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Defining the structural style of fold–thrust belts and understanding the controlling factors are necessary steps towards prediction of their long-term and short-term dynamics, including seismic hazard, and to assess their potential in terms of hydrocarbon exploration. While the thin-skinned structural style has long been a fashionable view for outer parts of orogens worldwide, a wealth of new geological and geophysical studies has pointed out that a description in terms of thick-skinned deformation is, in many cases, more appropriate. This paper aims at providing a review of what we know about basement-involved shortening in foreland fold–thrust belts on the basis of the examination of selected Cenozoic orogens. After describing how structural interpretations of fold–thrust belts have evolved through time, this paper addresses how and the extent to which basement tectonics influence their geometry and their kinematics, and emphasizes the key control exerted by lithosphere rheology, including structural and thermal inheritance, and local/regional boundary conditions on the occurrence of thick-skinned tectonics in the outer parts of orogens.

Geophysical surveys, a means of analyzing the Earth and its environments, have traditionally relied on ground-based methodologies. However, up-to-date approaches encompass remote sensing (RS) techniques, employing both spaceborne and airborne platforms. The emergence of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has notably catalyzed interest in UAV-borne geophysical RS. The objective of this study is to comprehensively review the state-of-the-art UAV-based geophysical methods, encompassing magnetometry, gravimetry, gamma-ray spectrometry/radiometry, electromagnetic (EM) surveys, ground penetrating radar (GPR), traditional UAV RS methods (i.e., photogrammetry and LiDARgrammetry), and integrated approaches. Each method is scrutinized concerning essential aspects such as sensors, platforms, challenges, applications, etc. Drawing upon an extensive systematic review of over 435 scholarly works, our analysis reveals the versatility of these systems, which ranges from geophysical development to applications over various geoscientific domains. Among the UAV platforms, rotary-wing multirotors were the most used (64%), followed by fixed-wing UAVs (27%). Unmanned helicopters and airships comprise the remaining 9%. In terms of sensors and methods, imaging-based methods and magnetometry were the most prevalent, which accounted for 35% and 27% of the research, respectively. Other methods had a more balanced representation (6–11%). From an application perspective, the primary use of UAVs in geoscience included soil mapping (19.6%), landslide/subsidence mapping (17.2%), and near-surface object detection (13.5%). The reviewed studies consistently highlight the advantages of UAV RS in geophysical surveys. UAV geophysical RS effectively balances the benefits of ground-based and traditional RS methods regarding cost, resolution, accuracy, and other factors. Integrating multiple sensors on a single platform and fusion of multi-source data enhance efficiency in geoscientific analysis. However, implementing geophysical methods on UAVs poses challenges, prompting ongoing research and development efforts worldwide to find optimal solutions from both hardware and software perspectives.

Both the deformation and rupture characteristics of rocks are related to geomechanics. In this paper, we identify the evaluation indexes related to coalbed methane (CBM) accumulation in strongly deformed strike-slip fault zones considering tectonics and fractures. We found that fault scale, the fault combination, the tectonic stress, the preservation conditions and fractures all have important effects on the CBM distribution. Areas near the large-scale opening faults are unfavourable to the preservation of coalbed methane. The distribution of gas wells with different capacities is influenced by tectonic extension and convergence. A 3D geomechanical method was used to analyse the influence of the ‘ribbon effect’ of strike-slip faults on the CBM distribution. Due to the influence of the ‘ribbon effect’, the tectonic stress presents a plane in situ stress heterogeneity, which in turn will affect the gas well productivity. We also calculated the integrated rupture rate (IF) to characterize the degree of tectonic fracture development in the target coal reservoir. The appropriate fracture development degree can improve the petrophysical properties of the coal reservoirs while maintaining good storage conditions, such that the gas wells can achieve a higher production capacity. This study is of great significance for the enrichment of the geomechanical theory of oil and gas exploration.

Sicily is a thick orogenic wedge formed by (1) the foreland (African) and its Sicilian orogen and (2) the thick-skinned, Calabrian-Peloritani wedge. The crust under central Sicily, from the Tyrrhenian margin to the coastline of the Sicily Channel, has been investigated by the multidisciplinary (SI.RI.PRO.) research project. The project dealt with the nature and thickness of the crust and depth and geometry of the Moho, which is essential in formulating subduction models and improving the knowledge of African and Tyrrhenian-European lithospheres. The results resolve features such as (1) the main orogenic wedge, (2) the very steep, NW-SE-trending regional monocline suggesting inflection of the foreland crust, (3) the deep Caltanissetta synform imaged, for the first time, to about 25 km, and (4) the top of the crystalline basement and the inferred crust-mantle boundary. The SI.RI.PRO. transect confirmed that the NNW-dipping, autochthonous Iblean platform of SE Sicily and its basement extends all the way into central Sicily. Further NW, towards the NNW end of the transect, a large uplift involves the Iblean platform and its underlying basement. The associated gravity anomaly is interpreted as the southern wedge edge of the Tyrrhenian mantle that splits the subducting Iblean-Pelagian (African) continental slab from an overlying synformal stack of allochthonous thrust sheets.

