AN INTRACRATONIC BASIN:

The Chad basin in west central Africa is a basin of internal drainage with a central lake,
Lake Chad, fed by rivers around the rim of the basin. The basin lies adjacent to the Benue
trough, which is formed as the 'third arm ' of a triple rift system as part of the spreading
of the South Atlantic this arm stopped widening whilst the other two arms of the rift went
on to become the margins of the South Atlantic.
1.3 Aulacogen basins:

Narrow continental rifts which do not evolve into spreading ridge oceanic basins.
e.g North Sea basins, Europe; Gippsland Basin, Bass Basin.
These are dominated by initial alluvial fan, fluvial, lake facies; up to 4 km thick.
Provenance:
Continental, mixed
Plutonic, meta-sedimentary, met-volcanic, contemporaneous volcanic ±
Marine carbonates

1.4 Proto oceanic troughs:

Continued extension within the continental crust leads to thinning and eventual complete
rupture. Basaltic magmas rise to the surface in the axis of the rift and start to form new
oceanic crust. Where there is a thin strip of basaltic crust in between two halves of a rift
system the basin is called a proto-ceanic trough.
Sediment supply to this basin comes from the flanks of the which will still be relatively
uplifted. Rivers will feed sediment to shelf areas and out into deeper water in the axis of
the trough as turbidity currents.

EXAMPLE OF A PROTO-OCEANIC TROUGH:

The Red sea is the only modern example of a basin in the stage of transition from a rift
basin to an ocean basin. The southern end of the sea lies at a triple junction with the Gulf
of Aden, a small basin, and the East African rift system, a continental rift.

1.5 Passive margins:

Passive margins are the regions of continental crust along the edges of ocean basins. The
term passive is used in the sense as the opposite to the active margins between oceans and
continents where oceanic crust is being subducted. The continental crust is commonly
thinned in this region and there may be a zone of transitional crust before fully oceanic
crust of the ocean basin is encountered. Transitional crust forms by basaltic magmas
injecting into continental crust in a diffuse zone as a proto-oceanic trough develops.
Subsidence of the passive margin is due mainly to continued cooling of the lithosphere as
the heat source of the spreading center becomes further away, augmented by the load of
the crust due to the pile of the sediment which accumulates.

Morphologically the passive margin is the continental shelf and slope. The source of the
clastic sediment is from the adjacent continental land mass. Rates of erosion and transport
in the land area affect the thickness and distribution of clastic deposits on the passive
margin.
EXAMPLE OF A PASSIVE MARGIN:

The eastern seaboard of North America is the passive margin of the continental crust of
the North American continent and the western half of the Atlantic Ocean. Rifting started
to separate the continent from Europe and Africa in the Triassic but sea floor spreading
did not commence until the Jurassic. The North Atlantic has continued to open since that
time.

1.6 Ocean basin:

Basaltic crust formed at mid oceanic ridges is hot and relatively buoyant. As the basin
grows in size by new magmas created along the spreading ridges, older crust moves away
from the hot mid oceanic ridge. Cooling of the crust increases its density and decreases
relative buoyancy, so as crust moves away from the ridges it sinks. Mid ocean ridges are
typically at depths of around 2500 m. The depth of the ocean basin increases away from
the ridges to 4000-5000 m where the basaltic crust is old and cool.

The ocean floor is not a flat surface. Spreading ridges tend to be irregular offset by
transform faults, which create some areas of local topography. Isolated volcanoes and
linear chains of volcanic activity such as the Hawaiian island form submerged seamounts
or exposed islands. In addition to this reefs may be found in this environment owing to
the shallow marine condition.

EXAMPLE OF AN OCEAN BASIN:

The stratigraphy of an ocean basin will not be preserved as a succession of rocks on land
as an intact unit. Oceanic crust is denser than continental crust and at most convergent
plate boundaries the ocean basin sediments are either subducted or are deformed as they
are incorporated into an accretionary prism. It is only in situations where obduction
occurs that relatively undeformed parts of the ocean basin succession are found exposed
on the continents.

