Tectonic History of the Eastern Margin of North America There is a succession of two complete Wilson cycle in Eastern North

America. Wilson Cycle

1st cycle: closing of an ocean and assembly of the Rodinia supercontinent, breakup of Rodinia and opening of the Iapetus Ocean.

2nd cycle: closing of Iapetus and assembly of the Pangaea supercontinent, and breakup of Pangaea and opening of the Atlantic Ocean.

1- Assembly of Rodinia (The Grenville Orogen)-Precambrian Metamorphic and igneous rocks. One possible intra-Grenville suture, the New York Alabama magnetic lineament (King and Zietz, 1978), has a nearly straight trace that may reflect either accretion along a straight segment of the pre-Grenville rifted margin of

proto-Laurentia, accretion at a margin already smoothed by accreted terranes, or orogenparallel slip cutting across the shape of the margin.

2- Breakup of Rodinia and opening of the Iapetus Ocean - Cambrian Syn-rift sedimentary and igneous rocks, a post-rift unconformity, and early post-rift sedimentary strata document the breakup of Rodinia, the opening of the Iapetus Ocean, and the isolation of Laurentia by Cambrian time. Alabama-Ohlahoma transform. Rift-parallel graben systems (Mississippi Valley, Birmingham, and Rome; Fig. 3) indicate Early to early Late Cambrian, late syn-rift extension inboard from the rifted margin (Thomas, 1991).

3- ASSEMBLY OF PANGAEA (THE APPALACHIAN-OUACHITA OROGEN) Ordovisian to Permian The Appalachian-Ouachita orogenic belt records the successive, diachronous Taconic (Ordovician-Silurian), Acadian (Devonian-Mississippian), and Alleghanian (Mississippian-Permian) orogenies (Drake et al., 1989; Osberg et al., 1989; Hatcher et al., 1989), culminating in closure of Iapetus and assembly of the Pangaea supercontinent in Permian time. Appalachian-Ouachita salients are located at embayments of the Iapetan margin, and recesses are on promontories (Rankin, 1976; Thomas, 1976, 1977).

4- BREAKUP OF PANGAEA AND OPENING OF THE ATLANTIC OCEANTriassic Triassic grabens adjacent to the Atlantic Coastal Plain document inboard extension associated with the breakup of Pangaea, the opening of the modern Atlantic Ocean, and the isolation of the North American continent. Unlike the records of earlier Wilson cycles, this latest event is recorded in the modern continental shelf and ocean floor, including transform faults that extend from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to offsets in the shelf margin.

Conclusion

TECTONICS OF THE BLACK WARRIOR BASIN from Pashin J.

Iapetus Rifting Late Precambrian to Early Cambrian extension outlined the continental margin along the Alabama Promontory Ouachita Embayment and led to formation of the Iapetus Ocean.

The Birmingham graben system appears to contain a thick section of sediments older than the Early Cambrian Rome Formation. The graben system contains the postIapetus rift, Early Cambrian Chilhowee Group beneath the Rome-Conasauga interval. Rheic Rifting Early to Middle Cambrian growt sedimentation (Rome-Conasauga) is prominent on normal faults in both the Birmingham graben system and on normal faults beneath the Black Warrior Basin. The Late Cambrian to Early Ordovician Ketona and Knox Group show Substantial growth across some basement normal faults beneath the Black Warrior Basin. Normal faulting during the Early Cambrian time produced the Mississippi Valley and the Rough Creek-Rome Trough trend.

Foreland Basin Formation The sequential closure of the Rheic Ocean began with the Late Ordovician to Early Silurian Taconic Orogeny. Little structural evidence of the closure is seen in the region of the Alabama Promontory until Mississippian time. The Upper Mississippian Parkwood Formation The Mississippian Pennsylvanian boundary is conformable and located in the base of the Pottsville. In the eastern Arkoma Basin, basement normal faults cut Mississippian sediments and are truncated by an unconformity at the Mississippian boundary. Only a small amount of extension is associated with Pottsville deposition in the area of the Alabama Promontory. In the Black Warrior Basin, The Majority of the

extension occurred after deposition of the youngest Pottsville sediments. Appalachian Thrusting The Alleghanian orogeny (Mississippian-Permian) represents the final closure of the Rheic Ocean. The Appalachian parts of the event may have resulted from transgression with more strike-slip than contractional deformation. The anticlines represent both the Appalachian trend (NE-SW) and the Ouachita trend (NW-SE), indicating that thrusting was coeval as it curved around the Alabama Promontory.

Introduction
The Alabama Promontory and the Black Warrior foreland basin are located at the southern tip of the exposed Appalachian fold-thrust belt. The area contains both normal and reverse faults that change direction here from northeast, the characteristic Appalachian trend, to northwest, the trend of the Ouachita fold-thrust belt. Alabama Promontory is a convex-southward plate boundary that formed during Iapetan rifting in late Precambrian to Early Cambrian time. The Black Warrior Basin is a late Paleozoic foreland basin that formed in the Alabama recess of the Appalachian-Ouachita orogenic belt.

Stratigraphy with Geophysical Log and Seismic Response

Black Warrior Basin Structure

Within the Black Warrior Basin, numerous northwest trending normal faults form horst, graben, and half-graben structures. The majority of the faults dip southwest, and displacements tend to increase toward the southwest.

Thin-Skinned Extensional Styles

Two extensional detachment levels are identified in the strata of the Black Warrior Basin. Lower Pottsville Detachment: Thin-skinned normal faults are abundant in the coalbed methane fields, and they readily apparent in gamma-density logs from coalbed methane wells. Base Ketona-Knox Detachment: Several larger normal faults within the basin are detached close to or at the base of the Ketona and Knox carbonates.

Birmingham Graben System The Birmingham graben system trends northeast-southwest and underlies the frontal part of the Appalachian fold-thrust belt.