A comprehensive dataset is collated in a study on sediment transport, timing and basin physiography during the Early Cretaceous Period in the Boreal Basin (Barents Sea), one of the world's largest and longest active epicontinental basins. Long-wavelength tectonic tilt related to the Early Cretaceous High Arctic Large Igneous Province (HALIP) set up a fluvial system that developed from a sediment source area in the NW, which flowed SE across the Svalbard archipelago, terminating in a low-accommodation shallow sea within the Bjarmeland Platform area of the present-day Barents Sea. The basin deepened to the SE with a ramp-like basin floor with gentle dip. Seismic data show sedimentary lobes with internal clinoform geometry that advanced from the NW. These lobes interfingered with, and were overlain by, another younger depositional system with similar lobes sourced from the NE. The integrated data allow mapping of architectural patterns that provide information on basin physiography and control factors on source-to-sink transport and depositional patterns within the giant epicontinental basin. The results highlight how low-gradient, low-accommodation sediment transport and deposition has taken place along proximal to distal profiles for several hundred kilometres, in response to subtle changes in base level and by intra-basinal highs and troughs. Long-distance correlation along depositional dip is therefore possible, but should be treated with caution to avoid misidentification of timelines for diachronous surfaces.

The western Kunlun thrust belt defines the boundary between the stable Tarim Basin in the north and the intensely deformed Cenozoic Tibetan Plateau in the south. Because of its important tectonic position, understanding its tectonic evolution should have important implications for propagation of deformation from Tibet to its neighboring cratonal regions during India-Eurasia convergence. We here present new structural analyses based on field investigations and seismic reflection profiles across the Hotan-Tiklik segment of the western Kunlun thrust belt. The results indicate that the structural section crosses two major thrust zones: the Tiklik zone in the hinterland to the south and the Hotan zone in the foreland to the north. Within these, the Hotan thrust zone is thin skinned, with its deformation characterized by fault-bend folding and fault slipping along detachment layers, whereas the Tiklik thrust zone involves basement, with its deformation driven by the currently steeply dipping Tiklik fault. Results from apatite fission track thermochronology in combination with growth strata and balanced cross section indicate that the Hotan-Tiklik segment underwent two-stage deformation: (1) development of the Tiklik thrust during the late Oligocene–early Miocene and again since the mid- to late Miocene and (2) activity of the Hotan thrust since the mid- to late Miocene as a result of basinward propagation of thrusting. The balanced cross section, combined with the apatite fission track results, suggests that the Hotan-Tiklik segment contributes a total shortening magnitude of more than ca. 34 ± 6 km. Within this, ca. 4 ± 2 and ca. 23 ± 1 km of the shortenings were absorbed by the Hotan anticline and the Hotan detachment fault, respectively, both of which were related to detachment layers. This suggests that detachment layers played an efficient role in propagating deformation from the western Tibetan Plateau into the Tarim Basin.

This study aims to discuss the history and significance of the Cenozoic basins in Sardinia, both before and after the rotation of the Corsica-Sardinia Block, within the Western Mediterranean geodynamic framework, taking into account new seismic data. A grid of 2D seismic profiles with better penetration, improved processing, and calibration by 2 wells (Oristano-1 and Campidano-1) brought novel findings. Two tectonic phases, pre-rotation of the Corsica-Sardinia Block, are now recognized: Phase 1 previously unknown, resulted in the formation of a narrow (20 km) half graben infilled by 3 to 4 km thick syntectonic continental sediments. By comparison with the Paleogene basins of S France, its formation could have started in the Late Eocene. It could include: 1-the syntectonic continental Chattian Ussana Formation of Sardinia, whose base corresponds to the onset in Latest Rupelian-Earliest Chattian time of the calc-alkaline volcanics crossing Sardinia 2-possibly also below part or unknown time equivalent of the post-Pyrenean tectonics Middle-Upper Lutetian to Late Rupelian fluvial-lacustrine Cixerri Formation. Phase 2 resulted in the formation above it, of the wider (more than 50 km) Sardinia Graben System (SGS) more than 200 km long, crossing entire Sardinia from S to N. It is characterized by the deposition of 2 to 3 km thick sediments, continental, deltaic to deep marine in the axis, from the Latest Chattian to the Early Burdigalian. The SGS infilling is like the series deposited in the grabens onshore Southern France and on the margin of the Gulf of Lion. Since the Late Chattian a transgression of the sea from the south became possible in the SGS and the Ligurian-Provençal rift, through deep corridors created between Sardinia and the Balearic Islands. The characteristics of the SGS, its easternmost location in the western Mediterranean extensional system, its boundaries to the north and south linked respectively to the termination of the Provençal and Catalan-North Balearic transfer-transform fault systems, are in favor of the SGS being a failed arm of the W Mediterranean Rift System. Formed after the rotation of the Corsica Sardinia Block, the narrow (20 km) Campidano Graben is now interpreted as a transpressional basin, of Late Miocene (Tortonian) to Recent age. It is superimposed on the western part of the SGS and on the deeper Oligocene half-graben. Its boundaries are major faults of the SGS, reactivated as strike-slip faults with an inversion of the basin sediments of more than 1000 m on its eastern side. It allows interpreting the Campidano basin as a transpressional basin resulting from a regional N-S oriented compressional stress on the pre-existing SGS. It agrees with the generalized inversion of the Neogene basins since the Late Miocene in the western Mediterranean due to the Africa-Eurasia convergence.