1.7 Obducted slabs:

Most oceanic crust is subducted at destructive plate margins but there are circumstances
under which slabs of oceanic crust are obducted up on the over-riding plate to lie on top
of continental or other oceanic crust. Outcrops of oceanic crusts preserved in these
situations are known as ophiolites.

Three of the best-known ophiolites are in Newfoundland. Cyprus and Oman.

2. Basins related to subduction:

At convergent plate margins involving oceanic lithosphere subduction occur. The down
going ocean plate descends into the mantle beneath the over-riding plate which may be
either another piece of oceanic lithosphere or a continental margin. As the down going
slab bends to enter the subduction zone a trough is created at the contact between the two
plates: this is the ocean trench. The descending slab is heated as it goes down and
partially melts. The magmas generated rise to the surface through the over-riding plate to
create a line of volcanoes, a volcanic arc. The magmas start to form when the down going
slab reaches 90-150 km depth.
Arc trench systems are regions of plate convergence yet there may be local extension as
well as compression in the upper plate. The relative rates of plate convergence and
subduction are the governing factor. If convergence is faster than subduction some of the
shortening is taken up in the over-riding plate to form a retro arc foreland basin. If
convergence is slower than subduction at the trench the upper plate is in net extension
and an extensional back arc basin forms. A balance between these two results in neither
compression nor extension but a neutral arc-trench system.

2.1 Trenches:

Ocean trenches are elongate, gently curving troughs which form where an oceanic plate
bends as it enters the subduction zone. The inner margin of the trench is formed by the
leading edges of the over-riding plate in the arc trench system. Trenches formed along
margins flanked by continental crust tend to be filled with sediment derived from the
adjacent land areas. Intra-oceanic trenches are often starved of sediment because the only
source of material apart from pelagic deposits is the islands of the volcanic arc. Transport
of coarse material into trenches is by mass flows, especially turbidity currents that may
flow for long distances along the axis of the trenches.

EXAMPLE OF A TRENCH BASIN:

The Chilie Trench off the western coast of South America is the southern part of the
Peru-Chile trench system, where Pacific Ocean is being subducted beneath the
continental crust of South America.

2.2 Accretionary complexes:

The sedimentary pile accumulated on the ocean crust and in the trench is not necessarily
subducted along with the crust at a destructive plate boundary. The pile of sediments may
be wholly or partly scraped off the down going plate and accrete on the leading edge of
the over-riding plate to form an accretionary complex or accretionary prism. These
prisms or wedges of oceanic and trench sediments are best developed where there are
thick successsions of sediment in the trench. A subducting plate can be thought of as a
conveyor belt bringing ocean basin deposits mainly pelagic sediments and turbidite to the
edge of the over-riding plate. In some places this sediment is carried down to the
subduction zone, but in others it is sliced off as a package of strata, which is then accreted
on to the over-riding plate.

2.3 Forearc basins:

The width of a fore arc basin will depend on the arc trench gap, which is in turn
determined by the angle of subduction. Its inner margin is the age of the volcanic arc and
the outer limit the accretionary complex formed on the leading edge of the upper plate.
Either the oceanic crust or a continental margin may underlie the basin. Subsidence in the
forearc region is due only to the load from the sediment pile. The main source of
sediment is the region from the volcanic arc and if the arc lies in the continental crust, the
hinterland of continental rocks.

EXAMPLE OF A FOREARC BASIN:

The Indian Ocean subducts along a trench, which lies offshore of the island of Sumatra.
The subduction zone is a part of a more extensive system, which stretches from the Bay
of Bengal. A chain of volcanoes along the mountaneous axis of Sumatra marks the
volcanic arc related to the subduction.

2.4 Backarc basin:

When the upper plate in an arc trench system is under extension, it rifts in the region of
the volcanic arc where the crust is hotter and weaker. Initially the arc itself rifts and splits
into two parts, an active arc with continued volcanism closer to the subduction zone and a
remnant arc. As extension between the remnant and the active arcs continues, a new
spreading center is formed to generate basaltic crust between the two. The region of
extension and crustal formation is the back arc basin. Once a new backarc basin is formed
the older one is abandoned.

