Sometimes you have to build the field in the laboratory. At the Virginia Tech Active Tectonics and Geomorphology Lab they do just that. This is the latest in a series of posts shared from their blog. More of their posts can be found here.

By Phil Prince

In this video continental crust is first pulled apart during extension and then tectonic forces change direction and the crust is put under compression. What results is first a basin and then an inverted basin.

Figure of basins along the East coast of North America from Schlische and Withjack (2003)

Similar structures can be found all along the east coast of North America. These rift basins formed during the breakup of Pangea about 200 million years ago. The basins later experienced compression when the North American plate transitioned from rifting to seafloor spreading.

This post was originally posted on 14 October 2016 at The Geo Models blog.