Thrusting in a folded regime: fold accommodation faults in the Ruhr basin, Germany

The Late Carboniferous Ruhr basin in Germany has been described as an authochtonous foreland basin of the Variscan Orogen. The structure of the basin is fold-dominated with fold accommodation faults as secondary elements. Vast and excellently documented 3D mining exposures provide extensive data on the geometry of thrusts and the relationship between thrusting and folding. Stratigraphic throw is the determining factor in the geometry of thrusts and displacement and shortening are functions of throw, material behaviour and bedding dip. Built up on a basic geometric model, a complex system of different fault types can be described, linked regularly to each other and developed during the folding process.