The principal source of sediment in a back arc basin formed in an oceanic plate will be
the active volcanic arc. Once the remnant arc is eroded down to the sea level it
contributes little further detritus.

EXAMPLE OF A BACKARC BASIN:

Most of the active intra-oceanic back arc basins lie in the western pacific. Okinawa
Trough north west of Taiwan, is back-arc basin behind the active, westly-dipping Ryukyu
subduction zone.
The Andaman Sea lies over an active back-arc ridge-transform spreading system that
accommodates the highly oblique convergence of the Indian ocean against Burma.
2.5 Retroarc foreland basins:

In compressional convergence regimes the over riding continental plate shortens by the
development of a mountain belt magmas from the subduction zone also add material to
the upper plate in an arc along the mountain belt. Thickening of the crust results in the
upward and outward movement of the masses of rock along thrusts and as nappes. As
these thrust slices move on to the continent on the opposite side of the arc to the trench,
they add a load on to it by increasing the mass of material on the lithosphere. Loading of
the lithosphere causes it to bend and it is as a result of this flexure that a basin forms.
These basins are called retro arc because of their position behind the arc and foreland
because the mechanism of formation is by flexure of the leading edge of the continent in
a similar way to peripheral foreland basins.

EXAMPLE OF A RETROARC FORELAND BASIN:

The eastern Andean basins are present day examples of basins formed by convergence
between the eastern Pacific oceanic plates and the South American continent.

3. Collision margin basins:

When an ocean basin completely closes with the total elimination of oceanic crust by
subduction, the two continental margins eventually converge. Where two continental
plates converge subduction does not occur because the thick, low-density continental
lithosphere is too buoyant to be subducted. Collision of plates involves a thickening of
the lithosphere and the creation of the orogenic belt. The two continental margins that
collide are likely to be thinned, passive margins as the crust thickens it undergoes
deformation and metamorphism in the lower part of the crust and faulting and folding at
shallower levels in the mountain belt. Thrust faults form a thrust belt along the edges of
the mountain chain within which material is moved outwards; away form the center of
the orogenic belt.

3.1 Peripheral foreland basins:

The thrust belt moves material out on to the foreland crust either side of the orogenic belt.
Under this load the crust flexes to form a peripheral foreland basin. The width of the
basin will depend on the amount of load and the flexural rigidity of the foreland
lithosphere- the ease with which it bends when a load is added to one end.

In the initial stage of foreland basin formation the collision will have only proceeded to
the extent of thickening the crust (which was formerly thinned at a passive margin) up to
normal crustal thickness. Although this results in a load on the foreland and lithospheric
the orogenic belt itself will not be high above sea level at this stage and little detritus will
be supplied by erosion of the orogenic belt. Early foreland basin sediments will therefore
occur in a deep-water basin with the rate of subsidence exceeding the rate of supply.
Turbidities are typical of this stage. When the orogenic belt is more mature and has built
up a mountain chain there is an increase in the rate of sediment supply to the foreland
basin. Although the load on the foreland will have increased, the sediment supply
normally exceeds the rate of flexural subsidence.

Foreland basin stratigraphy is often complicated by the deformation of the earlier basin
deposits by later thrusting. These thrusts may subdivide the basin into piggyback basins
which lie on top of the thrust sheets and which are separated from the foredeep the basin
in front of all the thrusts.

EXAMPLE OF A PERIPHERAL FORELAND BASIN:

The Apennines is a mountain chain along the axis of Italy, which is part of the Alpine
orogenic. To the northeast lies the Adriatic Sea, which is the foreland area to the
northeast, directed thrust movement of the Apennines belt.

4. Basins Related To Strike-slip Plate Boundaries:

If a plate boundary is a straight line and the relative plate motion purely parallel to that
line there would be neither uplift nor basin formation along strike-slip plate boundaries.
However, such plate boundaries are not straight, the motion is not purely parallel and
they consist not only a single fault strand but of a network of branching and overlapping
individual faults. Zones of localized subsidence and uplift create topographic depressions
for sediment to accumulate and the source areas to supply them.

