Foreland basin

A foreland basin is a structural basin that develops adjacent and parallel to a mountain belt. Foreland basins form because the immense mass created by crustal thickening associated with the evolution of a mountain belt causes the lithosphere to bend, by a process known as lithospheric flexure. The width and depth of the foreland basin is determined by the flexural rigidity of the underlying lithosphere, and the characteristics of the mountain belt. The foreland basin receives sediment that is eroded off the adjacent mountain belt, filling with thick sedimentary successions that thin away from the mountain belt. Foreland basins represent an endmember basin type, the other being rift basins. Space for sediments (accommodation space) is provided by loading and downflexure to form foreland basins, in contrast to rift basins, where accommodation space is generated by lithospheric extension.

Foreland basins can be divided into two categories:

DeCelles & Giles (1996) provide a thorough definition of the foreland basin system. Foreland basin systems comprise three characteristic properties:

The wedge-top sits on top of the moving thrust sheets and contains all the sediments charging from the active tectonic thrust wedge. This is where piggyback basins form.

The foredeep is the thickest sedimentary zone and thickens toward the orogen. Sediments are deposited via distal fluvial, lacustrine, deltaic, and marine depositional systems.

The forebulge and backbulge are the thinnest and most distal zones and are not always present. When present, they are defined by regional unconformities as well as aeolian and shallow-marine deposits.

Sedimentation is most rapid near the moving thrust sheet. Sediment transport within the foredeep is generally parallel to the strike of the thrust fault and basin axis.

The motion of the adjacent plates of the foreland basin can be determined by studying the active deformation zone with which it is connected. Today GPS measurements provide the rate at which one plate is moving relative to another. It is also important to consider that present day kinematics are unlikely to be the same as when deformation began. Thus, it is crucial to consider non-GPS models to determine the long-term evolution of continental collisions and in how it helped develop the adjacent foreland basins.

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