Physical analog (centrifuge) model investigation of contrasting structural styles in the Salt Range and Potwar Plateau, northern Pakistan

A pre-existing north-dipping basement normal fault under the model foreland induces a frontal ramp and a prominent fault-bend-fold culmination, simulating the Salt Range. The ramp localizes displacement on a frontal thrust that occurs out-of-sequence with respect to other foreland folds and thrusts. With a frontal basement fault terminating to the east against a right-stepping, east-dipping lateral ramp, deformation propagates further south in the east; strata to the east of the lateral ramp are telescoped in ENE-trending detachment folds, fault-propagation folds and pop-up structures above a thick basal detachment (Salt Range Formation), in contrast to translated but less-deformed strata with E-W-trending Salt-Range structures to the west. The models are consistent with Salt Range-Potwar Plateau structural style contrasts being due to basement fault geometry and variation in detachment thickness.