4.1 Strike-slip basins:

Most basins in strike-slip belts are generally termed Tran-tensional basins and are formed
by a number of mechanisms. The overlap of faults can create regions of extension
between them known as pull apart basins. Such basins are typically rectangular or
rhombic in plan with widths and lengths of only a few kilometers. They are unusually
deep, especially compared to rift basins. Where there is a branching of faults a zone of
extension exists between the two branches forming a basin. The curvature of a single
fault results in bends, which are either restraining (locally compressive) or releasing
(locally extensional): releasing bends from elliptical zones of subsidence and small
basins. Basins may also form adjacent to fault terminations.

The exact mechanism of formation of basins in strike-slip belts is variable but there are a
number of common characteristics (Reading 1980; Nilsen & Sylvester 1995). They are
relatively small, usually in the range of a hundred to a thousand square kilometers, and
often contain thicker successions than basins of similar size formed by other mechanisms.
Subsidence is usually rapid and several kilometers of strata can accumulate in a few
million years. Typically the margins are sites of deposition of coarse facies (alluvial fans
and fan deltas) and these pass laterally over very short distances to lacustrine sediments
in continental settings or marine deposits. In the stratigraphic record, facies are very
varied and show lateral facies changes over short distances.

EXAMPLE OF A STRIKE SLIP BASIN:

A left lateral strike slip fault system runs approximately N-S up the valley of the River
Jordan from the head of the Gulf of Aqaba. This is a plate margin, which separates the
small Palestine block on the west side from the Arabian plate to the east.

Causes of Basin Formation

Basin analysis involves study of how and when basins form, how they change and evolve
with time, how they are filled with sediments and how they are eventually destroyed.
Basically, subsidence creates space below base level, and thus where lithosphere
subsides. Available sediment fills the newly available space.
Due to the variable interaction of subsidence and sedimentation (i.e. basin fill) stratal
pattern of basin fill will also change, reflecting the variation. Sedimentary strata
axiomatially reflect the interaction of the subsidence and sedimentation rates. Sediment
loading of an already subsiding lithosphere will tend to enhance subsidence. Sediment
loading alone cannot initiate and create lithospheric subsidence; it can only enhance
tectonically created lithospheric subsidence. In addition, compaction of sedimentary
strata by overlying beds can lead to faster subsidence or the sediment-fill surface. Sea-
level changes will modulate the interaction of subsidence and sedimentation. Certain end
members of this continuum are outlined below: -
i) Rapid subsidence combined with large sediment supply leads to thick total
succession, rapid and deep burial of sediments. The source of high elevation
is inferred and sedimentary rocks would be immature due to fast
sedimentation and rapid burial (i.e. arkoses). These are called as STUFFED
BASINS.
ii) Rapid subsidence combined with reduced sediment supply. The basin floor
sinks to greater and greater depths leading to a succession dominated by deep-
water sediments, which reflects increasing depths of deposition over time.
These are called as STARVED BASINS.
iii) Sediment supply rapid and subsidence rate is slow. Basin will become filled
by sediments. The sedimentation pattern is sub aqueous, basin-fill successions
being followed by regressive shoreline deposits, to be followed by continental
deposits. Once the basin becomes filled it ceases to exit.
iv) Slow subsidence rate and small supply of sediments. In such a situation
shallow marine conditions may persist for a long time. There is extensive
reworking of sediments. This leads to very mature preserved lithologies
within the basin-fill succession.

Causal factors of subsidence

1. Thining (or thickening) of the lithosphere due to horizontal extension (or
compression).
2. Upwelling of mantle material in response to crustal thinning.
3. Increase (or decrease) in lithosphere density, due to-
- Cooling (or heating)
- Pervasive dike intrusion or other injections of magma.
4. Isostatic subsidence (or uplift) in response to sediment loading.
5. Flexural loading.