The presence of a set of well-known turbidite successions, deposited in progressively E-migrating foredeep basins and subsequently piled up with east vergence, makes the Northern Apennines of Italy paradigmatic of the evolution of deepwater fold-and-thrust belts. This study focuses on the early Apenninic collisional stage, early Miocene in age, which led to the accretion of the turbidites of the Trasimeno Tectonic Wedge (TTW), in the central part of the Northern Apennines. Based on the interpretation of previously unpublished seismic reflection profiles with new surface geology data and tectonic balancing, we present a detailed tectonic reconstruction of the TTW. In the study area, the TTW is characterized by a W-dipping shaly basal décollement located at a depth of 1-5 km. The tectonic wedge is c. 5 km thick at its central-western part and tapers progressively eastwards to c. 1 km. The total shortening, balanced along a 33 km long cross-section, is c. 60 km, including 20 km (40%) of internal imbrication, c. 23 km of horizontal ENE-wards translation along the basal décollement and c. 17 km of passive translation caused by the later shortening of footwall units. Deformation balancing, constrained through upper Aquitanian - upper Burdigalian (c. 21-16 Ma) biostratigraphy, provides an average shortening rate of c. 8.6 mm a-1. Internal shortening of the TTW shows an average shortening rate of c. 4 mm a-1 for this period.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) storage in oil and gas reservoirs is one of the most effective methods for enhancing hydrocarbon recovery efficiency and mitigating climate change by securely storing CO2. However, building a realistic three-dimensional (3D) geological model for these storage reservoirs poses a significant challenge. To address this, employing a novel methodology combining 3D structural and petrophysical modeling, our study presents a pioneering effort to assess the CO2 storage potential of the faulted reservoir between the G- and E-sands of the Lower Goru Formation in the Kadanwari Gas Field (KGF), Middle Indus Basin (MIB), Pakistan. Analysis of seismic data revealed a complex reservoirs structure affected by normal faults oriented in a northwest-southeast direction. These faults partition the reservoir into several compartments and could serve as potential pathways for CO2 migration. Three-dimensional structural modeling unveiled complex features, for example horsts, grabens, and half-grabens, formed through multiple deformation stages. Petrophysical modeling indicated promising reservoir characteristics, that is high porosity and permeability in the desired zone. Three-dimensional property models were generated using sequential Gaussian simulation to represent the distribution of petrophysical properties, for example porosity, permeability, shale volume, and water saturation. Geological uncertainties were incorporated enabling the calculation of pore volume distribution and corresponding uncertainty. A novel technique was developed to assess the probable CO2 storage potential in the KGF, considering its distinctive features. The study revealed a storage potential ranging from 10.13 million tons (P10) to 101.54 million tons (P90), with an average potential of 53.58 million tons (P50). Our study offers a comprehensive approach to evaluating CO2 storage potential in complex geological zones, filling a knowledge gap in existing literature on carbon neutrality efforts in Pakistan. These findings lay the groundwork for future initiatives in geological CO2 storage in the MIB and support the country's efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Recent development near Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, could affect local groundwater usage, availability, and dependent resources. The National Park Service and Utah Geological Survey conducted a geophysical study targeting the Rubys Inn thrust fault. This fault lies between commonly targeted aquifers in Emery Valley and groundwater flow systems of the Paunsaugunt Plateau, which support springs and dependent ecosystems. Fault zone geometry and internal structure are complex, resulting in a heterogeneous permeability distribution that affects groundwater flow. The influence of fault zones on groundwater flow parallel and perpendicular to their planes is difficult to predict. Geophysical imaging can yield important information about subsurface fault geometry. We utilized electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) surveys to investigate the influence of the Rubys Inn fault on groundwater occurrence and movement along the southeast boundary of Emery Valley. We collected ERT data along three transects orthogonal to the mapped fault strike in May and September 2022. Where available, we used water-level and lithologic data to constrain ERT inversion model interpretations. The inversion models illustrate the complexity and variability of the Rubys Inn fault within a short distance along strike. Where the fault is concealed, results indicate that the actual and mapped locations differ by 70-100 m along the transects. Groundwater is well constrained in the hanging wall, but poorly constrained in the footwall, and some seasonal variation is discernible. Variable stratigraphy and structure are apparent in all transects. This study enables strategic placement of test wells that will further establish the influence of the Rubys Inn fault on the occurrence and movement of groundwater in and adjacent to the fault zone. The study demonstrates that ERT is a cost-effective and noninvasive tool for detecting the precise surface location and delineating subsurface fault geometry in otherwise data-poor areas with sensitive ecological or archaeological resources.